Composed of men taken from existing Heer (army) units and airmen and sailors retasked to infantry duties, the division fought on the retreating Western Front until it was largely encircled in the Ruhr Pocket in April 1945.

After six weeks of reorganization and training, the division was shipped to the Western Front in early November 1944, and fought in the Battle of the Huertgen Forest, along the Roer River, and then the retreat to the Rhine.

Volksgrenadier divisions had lower manpower at 10,000 men vs. the older division structure of 16,000 men and the reliance on large numbers defensive weapons including the new Sturmgewehr 44 ("assault rifle model 1944"), a radical departure from the bolt action Mauser model 98 rifle.

Combining reliance on this new weapons technology, the volksgrenadier divisions were supposed to be the new model division representing the will of the German people ("das Volk"), and their willingness to fight to the bitter end.

Though a few volksgrenadier divisions lived up to this ideal, most failed to meet expectations and by the war's end, the term volksgrenadier came to be viewed by the Allies as meaning a second-rate, bottom-of-the-barrel type of soldier.