85th Infantry Division ( Wehrmacht ) The 85th Infantry Division ( German : " 85 . Infantriedivision " ) was a Wehrmacht division used in the Second World War . It participated in the German defence in the Battle of Normandy , and took part in the German counter - offensive in the Ardennes . Operational history . The 85th Infantry Division was raised in February 1944 and placed under the command of Lieutenant General Kurt Chill , previously the commanding officer of the 122nd Infantry . Participating as an occupational division in German - occupied France , the 85th was part of the 15th Army ' s rear - guard in Northern France during the D - Day landings . It was moved to Normandy in early August as part of a relief force in the forming Falaise pocket , where it was to replace the " 12th SS - Panzer Division " Hitlerjugend " " by August 11 . On August 14 , the division received help from second company of the 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion as it travelled from Assy to Maizieres ; its commander , SS - Obersturmführer Helmut Wendorff , was killed when the escort convoy encountered a group of Sherman tanks attached to the 1st Hussars . On August 15 , the Canadian 4th Armoured Division broke through the 85th ' s defences around the Falaise pocket . The Netherlands . Damaged , the division was ordered back to Germany to replenish its numbers . However , Chill ordered his men to form a number of reception stations at the bridgeheads of the Albert Canal in northern Belgium ; his idea was to pick up stragglers as a means of gaining numbers , instead . The month of its relocation to the Netherlands also coincided with Operation Market Garden , the allied invasion of the Netherlands . Under attack by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division in early October , " Kampfgruppe Chill " , a detachment of the 85th , was assigned to the Scheldt to replace the retreating 346th Infantry Division . This was however , part of a deception by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von der Heydte to fool the Canadians into attacking a much more powerful force . In reality , the detachment consisted of the 185th Artillery Regiment and remnants of the 1053rd and 1054th Grenadier Regiments . The rest of the force consisted of three battalions of the 2nd Parachute Division . The Calgary Highlanders , unaware of the true size and skill of the division group , suffered bitterly at Hoogerheide due to this deception , which was worsened by the arrival of the 244th and 667th Army Assault Gun Brigades . Chill was replaced as division commander by the highly - decorated " Major General " Helmut Bechler in mid - November . Also in mid - November , the division had been separated between armies , with parts going to the 15th Army ' s 98th Army Corps and the 1st Parachute Army . The division , along with the 15th Army ' s LXXIV Army Corps , participated in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in December 1944 as the Wehrmacht attempted to force the Allies out of the Ardennes . The division under Bechler continued to hold out against Allied advances until its final capitulation in March 1945 ; the rest of the corps would be destroyed at the Ruhr pocket the following April in the Battle of Aachen . Remnants of the division were merged with others to form Infantry Division Potsdam .