The 17th Panzer Division was a formation of the German Army in World War II. It was formed on November 1940 from 27th Infantry Division. It took part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and in the winter of 1941–42 participated in the abortive German attack on Moscow. In November 1942, the Division was sent to the southern sector of the Eastern Front where it participated in the failed attempt to relieve the surrounded troops at Stalingrad. The Division was held in reserve during Germany's failed Kursk Offensive in 1943, and thereafter contributed to the Wehrmacht's fighting withdrawal through Ukraine and Poland, before ending the war in Czechoslovakia.