The 1st Cavalry Division was formed shortly after the outbreak of
World War II, in November 1939, when the 1st Cavalry Brigade was expanded to division-size. The division was part of the German invasion of the northern Netherlands where it encountered only weak defences as it was not a strategically important area. After the Dutch surrender, the division took part in the final actions of the
battle of France before serving as an occupation force there and, from September 1940, in Poland. It participated in the German invasion of the Soviet Union,
Operation Barbarossa, where it was part of the
Army Group Center before being sent back to
East Prussia for conversion to a tank division. After initially being stationed in northern France the division served under the
Fourth Panzer Army in Army Group South of the Eastern Front from June 1942. The division participated in the capture of
Voronezh and, in late December 1942, was encircled in the
Battle of Stalingrad and destroyed. During spring-1944 it took part in the
battle of Târgu Frumos, part of the
First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive. Near the end of the war, it saw action in
Poland,
Hungary, and
Slovakia. Parts of the division were evacuated to
Schleswig-Holstein and surrendered there to British forces at the end of the war while the remainder surrendered to Soviet forces in East Prussia in May 1945. In keeping with the Division's mounted origins, the 24th Panzer's tank crewmen wore the golden-yellow
Waffenfarbe of the cavalry rather than Panzer pink. ==Commanders==