In World War I, the 19th Infantry Division participated in the 1914 Battle of Liège and the subsequent Allied Great Retreat, including the First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne. It was sent to the Eastern Front in 1915 and again in 1916, seeing action in the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive and the Russian Brusilov Offensive. It returned to the Western Front and, after a period in the trenches, saw action in the German 1918 Spring Offensive and the subsequent Allied counteroffensives, including the Hundred Days Offensive. The division was rated a first class division and regarded as one of the best German divisions by Allied intelligence.