334th Infantry Division

The 334th Infantry Division (German: 334. Infanterie-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 on 3 June 1943 in France within the 1st Army, with the staff of the 80th Infantry Division (which had only just been formed a few days prior) as well as remnants of the old division and replacement units. It spent the remainder of the war serving on the Italian Front.

The 334th Infantry Division was set up on 25 November 1942 as "Kriemhilde" unit of the military districts XIII, XVII and XVIII at the Grafenwoehr training area.[1] It was unusual that their three regiments (754, 755, 756) were drawn up from three different military districts (754/XIII – Nuremberg, 755/XVII – Vienna, 756/XVIII – Salzburg). It had two infantry regiments (754 and 755) and a mountain infantry regiment (756). The division was already destined for a deployment in Africa at this point in time. In January 1943 the division was transferred by ship from Naples to Africa and assigned to the 5th Panzer Army in Tunisia, in a time when the supply ports of the Axis, as well as its forces, where threatened to be encircled in the winter of 1942/43. Its lead elements of the 754. Infanterie-Regiment arrived in Bizerta in late December 1942 under the command of Oberst Friedrich Weber (promoted to Generalmajor on Jan.1,1943), with the rest of the Division arriving by 15 January 1943.

Together with the 10th Panzer Division and the Division “von Manteuffel”, they successfully defended Tunis and northern Tunisia in the "Run for Tunis" in January 1943 as part of the "Company Eilbote" (Unternehmen Eilbote). Between February and March the division ("Kampfgruppe Krause") stayed in the northern Tunisian mountains and remained continually engaged, suffering heavy losses amid heavy fighting, in a series of fierce and costly engagements that cost the division dearly in casualties that it could not replace. The 334th was involved in the storming of Djebel Manson. In late April 1943, "Gruppe Audorff" of the division participated in an attack on the heights of Medjez el Bab. After a week of bloody fighting, the 756.Geb.Inf.Rgt. retired from the heights it had recently regained and moved back towards Tunis. The 334th Division was separated from the rest of the army with the volunteer organization “Phalange africaine” of the Vichy regime, which had been assigned to the Division's 754.Inf.Rgt.(mot.), and surrendered to the Allied troops in the Beja area on 8 May 1943, a few days before the fall of Tunis in the Bizerta bridgehead.

After its destruction, the division was reorganized in Bordeaux, southern France, on 3 June 1943. Contrary to the first list, this time all of their soldiers came from the military district of Nuremberg (Wehrkreis XIII). On 20 October 1943, Generalleutnant Walter Scheller took over the Division that was brought to Italy, after some 3 months of intensive training. Used by Army Group C, it was part of the LXXVI Panzer Corps deployed in the sector of the 10th Army on the Ligurian coast in the Genoa area. In early 1944, the Division was part of the LI. Mountain Corps (LI. Gebirgs-Armeekorps) relocated south of Pescara to the Gustav Line between Orsogna and Guardiagrele east of the Majella massif. In January the division was assigned the Ost-Btl. 555 as III./755; temporarily renamed Stab III and 9.-12. Kp. Grenadier-Rgt. 755 in early 1944 (the FpN change was not entered until 17 Apr 44). In January 1945 the Ost companies were removed from Gren.Rgt. 755, re-designated Russ. Btl. 555 and assigned to 14th Army in Italy as an independent unit. It remained in Italy to the end of the war in northern Italy.