[1] 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.

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.

[5] 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.

[1] 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.

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.

[9] 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.

[10] 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.

[18] The division went through a command change the following week, with General of the Mountain troops Kurt Versock, an Iron Cross recipient,[19] taking over.

[1] 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.

[22] 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.

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.