The division fought in many of the major battles throughout Operation Overlord, culminating in the Retreat from Northern France and the Low Countries in late August/early September 1944.

[2] The 272nd Infantry Division trained in the Bevern area in Belgium while under the command and control of the Fifteenth Army.

In April 1944 it was sent to the French Mediterranean Coast to continue its training plan and to conduct security duties near the Franco-Spanish border while under the control of the Nineteenth Army.

Hubert Werner On 25 July 1944, after a preliminary barrage lasting upwards of five hours, forces of the II Canadian Corps initiated a massive offensive across a 7 km front, stretching from the Orne River to Bourguebus Ridge, along the entire northern slope of Verrières Ridge.

[5] The ridge's defenders, including the 272nd Division, inflicted particularly heavy casualties on the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada with 315 out of the 325 men who left the Canadian start line killed, wounded, or captured.