The division was mobilized in August 1939 and joined the XIV Corps of the German 10th Army for the invasion of Poland.

After the Dunkirk evacuation it joined Heinz Guderian's Panzer Group for an advance through eastern France.

When the Red Army's second pincer attack was launched from the south, the division was pushed into the south-west corner of the pocketed German forces.

[citation needed] It was transferred to the Sicilian Campaign as the 29th Panzergrenadier Division for sometime in the defence of the Northern Route to Messina.

In the final days of the war, on 29 April 1945, the division was involved in the San Martino di Lupari massacre, where it used Italian civilians as human shields against partisan attacks and eventually executed 125 hostages.