Battle of France and Eastern Front The 25th Panzergrenadier Division was originally formed as an infantry unit, designated 25th Infantry Division and made up of
Swabian and
Bavarian personnel. It participated in the
Polish Campaign and the
Battle of France. In late 1940, it was reorganized as the 25th motorized infantry division and took part in
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the
Soviet Union, in June 1941. It was attached to
Army Group Center and fought in the Soviet Union for two years before being reorganized as the 25th Panzergrenadier Division in June 1943. After another year of heavy fighting, the division was almost destroyed near
Minsk during the Soviet
Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944; the survivors were reorganized at the training area at
Mielau (in modern-day Poland) as the 107th Panzer Brigade.
Western Front (1944–1945) In September 1944, the 107th Panzer Brigade participated in
Operation Market Garden as part of LXXXVI Corps of the
1st Parachute Army. The Brigade had been re-routed from
Aachen to the Netherlands and went almost immediately into combat at
Nuenen against the American
506th PIR of the
101st Airborne Division and the British
15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars of the
11th Armoured Division. In November 1944, the brigade was upgraded back to divisional status at the
Baumholder training area and re-numbered back as the 25th Panzergrenadier Division. The new division moved to France in the area of the German-
Luxembourg-French border at
Sierck-les-Bains, where it fought a delaying action against the
US Third Army, until December. It was then moved to
Bitche. There it fought on the
Maginot Line fortifications at Forts
Ouvrage Simserhof and
Ouvrage Schiesseck, under the command of the
XIII SS Corps and
Obergruppenführer Max Simon. After the
US Seventh Army's offensive operations were halted in December as a result of the
German Ardennes Offensive, the 25th was pulled out of the line and re-organized near
Zweibrücken. It then took part in
Operation Nordwind, along with the
21st Panzer Division. Together, these divisions were to exploit the penetrations made by either the
XIII SS Corps in the west, or the
LXXXIX and
XC Corps in the east, with the intention of cutting the US Seventh Army off from the
1st French Army. It was then sent back to the eastern front to defend against the Soviet attack on the
Oder north of
Berlin, most of the survivors managed to escape to the west and surrendered to the British or Americans. ==Commanders==