The Forgotten Soldier

Translating to “Greater Germany Division,” this was one of the most decorated and accomplished military units within the Germany Wehrmacht (army) during World War II. It was originally formed as an honor guard, during the time when the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limits on Germany’s military capacity. It was activated into an infantry regiment in 1939, at the start of World War II in Europe, participating in the rapid collapse of France in the spring of 1940 and then the brutal campaign to subjugate Yugoslavia in 1941. It served a main role at the outset of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, and after the failed German effort to capture Moscow, it was transformed from an infantry regiment into a motorized infantry division. It would go on to participate in practically every major engagement on the Eastern Front, including the Battle of Kharkov in 1942 and Kursk in 1943, still the largest tank engagement in world history. After the war, the unit was accused of many war crimes, including massacres of colonial soldiers, and it was disbanded immediately upon Germany’s surrender in 1945.