Originally formed in November 1942, it surrendered to the Allies at the conclusion of the Tunisian Campaign in May 1943.

The 334th Infantry Division was set up on 25 November 1942 as "Kriemhilde" unit of the military districts XIII, XVII and XVIII at the Grafenwoehr training area.

[1] It was unusual that their three regiments (754, 755, 756)[2] were drawn up from three different military districts (754/XIII – Nuremberg, 755/XVII – Vienna, 756/XVIII – Salzburg).

In January 1943 the division was transferred by ship from Naples to Africa and assigned to the 5th Panzer Army in Tunisia, in a time where the supply ports of the Axis, as well as its forces, where threatened to be encircled in the winter of 1942/43.

Between February and March the division ("Kampfgruppe Krause") stayed in the northern Tunisian mountains and remained continually engaged, suffering heavy losses amid heavy fighting, in a series of fierce and costly engagements that cost the division dearly in casualties that it could not replace.

In late April 1943, "Gruppe Audorff" of the division participated in an attack on the heights of Medjez el Bab.

),[2] and surrendered to the Allied troops in the Beja area on 8 May 1943, a few days before the fall of Tunis in the Bizerta bridgehead.

[citation needed] After its destruction, the division was reorganized in Bordeaux,[1] southern France, in 3 June 1943.

Contrary to the first list, this time all of their soldiers came from the military district of Nuremberg (Wehrkreis XIII).

[1][2] On 20 October 1943, Generalleutnant Walter Scheller took over the Division that was brought to Italy, after some 3 months of intensive training.

Gebirgs-Armeekorps) relocated south of Pescara to the Gustav Line between Orsogna and Guardiagrele east of the Majella massif.

[5] Parts of the division were used at Pontecorvo in the Battle of Monte Cassino on the course of the rivers Liri and Sacco.

After the collapse of the Trasimeno Line in the first days of July 1944, the division was involved in retreating battles in the Val di Chiana and on the Pratomagno south of Arezzo.

Understrength,[2] the division was assigned to the XIV Panzer Corps in October 1944, and took part in the defensive battles in the Bologna area, with an effective strength of only some 2600 troops,[2] where it was subordinate to the I Parachute Corps from time to time (August 1944 and February 1945).

[7][4] The divisional stocks relocated to Liegnitz reached Thuringia in their entirety evacuated by train at the beginning of 1945, where they were captured by American troops in April 1945 and brought to the United States via Frankfurt am Main.

This file material is supplemented by captured documents from the Western theater of war, by individual files from other groups of documents formed in the USA, in some cases with subject matter (e.g. "EAP") and by donations from private hands, including post-war elaborations by the study group of the US Historical Division.

[4] Members of various units of the division were involved in several war crimes in Italy between February and September 1944, with up to thirty civilians executed in each incident.

[9] Most of the victims were recorded in an anti-partisan operation north of Prato, in Figline on 6 September 1944 by members of the 756th Grenadier Regiment, 30 people were shot or hanged on the orders of Major Karl Laqua.

[10] According to the Atlante delle stragi naziste e fasciste in Italia project, which was financed by the German Federal Government and led by a commission of historians, around 100 people were killed by members of the 334th Infantry Division.

The I. Bataillon (Major Röhr) was set up by the Gebirgsjäger-Ersatz-Regiment 137 (Mountain Ranger Replacement Regiment 137).

After that, 1,100 Lower Styrians (Untersteiermärkers/Slovenes) made themselves so intolerable for the regimental leadership through crimes, rebellious behavior and refusal to obey orders that they were not used as soldiers at the front; being, therefore, transferred to other units.

Schnelle Abteilung 334 (334th Fast Battalion): Set up on 25 November 1942 with two cycling squadrons and two tank destroyer companies.

Kommandeur der Infanterie-Divisions-Nachschubtruppen 334 (Commander of Infantry Division 334th Resupply Troops): Raised on 25 November 1942 in Grafenwöhr.

Battalion was transferred to the Grenadier Regiment 941 (of the 353rd Infantry Division, in Brittany) on 30 November 1943 and replaced.

Feldersatz-Bataillon 334 (334th Field Replacement Battalion): Formed in October 1943 for the 334th Infantry Division with five companies.

The German commander-in-chief in Italy, Albert Kesselring, wrote in his postwar memoirs about his subordinate units, and credited the 334th Infantry Division with a quick emergence as an elite division within weeks of the appointment of Hellmuth Böhlke as commander.