![]() ![]() On March 15th, 1944, the division was moved from Saint-Lô and brought closer to the Normandy beaches, to support the over-extended 716. ID was the best infantry division in the area … hence why Generalfeldmarschall Rommel managed to retain it in France, under his Heeresgruppe B command. ID was organized as a full-fledged infantry division, with its organic tank destroyers, StuGs, SP Flak, … NORMANDYīy all standards, 352. Unlike most “static” or second-rate divisions in Normandy, the 352. ![]() And in doing so, they were given the appropriate weapon training, especially with machine-guns. Slated for deployment on the East Front once completed, the division trained its men accordingly, that is to fight defensively, to expect to be outnumbered and to repel waves of enemy infantry. ![]() ![]() Soviet Hilfswilligen (Ukrainians, Georgians, Belorussians mostly) also formed more than 25% of the division. Built on such solid foundations, the division quickly absorbed and trained the thousands of raw recruits, including very young ones, as well as many Volksdeutsche: “ethnic Germans” from Poland, Czechoslovakia or France. All its cadres and a good part of its original numbers were survivors from divisions destroyed in the Eastern Front, especially the 268. & 321. Although created late in the war, it wasn’t as inexperienced as other divisions formed at the same time. ![]()
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