The 80th Reserve Division initially fought on the Eastern Front, seeing its first action in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In 1915, it fought in the siege of Kovno and the battles on the Neman River and at Vilnius. From October 1915 to December 1916, the division was engaged in positional warfare, and fought in battles along Lake Narač, after which it was transferred to the Western Front. It was in reserve and then engaged in positional warfare in Flanders and the Artois until April 1917, when it fought in the Battle of Arras. Later in 1917, it fought in the Battle of Passchendaele and resisted the French offensive at Verdun. The division participated in the German 1918 Spring Offensive, fighting in the First Battle of the Somme (1918), also called the Second Battle of the Somme (to distinguish it from the 1916 battle). It later resisted various Allied counteroffensives, including the Oise-Aisne Offensive and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class.