31st Infantry Division ( Wehrmacht ) The 31st Infantry Division ( ) was a German infantry division of the Army during World War II . It participated in the invasion of Poland in 1939 then the invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 . As part of " Panzergruppe 2 . " of Army Group Centre , it was involved in the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 . After hard fighting throughout 1941 and 1942 it joined the 9th Army and fought in the Battle of Kursk in July and August 1943 . Along with the rest of the 9th Army , the division conducted a fighting withdrawal for the remainder of 1943 , during which it sustained heavy casualties . In the early stages of the Soviet Operation Bagration of June to August 1944 , the 31st Infantry Division was destroyed , a fate which subsequently befell most of Army Group Centre . The division was officially disbanded on 18 July 1944 . The division was initially re - formed on 21 July 1944 as the 31st Grenadier Division , but was soon re - designated as the 31st Volksgrenadier Division and returned to the front line in September 1944 as part of Army Group North . Army Group North was subsequently re - designated Army Group Courland in October 1944 when it was cut off from the rest of the German Army on the Courland Peninsula in northwestern Latvia . Army Group Courland remained encircled for the rest of the war , but several divisions , including the 31st Volksgrenadier Division were evacuated by sea to Germany in January 1945 . The division joined the newly formed Army Group Vistula and fought in the Danzig area before being captured by the Red Army in May 1945 . Twenty - three awards of the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross were made to members serving with the division , along with two awards of the Oak Leaves to the Knight ' s Cross . Two of its commanders were killed in action . Formation . The division was created on 1 October 1936 recruited from the Braunschweig region of north - central Germany within Wehrkreis XI . The division was established with three infantry regiments of three battalions each . The divisional emblem was a standing lion . Operations . The division saw combat under the command of " Generalleutnant " ( Major General ) Rudolf Kaempfe during the invasion of Poland in 1939 as part of the Tenth Army ' s XVI Motorised Corps , which included a role for the division in the drive on Warsaw . After a reorganisation it then participated in heavy fighting during the invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 , as part of XI Corps and the Sixth Army of Army Group B . In June 1941 it took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union as part of " General der Panzertruppe " ( Lieutenant General ) Heinz Guderian ' s " Panzergruppe 2 . " of Army Group Centre . The 31st Division initially fought in battles for Bialystok and Minsk . During the battle for Smolensk which commenced on 17 July 1941 , the division was part of " Generaloberst " ( General ) Maximilian von Weichs ' s 2nd Army , as part of the XII Corps . It was also involved in fighting at Bryansk , and was engaged in the failed attempt to encircle Tula southeast of Moscow ( in late 1941 ) . Other bitter fighting fell to the 31st Division in the winter of 1941 / 42 . " Generaloberst " Walter Model ' s 9th Army , XLVI Panzer Corps , in the Kursk area in 1943 where it took part in rear - guard skirmishes in the Middle Dneiper area of the Ukraine . It was almost completely annihilated to the east of Minsk in June / July 1944 . Its commanding officer , " Generalleutnant " Willifrank Ochsner , was taken prisoner along with most of the remaining troops . The recovering wounded and new recruits were organized into a new 31st Division in Germany in the fall of 1944 ; initially designated the 31st Grenadier Division , it was later merged with the 550th Grenadier Division to form the 31st Volksgrenadier Division . In September 1944 this division successfully participated in the early battles to defend the Courland Peninsula , ( Latvia ) . In early 1945 the division was evacuated by sea to northern Germany where it fought its last campaigns with Army Group Vistula . In late January 1945 it was part of the garrison defending the East Prussian city of Thorn on the Vistula from the Red Army . After destroying the bridges over the river at Thorn , the division fought its way west and north in an attempt to breakout from Soviet encirclement . When it reached a crossing point about south of Kulm in early February , the ice was melting and the Red Army was closing in . In May 1945 it surrendered to Russian troops on the Hel Peninsula , a 35 - km - long sand bar peninsula in Northern Poland that separates the Bay of Puck from the Baltic Sea . Ochsner remained a Soviet prisoner until 1955 . Organisational history . The division was mobilised on 28 August 1939 . Its initial composition was : In January 1940 the divisional replacement battalion became part of the 181st Infantry Division , and II battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment ( I / 12 ) became part of the 295th Infantry Division and a new battalion was raised to replace it . In October 1940 roughly a third of the division was used as the core of the 131st Infantry Division , but the donated units were replaced . In 1942 , II / 12 , II / 17 and III / 82 were disbanded and from this point onwards the infantry regiments of the division consisted of only two battalions each . In May 1944 , the divisional fusilier battalion was formed from the divisional reconnaissance battalion , and the division absorbed the 566th Grenadier Regiment of the 52nd Field Recruit Division which was being broken up . At this point the division comprised the following major units : In June 1944 , the division was destroyed while serving with Army Group Centre , and it was officially disbanded on 18 July 1944 . On 21 July 1944 , the 31st Grenadier Division was formed using a combination of the remnants of the 31st Infantry Division and a re - designation of the 550th ( Sperr ) Division of the 29th Wave . The major units of the division comprised : On 9 September 1944 , the 31st Grenadier Division was re - formed as the 31st Volksgrenadier Division , and some minor re - organisation was affected . The re - organisation was completed in Danzig on 17 January 1945 . Commanding officers . The following officers commanded the division :