The 216th Infantry Division was raised in 1939 in Hameln Lower Saxony (Wehrkreis XI), from primarily Landwehr

Landwehr

Landwehr, or Landeswehr, is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large scale, low strength fortifications...

 in the area surrounding the city of Hannover.

It did not participate in the Invasion of Poland, since it was occupying defensive positions in the Ardennes

Ardennes

The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...

 Forest along the Der Westwall

Siegfried Line

The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...

. It did take part in the invasion of the Low Countries and France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

 in May and June 1940. When Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

, the Invasion of the Soviet Union, began on June 22, 1941, the Division was performing occupation duties in France along the Channel Coast.

Following the success of the Soviet winter counteroffensive

Battle of Moscow

The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...

 of December 1941, the division was rushed to the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 as reinforcements, and on arrival in January 1942 was soon split into several smaller regimental battlegroups

Kampfgruppe

In military history and military slang, the German term Kampfgruppe can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the German Wehrmacht and its allies during World War II and, to a lesser extent, in World War I...

 for defending key positions. One of these battlegroups, formed from the 348th Infantry Regiment, was surrounded by the Soviet 10th Army outside of the town of Sukhinichi

Sukhinichi

Sukhinichi is a town and the administrative center of Sukhinichsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, a large railway junction on the Moscow–Bryansk line, situated southwest of Kaluga. The town is located on the Bryn River. Population:...

 during the Red Army's Kaluga Offensive Operation (17 December 1941 - 5 January 1942). Against all odds, the regiment managed to hold out for months until relief forces arrived. In July 1943, the 216th Infantry Division participated in the Battle of Kursk

Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...

, where it sustained heavy casualties while fighting on the northern shoulder of the Kursk salient as part of Generalfeldmarschall Model

Walter Model

Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...

's 9th Army.

In 1944 the division included the following units:

348th Grenadier regiment

396th Grenadier regiment

398th Grenadier regiment

216th Artillery regiment

216th Pioneer battalion

216th Panzerjaeger battalion

216th Reconnaissance battalion

216th Signals battalion

The division's commander in 1944 was General lieutenant Gimmler.

Sources

• Hogg, Ivan V., German order of battle 1944, Arms and Armour Press, London, 1975