198th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

198th Infantry Division
198. Infanterie-Division
Division insignia
Active	December 1939–May 1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Engagements	German invasion of Denmark Battle of Greece German-Soviet War Operation Barbarossa Battle of Rostov (1941) Case Blue Battle of Rostov (1942) Winter campaign of 1941–42 Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket Western Front Operation Nordwind Colmar Pocket

The 198th Infantry Division (German: 198. Infanterie-Division) was an infantry division of the German Heer during World War II.

Initially assembled in December 1939, the 198th Infantry Division participated in the German invasion of Denmark as well as the occupation of Copenhagen on 9 April 1940. The division was subsequently transferred in July 1940 to serve occupation duty in German-occupied France between July 1940 and March 1941. It was then sent to the German-aligned Kingdom of Romania and transferred through the German-friendly Kingdom of Bulgaria to participate in the German invasion of Greece in early April 1941. After the German victory in Greece, it was redeployed to Romania, from where it participated in the German invasion of the Soviet Union ("Operation Barbarossa") on 22 June 1941.

The 198th Infantry Division remained in combat on the Eastern Front against the forces of Soviet Union until early 1944. It participated in the First Battle of Rostov, Winter campaign of 1941/42, the German summer offensive of 1942 ("Case Blue"), the Second Battle of Rostov, defended against the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation and was eventually decisively battered in the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, from which only remnants of the division escaped. The 198th Infantry Division was subsequently replenished and sent to the newly-formed Western Front after the Normandy landings in June 1944. Faced with advancing Western Allied armies, the division withdrew to the Upper Rhine sector by winter 1944/45 and participated in the failed attack against Strasbourg ("Operation Northwind"). The offensive failed under heavy casualties, forcing the division back on the defensive. The majority of the division was crushed by the Western Allies in the Colmar Pocket in March 1945; a token leftover force escaped across the Rhine into southwestern Germany. The remnants of the 198th Infantry Division surrendered to US forces in Upper Bavaria near the end of the war.