Country Nazi Germany Type Infantry Garrison/HQ Bamberg | Branch Army Size Division | |
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Active November 1942 – May 1945 | ||
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.
Contents
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. 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.