The division was active between October 1940 and May 1940 and participated in the Balkans campaign as well as on the Eastern Front.

It took part in the 1941 Balkans Campaign and then joined Army Group South in Operation Barbarossa after it was already underway.

In 1942 it participated in the failed attempt to seize the Caucasus in Operation Edelweiss under Army Group A.

Following the operation's failure, the division was pushed back into the Kuban bridgehead, then the Crimean Peninsula, western Ukraine, Hungary, and Slovakia.

The division surrendered to the Soviet forces near Czech city of Olomouc when the war ended in May 1945.