352. Infanterie (SD2)

352. Infanterie is an Axis Infantry division in Steel Division II, available in the Back to War pack.

Amalgamating survivors from several Eastern Front divisions, the 352. took position at Omaha Beach just prior to D-Day without the Allies having noticed it. Well trained and armed, and with a strong core of veterans, the division stood its ground all day, inflicting such losses on the Americans that it almost foiled the allied invasion on the first day.

Kraiß's defensive skills, honed on the Russian Front, almost foiled the Allied plans on D-Day when his division stopped cold the first two American waves at Omaha.

Another WW1 infantry veteran, Kraiß remained true to this arm in WW2, commanding several divisions on the Russian Front from March 1941. In late 1943, he took command of 352. Infantry Division, forming in France from new recruits and remnants of several divisions destroyed in the East. Kraiß proved successful in merging the veterans and replacements, and his division was inserted in the Atlantic Wall just prior to D-Day, right in front of what would become Omaha Beach.

While the Americans had planned to encounter only second-rate troops manning the defences, they were slaughtered on the beach by Kraiß' well-disciplined and well-trained troops. But by the end of the day, threatened on his flanks and running short of reinforcements and ammo, he had to pull his men off. Kraiß was killed in August in the Saint-Lô sector.