Ernst Volckheim joined the Prussian Army in 1915 as a war volunteer and in 1916 he was commissioned as a lieutenant. In 1917 he was given command of a machine gun company and served on the Western Front during the First World War. In April, 1918, as a member of the imperial tank corps, Volckheim fought in the First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and won the tank battle's armor insignia.