The book is dedicated to the history of one of the oldest Wehrmacht formations, formed back in 1935. During its existence, the division was reorganized several times, maintaining its number, but significantly changing its organization and name. From 1935 to 1941 it was called infantry, then it was motorized, receiving a corresponding addition to the name, and from 1943, after being armed with armored vehicles, it was transformed into a panzer-grenadier division. The unit participated in the Polish and French campaigns, and then - until the collapse of the Third Reich - in battles on the Eastern Front against Soviet troops. The triumphal march of the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union very quickly gave way to bloody battles for the division in the area of the cities of Rzhev, Yukhnov, Bely. It took part in the battle on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943, after which there followed an uninterrupted series of defeats and retreats: cauldrons near Akhtyrka, Kirovograd, the complete defeat of the division in Romania, another reorganization and the last battles in Lower Silesia and Moravia. The book belongs to the pen of one of the former commanders of the regiment, and then the division, Lieutenant General A. Schmidt. After his release from Soviet captivity, he collected a large amount of documentary material, which served as the basis for this work. Despite some pathos of the author, this book will be useful to Russian readers, including specialists in the field of military history, since it sheds light on many little-known pages of the history of the Great Patriotic War.