The infantry regiments were formed from the 19.(Bayerisches) Infanterie-Regiment of the 7.Division of the Reichswehr.
The 7.Infanterie-Division took part in the occupation of Austria on March 12, 1938.
The 7.Infanterie-Division saw service in the 1939 Polish Campaign as part of General Kienitz's XVII.Armee-Korps beneath General List's 14.Armee, under von Rundstedt's Heeresgruppe Süd. Crossing the Polish border from Slovakia through the Jablunka Pass, the 7.Infanterie-Division was heavily engaged against units of the Polish Army Krakow. It remained south of the Vistula River and fought with the 14.Armee eastwards against stiff Polish resistance, eventually crossing the San River near Przemysl and ending the campaign in the region of Lvov.
In the French campaign of 1940 the 7.Infanterie-Division first crossed through the narrow stip of Dutch land between Germany and Belgium known as the Maastricht appendix before moving westward towards the coast. Fighting under the 6.Armee of Armeegruppe B, the 7.Infanterie-Division was a part of the German force used as a diversion against the French and British. They were duped into believing that the attack of 6.Armee was the main thrust of their attack, when in fact it was only meant to draw the Allies forward to allow for the real main thrust to occur farther south, throught the vaunted and seemingly impassable Ardennes region. The 7.Infanterie-Division fought against the British Expeditionary Force up to and during the pocket at Dunkirk where it took up positions on the eastern section of the German lines, near Lille which it would thereafter help in taking once the pocket was eliminted. The 7.Infanterie-Division was placed in reserve for the remainder of the Campaign in France after the Dunkirk Pocket had been reduced and Lille had fallen.
During the Russian campaign the 7.Infanterie-Division was part of VII.Armee-korps, 4.Armee, Heeresgruppe Mitte, fighting notably in the siege of Mogilev on the upper Dnieper. It participated in the unsuccessful thrust toward Moscow in December 1941 (Unternehmen Taifun), suffering heavy losses. The division spent 1942 in the relatively quiet central sector of the Russian front, being pulled back into the fray during the Kursk offensive of July 1943 as part of XLVI Panzerkorps. During the Soviet summer offensive of 1944, it managed to escape destruction during the disintegration of Heeresgruppe Mitte, conducting a fighting retreat through Poland to the Vistula line. The division found itself cut off by the Soviet winter offensive of January 1945, isolated on the Hela peninsula at the mouth of the Vistula near near Stutthof north of Tiegenhof, outside of Danzig It surrendered there on May 8th, 1945.
Source:Feldgrau.com
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