334th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)


The 334th Infantry Division was a German Army infantry division in World War II. Originally formed in November 1942, it surrendered to the Allies at the conclusion of the Tunisian Campaign in May 1943. The division was reconstituted from the 80th Infantry Division, which had only just been formed a few days prior. It spent the remainder of the war serving on the Italian Front.

Operational history

The 334th Infantry Division was created in November 1942 and sent to Tunisia, where it was subordinated to the 5th Panzer Army in the attempt to prop up Axis positions in North Africa. The division was isolated and surrendered with a Vichy France unit, the Legion Imperiale, to the British forces several days before the general Axis surrender in Tunisia.
The division was reconstituted in France in 1943, from the elements of the 80th Infantry Division, then in the process of being formed. The component 756th Regiment was reconstituted as infantry rather than mountain troops. The division was transferred to Italy in late 1943 and fought there until the war's end, taking heavy casualties throughout the period and eventually surrendering to the Americans.

War crimes

The division has been implicated in a number of war crimes in Italy between February and September 1944, with up to thirty civilians executed in each incident.

Organization

Structure of the division: