The division was created on 10 December 1940 in
Grafenwöhr. It participated in
Operation Barbarossa and the
Battle of Kiev (1941), before being sent to Serbia for anti-partisan operations. After the defeat in the
Battle of Moscow, the division was rushed back to Russia to help stop the Soviet counter-offensive. In 1942, the division participated in the
Second Battle of Kharkov,
Case Blue and the
Battle of Stalingrad, where it was annihilated. The division was reformed on 21 March 1943 in
occupied France. From 1 June 1943, it was relocated to the hinterland, where retaliatory actions against French partisans were carried out. On 20 July, the 113th Infantry Division was sent back to Russia, to take over a section of the "Buffalo Position" near
Rzhev as part of Army Group Center. On 7 August, the Red Army attacked the division at the start of the
Smolensk operation. The mostly inexperienced soldiers of the division withdrew in panic, so that the battle-hardened
18th Panzer Grenadier Division had to be brought in to rectify the situation. In the following battles, the troops of the 113th Infantry Division continued to suffer high losses and were mostly subordinated to the neighboring divisions. Due to the low combat value of the division, it was disbanded on 2 November 1943. The remains of the division were transferred to the Divisions-Gruppe 113 of the
337th Infantry Division after the
Battle of Nevel in November 1943. == Organization ==