It fought in the invasion of Poland in 1939, where soldiers of the division were involved in the murder of approximately 300 Polish civilians during the Częstochowa massacre on 3 September.

Despite being instructed to hold its ground, the XXXXII Army Corps commander, General von Sponeck, gave the order to pull back.

As a result, the division avoided encirclement and eventually helped stem the tide of the Red Army landings at Feodosiya.

[1] After the death of Reichenau two weeks later, his successor Fedor von Bock restored Himer to command and reinstated the division's honours.

By late 1944, after a fighting retreat through Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains and engagement in the Slovakian-Hungarian front, the division had effectively been reduced to regimental strength.