The division was moved to East Prussia and then to the area of Brześć Litewski in occupied Poland, where it was assigned to the XXIV Panzer Corps under Geyr von Schweppenburg. On 22 June 1941, it took part in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. During the first day, the division managed to drive a wedge into the Soviet positions and reached Kobryń some 65 kilometres behind the lines. The division then spearheaded one of the pincer moves to surround and destroy a large Soviet force in the battle of Minsk, where the German army took approximately 300,000 prisoners. After the battle of Gomel it reached Kiev, where it fought against another pocket of resistance.