334th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

334th Infantry Division
Divisional insignia
Active	November 1942 – May 1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Garrison/HQ	Bamberg
Engagements	World War II Tunisia Campaign Italian Campaign

The 334th Infantry Division (German: 334. Infanteriedivision) 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.

History

The 334th Infantry Division was created in November 1942. It was unusual because its three regiments were raised in three different military districts (Wehrkreise), and because it was composed of a mix of two infantry regiments and one mountain regiment, the 756th Mountain Infantry Regiment. It was promptly dispatched to Tunisia, where it was subordinated to the 5th Panzer Army in the attempt to reverse Axis fortunes in North Africa. It was isolated and surrendered with a Vichy France unit, the Legion Imperiale, to the British 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.^[1] 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.^[2]

Commanding officers

• Generalmajor Friedrich Weber (15 November 1942 – 15 April 1943)
• Generalmajor Fritz Krause (15 April – 12 May 1943)
• General der Artillerie Heinz Ziegler (24 May – 20 October 1943)
• Generalleutnant Walter Scheller (20 October – 27 November 1943)
• Generalleutnant Hellmuth Böhlke (1 February 1944 – April 1945)

Notes

References

• Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st – 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5.