The 44th Infantry Division was formed on 1 April 1938 in Vienna. It first saw combat at the start of the war in the Invasion of Poland, and also the following May in the Battle of France. After a 9-month period of coastal defence the division was transferred East, and on 22 July 1941 the division invaded the Soviet Union as part of Army Group South. It remained in the east after the failure of operation Barbarossa, reverting to the defensive for the winter and proved to be a bailiwick against the Soviet winter offensives near Izum and Karkov. Refurbished the division participated in the German summer offensive, and was subsequently destroyed with the 6th Army at Stalingrad in January 1943.