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Before the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the 243rd and 709th coastal defense divisions of the Wehrmacht were assigned several "Eastern battalions". Taking the 709th Coastal Defense Division as an example, the 739th Grenadier Regiment under its jurisdiction has two "Oriental Battalions", and the other two "Oriental Battalions" are directly commanded by the division commander, Lieutenant General William von Schlieben. At that time, most of the German troops deployed in Normandy were "second-rate troops". Since there was no war on the Western Front, the elite troops of the 243rd Coastal Defense Division and the 709th Coastal Defense Division were often transferred to the Eastern Front. Shortly before the Allied landings, the 1st Battalion of the 739th Grenadier Regiment was transferred to the Eastern Front, leaving only two "Eastern Battalions" as the main force of the unit. Regardless of whether the fighting enthusiasm of the "Oriental Battalion" is high, but their combat experience is obviously insufficient. At the same time, because the "Oriental Battalion" is also responsible for building coastal fortifications, after several months of intensive work, the physical strength of the "Oriental Battalion" soldiers has declined. few.

According to the American historian Stephen Ambrose's book "D-Day", two North Korean German soldiers were first captured by the Allies during the Normandy landings. Soon more than 20 North Korean soldiers were captured on the Normandy battlefield, and the US military conducted special interrogation on them. It turned out that these North Koreans were first recruited by the Japanese army, and then captured by the Soviet army in the Battle of Japan-Su Nomonhan that broke out in 1939. After the ceasefire between Japan and the Soviet Union that year, most of the Japanese prisoners of war were repatriated, but the Soviet army detained the Koreans because the Soviet army believed that they were not "prisoners of war". Later, these North Koreans joined the Soviet Red Army, and when the Great Patriotic War broke out in the Soviet Union in 1941, they went to the front with large units. However, with the Soviet defeat in the early days of the war, they were captured by the Germans along with many other Soviet Red officers and soldiers. Because they could not bear the extremely harsh environment in the German prisoner of war camp, they were forced to join the German army. In 1943, they were sent to Normandy as soldiers of the "Oriental Camp" until they were captured by the Allies.

The "Oriental Battalion", a motley army, was quickly defeated and retreated under the three-dimensional attack of the landing Allied forces. The battle report of the 709th Coastal Defense Division showed that in the first 10 days alone, the division had suffered 4,000 casualties, and the remnants of the "Oriental Battalion" had to retreat to Cherbourg. On June 26, Lieutenant General Schlieben led 800 men, including the remnants of the "Oriental Battalion", to surrender to the US 9th Infantry Division. The situation of the 243rd Coastal Defense Division of the "Oriental Battalion" unit was also not good. Most of them were wiped out during the operation on the Corentin Peninsula in the Normandy region at the end of June.

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