71st Infantry Division was moved to Pirmasens in night marches to secure the border, in order to move into their deployment zone for the Western campaign in France. Western Front 1940 After the 71. ID had marched southwest through Luxembourg and southern Belgium, they crossed the Chiers River and followed into the Maginot Line. The fighting accumulated in the attack on the tactically significant Height 311. This made the 71st Infantry Division one of the first units to surmount the Siegfried Line. On May 18, 1940, the division continued its advance in cooperation with engineers and tank hunters (panzerjäger) by taking the village of Villy, the 505 tank factory and other fortifications in the La Ferté area (Maginot Line). Together with the IR 188 subordinated to the 71st Infantry Division, Olizy and the Height 342 were captured. The period between May 21 and June 10, 1940 was characterized by defensive battles on the Maginot Line, which was further expanded to protection against counter-attacks. By May 22, 1940, seven officers and 170 NCOs and rankers had been reported dead. At the beginning of June 1940, in the Bois d'Inor forest, also known as the “Green Hell” (Grüne Hölle), numerous counter-attacks by Moroccan Tirailleurs and Foreign Legionnaires had to be fought off before the division could move east of the Meuse into the Verdun area. On June 15, 1940, the 71st Infantry Division was ordered to take Fort Vaux and Fort Douaumont, with IR 211 bearing the brunt of the attack. The attack succeeded under the leadership of the battalion commander Hauptmann Corduan, who fought in Verdun during the First World War. The fall of the two fortresses opened the way to the Verdun citadel, which fell after Fort Froide Terre was taken. In the course of June 1940 the 71st Infantry Division pursued the retreating enemy across the Moselle to Nancy. The mission on the Western Front ended with the bestowal of numerous awards: the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to Generalleutnant Karl Weisenberger, Oberst Hans-Karl von Scheele (commander of Infanterie-Regiment 191), Oberleutnant Germer and Unteroffizier Pape. Between 1940 and 1941 the 71st Infantry Division served as a training division (Lehr-Division) at the Königsbrück military training area. Eastern Front 1941–42 From June 1941 the 71st Infantry Division took part in the attack on the Soviet Union and surprisingly broke into the Soviet border fortifications near Niemstow on June