The division was formed in Insterburg in the military training area of Arys (south-east of Königsberg, East Prussia) in February 1940 as part of the 8th Wave.

[1] The "Elch" (Moose) division managed to advance 44 miles in the first 34 hours of the campaign in the Baltic States, but after being assigned the mission of clearing the Baltic coast, was temporarily stopped in their tracks at the naval base of Libau where Soviet Marines and 67th Rifle Division repelled their first attempt to rush the town on 25 June.

Resorting to point blank artillery fire, Herzog's men finally overran the town after four days of fierce street and house fighting and continued advancing up the Baltic Coast before reaching the Latvian capital of Riga which was already under attack from the East by Philipp Kleffel's 1.

[2] After helping secure Estonia during July and August, the division was deployed on the right wing of XXXVIII Korps's ring around the Oranienbaum Bridgehead in early September and broke through the Soviet first line of defenses around Leningrad at Popsha before turning north and taking Peterhof, on the Gulf of Finland, sealing in the Coastal Army.

After this success, the front settled down into static positions that changed very little for almost two years, but, following his receiving the Knights Cross in mid-October, there was little time for Herzog and his men to catch their breath as they were shifted to 18th Armee's front along the Volkhov River to resist continued efforts by the Russians to break through to besieged Leningrad.

[2] The division was finally withdrawn from the front in late December, but only had a few days' rest before Andrei Vlassov's 2nd Shock Army launched a massive offensive at the beginning of January aimed at the thinly held line at the junction of 61.

[3]: 504 The division remained with XLII Corps over-run and destroyed by 1st Ukrainian Front near Czestochowa (Tschensotchau) after the Soviets resumed their offensive in mid-January 1945.