In the spring and early summer of 1940, the division was located near the Maginot Line at Saarbrücken. On 15 June 1940 the division launched its attack south of the city, breaking through the French line and continuing its advance across the Seille and Meurthe rivers, south to the region of the Moselle river. It consolidated between Nancy and Epinal and was ordered to stop on 25 June.
Eastern Front
After the campaign in France, the division was stationed along the French coast until June 1941, when it was reattached to Army Group North (Heeresgruppe Nord) in preparation for Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union). The division saw much action during its advance on Leningrad, and then in the subsequent defensive battles against the Soviet winter offensive.
The division fought and held its lines throughout 1942; in August, the 271st Infantry Regiment was given the honorific of "Feldherrnhalle", due to its outstanding performance during the campaigns in France and the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1943, the division was pulled out of the line and sent to Poland to rest and refit. While there, the 271st Infantry Regiment "Feldherrnhalle" was removed from the division and became the nucleus of the new 60th Panzergrenadier Division "Feldherrnhalle".
The refitted division was once again attached to Army Group North, taking part in desperate attempts to maintain the siege of Leningrad. The division was pushed back with the rest of Army Group North. By late 1944 it was trapped in the Courland Pocket with the now renamed Army Group Courland.
The division was evacuated from Courland at the beginning of 1945 and after a short rest, was sent to Samland, a peninsula on the Baltic coast in Eastern Prussia, where it was destroyed by the Red Army in March.
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