The division took up coastal defence duties on the Adriatic from 10 to 22 August 1943 and moved to the west coast at La Spezia in September.

Units of the division were on sentry duty when Italy changed sides, and soldiers watched ships of the Italian Navy sortie from La Spezia and Genoa, including the battleship Roma.

The reorganization increased the division's firepower (particularly in terms of anti-tank guns and infantry howitzers) while conserving manpower.

Elements of the division helped reduce the British salient at Campoleone and then participated in Operation Fischfang, the full-scale counter-offensive aimed at splitting the Anzio beachhead and pushing the Allies back into the sea.

The division suffered heavy casualties due to Allied artillery and air power, and after Fischfang petered out the two Grenadier Regiments were withdrawn to rest.

On 20 March 1944 a soldier in the 5th Company, Grenadier Regiment 147 wrote to his wife: There are now two serious, unsuccessful attacks behind us, probably a third will follow, and we have a few hours of rest right now, but today we have been replaced in the firing line and are living in a cave right behind the front.

[4] When the final Allied offensive operations at Anzio began at the end of May, Wunn found himself in charge of a defensive position.

"[5] The division saw further action in the fight for Rome, and later fought at Florence, the Futa Pass and the Battle of Bologna before surrendering to the Allies near the Po River in April 1945.

Ludwig Graf von Ingelheim assessed the 65th Division's performance as such in 1947: Established in Holland in 1942, it remained there until the autumn of 1943.

[11] Many of the reports lack evidence of specific perpetrators, only noting that the killings occurred in the 65th Division's area of operations.

The first such incident occurred in relation to the Frosini and Moniciano bridge destruction when an Italian civilian was tried by German military tribunal for espionage, found guilty, and a sentence of death was carried out.

Many of the alleged murders involved confirmed members of the Italian resistance movement that sprang up in northern Italy to oppose the fascist puppet state.

[12] One of the interactions in the divisional area was the Ronchidoso massacre [it] in Emilia-Romagna, which also included the 42nd Jäger Division, between 28 and 30 September 1944, when 66 civilians were executed.

[18] Generalmajor von Ziehlberg was wounded in an Allied air raid in late November 1943, losing his left arm.

He moved to the Eastern Front following his recovery, commanded the 28th Jäger Division, and was arrested and executed for complicity with the July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler.

Aged fifty, he had commanded a division on the Eastern Front and was described in the divisional history as having "indomitable energy" and of being a "military role model."

After von Ziehlberg was seriously wounded during the fighting on the Sangro River, the division adopted a hand grenade as its divisional emblem.

"[21] The counterattacks by the 65th Infantry Division on the Campoleone Salient in early February 1944 are depicted in the board wargame "A Raging Storm", part of the Tactical Combat Series.