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5th Company of Infanterie-Regiment 52 group, portrait list, 1939. In 1939, the 5th Company of Infanterie-Regiment 52 was stationed in Leitmeritz (now Litoměřice, Czech Republic) as part of the German occupation of the Sudetenland and takeover of Czechoslovakia. September 1939: They fought in the invasion of Poland. May 1940 They were deployed to the Western Front for the invasion of France experiencing their first intense combat and sustaining their first wave of casualties. In October 1940 the 4th Infantry Division was broken up and Infanterie-Regiment 52 was reorganized into Schützen-Regiment 52 (a mechanized infantry unit) assigned to the newly formed 18th Panzer Division. In June 1941, the unit was sent east for Operation Barbarossa and fought as part of Army Group Centre. The unit suffered catastrophic losses during the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. The division became so completely depleted that the German high command officially dissolved it in late 1943. Neues Europa archive Pureᛉwisdom