The battalion fought during Operation Silver Fox which was a combined German and Finnish offensive attempting to capture the Soviet port of Murmansk.

After the fall of France in June 1940 the Germans captured a large amount of French vehicles.

Among those were 297 (varying according to sources) Somua S35 which was considered by many to be the premier medium tank at the beginning of the war.

The Germans used these captured vehicles to equip several smaller units which were then combined into Panzer-Abteilung 211 on 22 March 1941.

The offensive launched on 1 July 1941 ended on 17 November in a stalemate with German and Finnish forces advancing but not being able to capture Murmansk nor the railway at Kandalaksha.