Though the Seventh Army was officially constituted on February 25, 1943, it was the redesignation of I Armored Corps as the Seventh United States Army that put “meat on the bones” of the new organization. Having defeated German General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps during the Tunisian Campaign following the Allied invasion dubbed Operation Torch, the I Armored Corps was en route to Sicily to spearhead Operation Husky when it received its new designation on July 10, 1943.
Following the capture of Palermo and Messina in Sicily, the Seventh Army next took part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France that came two months after the D-Day landings at Normandy. Pushing German defenders back as it advanced toward the Alsace region, it fell under the purview of the Sixth U.S. Army Group in September. At the start of 1945, it held the line against the last-gasp German offensive called Operation Nordwind, and crossed the Rhine in March on its way to capturing Nuremberg and Munich.
Five years following the end of World War II, Seventh Army was reactivated in Germany and assigned the command of ground service forces of United States Army Europe, or USAEUR. USAEUR had several major unit headquarters stationed throughout German poised to respond to any invasions or incursions by Warsaw Pact Forces. In December 1966, disparate Seventh Army headquarters were eliminated and a month later the old HQ USAEUR and Seventh Army merged to become HHC, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army.
The easing of Cold War tensions in the late 1980s was almost immediately followed by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In response, USAEUR deployed 1,200 tanks, 1,700 armored vehicles, over 325 aircraft, and 75,000 troops. Later in the 1990s, USAEUR contributed to the peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. USAEUR also deployed significant forces in response to the 2003 Gulf War and subsequent operations in Southwest Asia.
In 2006, Seventh Army was dropped from the name of the merged organization to become Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, United States Army Europe. Lineage and honors of the Seventh Army are perpetuated under this organization, which authorizes the wear and display of appropriate Seventh Army items such as the Combat Service Identification Badge (CSIB for short, with a design based upon the
Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, AKA "unit patch") and Distinctive Unit Insignia, also known as a Unit Crest, which contains the unit's motto "Pyramid of Power."