24th Infantry Division ( Wehrmacht ) The 24th Infantry Division ( German : " 24 . Infanteriedivision " ) was a German Army infantry division active in World War II . It served across the Eastern Front in engagements such as the Sieges of Sevastopol and the Leningrad , finally being destroyed in the Courland Pocket in 1945 . History . Formation and the Polish Campaign . The 24th Infantry Division was raised on 15 October 1935 in Chemnitz , and was placed under the command of " Lieutenant General " Werner Kienitz until April 1938 , when command was passed to " Lieutenant General " Sigismund von Förster . In November , " Lieutenant General " Friedrich Olbricht was appointed commander . The 171st Infantry Regiment was separated from this division in August 1939 and handed over to the newly activated 56th Infantry Division , while elements of the 24th Infantry ' s staff were given to 87th Infantry Division . The division was first deployed into action in September 1939 during the Soviet - German invasion of Poland , as part of X Corps in the newly formed 8th Army . The division attacked through Silesia in south - west Poland , but the components of X Corps began to stretch out over a wide area . Despite " Colonel General " von Rundstedt warning the 8th Army ' s commander about the weakness , little was evidently done , as they soon encountered fierce Polish resistance along the Bzura before turning northwards to the river Vistula . On September 5 , the division was on the banks of the Warta and attempting to cross the river . Resisting heavy Polish anti - personnel fire , the arrival of the 10th Infantry Division helped the 24th substantially in clearing the banks . The division entered Glinno at the end of the day . Also moving along the Warta river , " Lieutenant General " Olbricht ordered " Major " Hermann von Oppeln - Bronikowski ' s Reconnaissance Battalion to capture an upcoming bridge before the Polish Army remnants could blow it up . Moving forward with a motorized unit , von Oppeln - Bronikowski ' s advance was slowed by Polish anti - tank fire , but not halted ; members of the motorized unit continued onward and captured the bridge before the Poles could destroy it , thereby earning von Oppeln - Bronikowski an Iron Cross , First Class . Moving near the village of Piatek with the 30th Infantry Division , and the 1st Panzer Division near the banks of the Vistula , some eight Polish army divisions remained hidden from German intelligence in between them and the 4th Panzer Division outside Warsaw . At the end of the campaign , one - third of the division ' s dead were assessed to have perished along the Bzura river ; 155 men were killed in action and another 433 wounded . Remaining in occupied Poland until December , the division was then sent back to Eifel as a reserve division for the 12th Army for the duration of the eastern campaign . The following February , " Lieutenant General " Friedrich Olbricht was replaced by Obernitz . Although a number of records relating to the 24th Infantry Division were destroyed in a fire , it can be deduced that the actions of the 102nd Regiment were significant enough to earn its regimental commander , Otto von Knobelsdorff , a divisional commendation . The French Campaign . In May 1940 , the 12th Army attacked France by entering via Luxembourg ; the 24th Division took part as a component of VI Corps . Unfortunately , their advance was slowed thanks to an earlier panzer advance having made driving difficult for mobilized units . Reaching the border with Belgium , the corps did not wait to clear away resistance , resulting in their infantry divisions and the 2nd and 6th Panzer Divisions taking casualties . Over the course of May 1517 , German forces occupied and reoccupied the village of Stonne as they fought French tanks . The 16th and 24th Infantry Divisions took over from the 10th Panzer Division and Infantry Division Großdeutschland . The two occupied the village for the last time at 1745 , with French resistance in the area being present until May 25 . In June , it was transferred to VII Corps of the 16th Army , and sent across the Meuse under its new commander , " General of the Infantry " Hans von Tettau . In July , with the Battle of France over , the positioning of divisions was relaxed and the 24th , now part of the 9th Army ' s IV Corps , continued to police the country , being moved to the Scheldt estuary along the Belgium - Netherlands border . The division continued to police the estuary in April 1941 , albeit now as part of the XXXVII Corps . During the quieting - down period , regiment - level cadres were handed over to the newly activated 113th Infantry Division . Barbarossa and the Crimea . In May 1941 , the division was moved back to occupied Poland , being stationed in Galicia with IV Corps , which was now part of the 17th Army . The following month the Wehrmacht made a major assault on the Soviet Union , with the 17th Army , part of Army Group South , attacking and occupying the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia . August saw the 24th Division ' s temporary assignment to XXXXIV Corps of the 1st Panzergruppe as it took part in the Mass - encirclement of Soviet troops south of Uman ; the next month saw the division ' s return to IV Corps as it took Kiev . During the Battle of Kiev , the 24th Infantry Division attacked from Kremenchuk in the south - east along the Dnieper , assisting in the encirclement of the Ukrainian capital . The division remained as an occupying force until the end of October ; Army Group South , meanwhile continued onwards to the black sea without it . In their time as an occupational force , some level of confusion was present amongst the men , who were baffled by the Soviet ' s technological sophistication in relation to propaganda portrayals , particularly with educational material . On October 15 a report from the division was filed regarding the Soviet POWs they were transporting - 1 , 000 had been killed from exhaustion and executions in the long marches . Also in the report was a complaint over the state of the POW camps ; Oleksandriya ' s camp # 182 held accommodation for only 20 , 000 , with Novoukrainka only 10 , 000 - this was not enough to house the impressive figures the Germans had already encircled with their Blitzkrieg tactics . This report was brought up in a war crimes trial that included " General of the Infantry " Karl von Roque , who the report was sent to . Re - joining Army Group South in the Crimea , the division was moved to the 11th Army ' s LIV Corps . With the Soviet forces in the region too well - defended for Erich von Manstein ' s army to defeat , the axis forces instead besieged the city - turned - fortress of Sevastopol until June 1942 , when they finally made an assault on the port . On June 9 the division took control of the Mekenziyevy Mountain train station , and Fort Stalin on the 13th . On the 17th , aided much by elements of the 197th Sturmgeschütz Battalion , forts " Dnepr " ; " GPU " and " Molotov " fell on the same day . Bartenyevka was captured on the 18th , followed by an anti - aircraft battery on Malenkhov hill and an armoured train later in June . On June 28 , elements of the 24th Infantry and the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division crossed a stretch of the North Bay in an operation to flank the Red Army ' s rear . The next day , the rest of the two divisions crossed the Severnaya Bay to continue the assault . By the end of the siege the division had lost 30 % of its men : recorded at being 11 , 148 on June 1 , by July 1 it was at 8 , 811 . Leningrad and the Courland Pocket . Shortly after their success in the Crimea , the 24th Infantry Division was sent northwards as part of Army Group A with the 11th Army ' s XXX Corps to participate in Operation Nordlicht . However , the Soviet 8th Army broke seven kilometres into the German lines around Leningrad from just west of Gaytolovo as part of the Sinyavino Offensive ; as such , the 24th and 170th Infantry Divisions ; 5th Mountain and 28th Jäger Divisions first had to reinforce the 11th and 18th Army elements already present before their own arrival on the 28th . The following month the division then participated in the counter - offensive , moving from the south to pocket the Soviet force . On February 19 , 1943 , the 102nd Grenadier Regiment launched an attack on the Kalingrad town of Novokolhoznoe ( also known as " Tschernyschewo " ) . The muddy terrain made the attack largely - ineffective , and two support tanks attached to the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion were stuck . The division went through a command change the following week , with " General of the Mountain troops " Kurt Versock , an Iron Cross recipient , taking over . In March 1943 Soviet activity around Lake Ladoga was revived as sixteen Red Army divisions prepared a pincer movement in the hopes of recapturing the Kirov railway line desperately needed for supplying the city . Resisting the attack were the 24th and 215th Infantry Divisions ; the 4th SS Polizei Division and the Spanish " Blue Division " , which all made up L Corps . The division remained along the Volkhov Front into January 1944 . On January 16 the Soviet VI Rifle Corps made contact with a regiment of the 24th ' s , which was sent by XXXVIII Corps to defend the Novgorod railway lines needed for transport . With more pressure from Soviet forces , " Colonel General " Georg Lindemann ordered German forces in the area to abandon Novgorod ; the division retreated in response . With the immediate area around Leningrad re - captured by the Soviets , the 18th Army was pushed westward to Pskov . During the retreat , " Lieutenant General " Versock was wounded , and his role was replaced by " Lieutenant General " Hans Freiherr von Falkenstein , while the division moved southward to the 16th Army ' s position in Polotsk in April . The division went through yet another command change as the situation became dire : " General " Kurt Versock retook command in June . On 22 June the 1st Baltic Front began pushing into the German lines at Vitebsk ; in reaction , the division was given to Army Group North to defend Polotsk with the 3rd Panzer Army and 909th Assault Gun Brigade . " Colonel " General Lindemann , the new commander - in - chief of Army Group North Ukraine , ordered both the 24th and 190th Infantry Divisions to defend his far - right flank from the oncoming Soviet forces . The following day , the 24th Anti - Tank Battalion engaged the Soviet " I Tank Corps " while the 24th Engineer Regiment charged into enemy lines to cover the 252nd Infantry Division ' s retreat . While doing so the division came under heavy fire in the forests , requiring the assistance of the 909th Assault Gun Brigade and the 519th Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion . Under heavy fire and losing contact with divisions to his left and right , Versock withdrew to the north to re - join I Corps on the night of June 24 . The following day Adolf Hitler ordered I Corps to halt their withdrawal , and extended their front by sixty miles , and that Army Group North was to counterattack to the forests in the south . On June 27 , the division succeeded in delaying the advance of the Soviet 6th Guards Army at Obol , protecting the left flank of the 16th Army ; the city , itself was lost later that day , however . On June 30 , Polotsk was reinforced , per Adolf Hitler ' s orders , in order to stop the Soviet ' s 43rd Army . The 4th Shock Army and 6th Guards Army reached the city outskirts on July 2 and the city centre the following day . August saw a brief return to the 18th Army , who remained in Latvia , before being sent back to the 16th Army in October under " Major General " Harald Schultz ; Versock had been promoted to commander of XXXXIII Corps in September . In October , it and the 18th Army were encircled within the Courland Pocket ; both armies remained sealed by the Soviets , who did not consider too much of a threat , as " Army Group Courland " until their surrenders at the end of the war on May 9 , 1945 ; Schultz was taken prisoner and was not released until 1955 .