The division arrived in France on 18 June. But the difficulties of daylight movement under skies ruled by the allied tactical air forces delayed its arrival at the Normandy front – with a strength of around 13,500 men – until 25 June. Five days later Frundsberg was thrown into actions to halt the British 2nd Army’s Operation ‘Epsom’; the division saw intense combat around the strategic Hill 122, suffering heavy casualties.
(Tieke 69)
A British operation codenamed ‘Jupiter’, tasked with the recapture of high ground around Hill 122, was launched on 10 July and made some initial progress before being driven back by Tigers from the II SS Panzerkorps heavy tank battalion (schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 102). The British threw in a further attack and took the summit once again. but at nightfall the British tanks withdrew, leaving the infantry unsupported, to be thrown back yet again by a German counterattack undercover of darkness. So great was the confusion over which side controlled what ground that at one point the British came under attack by Allied aircraft.
On 15 July, as Hohenstaufen was withdrawn into reserve, Frundsberg was left to cover the entire sector, and was driven off part of Hill 113, just north of Evrecy, by units of t15 (Scottish) Division. They were brought under heavy fire from Tiger tanks on Hill 112, and the reappearance of Hohenstaufen made the British position even more tenuous. Nevertheless, they hung on to the area they had seized on Hill 113 while the Tigers of SS-Pz Abt 102 and a battalion from SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 21 remained firmly in control of Hill 112, until finally relieved by the army’s 271. Infanterie Division. Frundsberg, having now lost well over 2,000 men since the beginning of July, was then withdrawn for a brief period of rest.
On 2 August the division was back in action, when a Kampfgruppe successfully held most of Hill 188 against a British attack and destroyed 20 tanks in the process. The next day the remainder of the division arrived, threw back the British units that had established a foothold on Hill 188, and took nearby Hill 301 to form a defense line between the two high points. Frundsberg was almost immediately ordered to disengage, and on 6 August the division was committed to an attack on British units north of Chenedolle. They seized two prominent high points, Hills 242 and 224, only to be driven back by shellfire and air attacks.
Moving thereafter to Mortain on the American front, Frundsberg was to become the corps reserve for XLVII Panzerkorps. Elements had to be committed to action near Barenton almost immediately, however, to block American probing attacks. Instead of being committed to a counter-offensive, Frundsberg found itself being pushed eastwards via Domfront and Fromentel as the Germans pulled back to defend Argentan. By 19 August the division was right in the middle of the Falaise Pocket. It was comparatively fortunate in being one of the formations which did manage to escape of the River Dives before the rapidly narrowing gap at Chambois was finally closed by the US, Canadian and Free Polish armor. The division then retreated north-east to the River Seine, crossing at Oissel between 25 and 27 August by means of two bridges it had seized, fending off attempts by other retreating units to use them until all its own troops had crossed to safety.
(Officers of SS-Pz AA 10; Ziebrecht, Harmstorf, Brinkmann, Finger, Pauli, and Frank)
(Tieke 168)
