The 12th Infantry Division was formed in October 1934 in Schwerin in Mecklenburg, part of Wehrkreis II (military district two) which covered the area of Pomerania, and from which all recruits new recruits would be drawn. It was originally known as Wehrgauleitung Schwerin.

On its formation the unit was given the cover name Infanterieführer II. The regimental units of the Division were formed by the expansion of the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment and the 6th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry regiment of the Reichswehr. With the announcement of the creation of the Wehrmacht  on October 15th 1935 (In fact the Wehrmacht had been secretly formed a year previously), the  name of Infantrieführer II was dropped and the unit became known as the 12th Infantry Division. It was one of thirty-five divisions formed before the outbreak of war, and belonged to the first wave of conscription. In other words, when the division was mobilised for war in 1939, most of its men had completed two years national service and were called up as reservists. These also included those Great War veterans liable for call up that were registered in Wehrkreis II, usually because this was they were resident.

The 12th Infantry Division served with distinction in the Polish Campaign.  It was part of  Armeekorps 'Wodrig' of Generalleutnant von Kuchler's 3rd Armee, Heeresgruppe Nord. and was involved in the battles around Warsaw.

The Division moved through Belgium into France during May 1940. After its good performance in Poland, the division took part in the 1940 French campaign as part of the Second Armeekorp of the Fourth Armee. During the campaign or Fall Gelb, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, following the brilliant plan of Generalmajor von Manstein, deployed the famous 'sikelschnitt' (sickle-cut) that swept around the best French and British forces as they moved in Belgium, cutting them off from the main French force and squeezing them against the Channel Coast. The 12th served in the arm that swept round the Allied force, and were instrumental in preventing a desperate attempt by the French to punch through and rescue their beleaguered allies. The Division marched on after Dunkirk and reached the coast of Biscay in the Vendee before France signed an armistice.

In September 1940 the Division was moved to the Netherlands for occupation duties. It remained there until 25th May 1941 when it was transferred to East Prussia. On June 22nd the Division marched into Lithuania as part of the Second Armeekorp of the sixteenth army, Heeresgruppe Nord. The native population greeted the men as heroes. These deeply Catholic people had been under Soviet rule since 1939 and treated the German forces as liberators. Crossing the Niemen River the division captured Kaunas (Kovno) and reached the Dvina on 2nd July. In early August the division approached the area of Kholm and following a series of heavy engagements there and in the Valdia Hills it reached the source of the Volga River south of the Demyansk in mid-September.

For the next fourteen months the Division remained in what had become known as the 'Festung Demjansk' (Fortress Demjansk). In the winter of 1941-42 the Red Army cut off and encircled the Second Armeekorp. Some 96,000 Germans, among them the men of the 12th Infantry Division were trapped. However, in late August 1942 contact was re-established with the Second Armeekorp, but the situation remained precarious until the pocket was evacuated in February 1943. Following a short rest on the Lovat river, south of the Lake Ilmen and Styraya Russa, the Division was sent to the area of Vitesbsk where it took part in the heavy defensive battles in December 1943 through to mid-February 1944. The Division was then transferred to Mogilev where it was still stationed when the massive Soviet summer offensive 'Bagration' erupted on 22nd June 1944. Virtually all of Army Group Centre was destroyed in the great Minsk-Vitebsk encirclements, including the 12th Infantry Division. Generalleutnant Rudolf Bambler surrendered his Division to the Soviets in July 1944. None of the main combat elements escaped capture. Its few survivors limped back to reorganise in West Prussia.

In mid-September 1944 the reformed 12th Infantry Division was rushed to Aachen to hold back the US forces converging on the city. In mid-October, the newly re-branded 12th Volksgrenadier-Division took part in the freezing Ardennes offensive and then retreated across the Rhine in March 1944. The division finally surrendered to the Americans in the so-called 'Ruhr pocket' at Siegen.

Since September 1939 the Division had lost thousands of its soldiers in Poland, in France, in the Netherlands, in Lithuania and in Russia. It had marched thousands of miles to the east and west of its home in Pomerania. Its soldiers had basked in the French sun and frozen in the Russian winter. Many of its soldiers still froze to death after the war, imprisoned deep in Russia from where few would ever return to see Pomerania again. But for the survivors of the 12th at Siegen, the war was finally over.

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