COMPOSITION (1944): 129.Panzer Battalion, 15.Panzer Grenadier Regiment, 71.Grenadier Regiment, 29.Motorized Artillery Regiment, 129.Panzer Reconnaissance, 29.Anti-Tank Battalion, 29.Motorized Engineer Battalion, and the 29.Motorized Signal Battalion.

HOME STATION: Erfurt, Wkr. IX

The Division was formed in 1934-35 by the expansion of the 15.Infantry Regiment of the old Reichswehr. It initially included the 15, 71, and 86 Infantry Regiments. Its personnel were mainly from Thuringia, with draftees from other parts of Germany. It became a motorized unit in 1937-38 and gave up the 86.Motorized Infantry Regiment to the 10.Panzer Division in the Summer of 1939. The Division fought hard in Poland and distinguished itself in the German drive to the English Channel in 1940. The "Falcon Division", as it was nicknamed, performed in an outstanding manner in all of its battles. Crossing into Russia in 1941, it fought in the Bialystok and Minsk encirclements, in the Dnieper crossings, at Smolensk, Kharkov, the Don crossings, and at Stalingrad, where it was itself surrounded in November 1942 and was destroyed in late January 1943. Even as late as January 12, 1943 when it was in its death throes, the 29th, together with 3.Motorized Infantry Division, repulsed ten to twelve Soviet divisions and knocked out one hundred tanks, all in a single day.