7th Army

Genuine WWII era shoulder sleeve insignia of the 7th Army.

Originally the I Armored Corps under the command of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, it landed in Morocco during Operation Torch as the Western Task Force, the first American force to enter the European war. Following the defeat of the Wehrmacht under Gen. Erwin Rommel in North Africa, the I Armored Corps was redesignated the Seventh Army on 10 July 1943 while at sea en route to the Allied invasion of Sicily as the spearhead of Operation Husky.

After the conquests of Palermo and Messina, the Seventh Army prepared for the invasion of France along its Mediterranean coast as the lead element of Operation Dragoon in August 1944. It then pushed a retreating German army north and then west toward Alsace, which was absorbed by the newly created United States Sixth Army Group in mid-September. In January 1945, it repelled a fierce but brief enemy counteroffensive in the German Operation Nordwind, then completed its reduction of the region by mid-March.

In a leading role in Operation Undertone launched on 15 March, the Seventh Army fought its way across the Rhine into Germany, capturing Nuremberg and then Munich. Elements reached Austria and crossed the Brenner Pass into Italy on 4 May, followed shortly by the end of the war on 8 May 1945.