Activated in December, 1917, the 7th Division saw very little combat during World War I, though one of its engagements was particularly noteworthy: it was on the receiving end of a chemical attack in October, 1918 at Saint-Mihiel. The division was preparing for a major assault on the Hindenburg line, but it had carried out only recon missions when the signing of the Armistice on November 11 brought fighting to a halt. After a period of occupation duty, the division returned to the United States was inactivated in September, 1921.
Reactivated in 1940 and redesignated as the 7th Infantry Division in January, 1943, the 7th Infantry went on to take part in some of the most famous amphibious assaults in the Pacific Theater of Operations, including landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atolls (Marshall Islands), Leyte, and Okinawa. But probably its most unique combat experience was its first: the May, 1943 amphibious assault of Attu in the Aleutian Islands, the westernmost Japanese stronghold in the archipelago. Nearly three weeks of fighting culminated in a suicidal bayonet charge, or banzai attack, by the remaining Japanese defenders.
The unit was “conveniently” doing occupation duty in Japan when the Korean War erupted in 1950. Augmented by more than 8,500 South Korean troops along with soldiers from Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s 1st Division Imperial Bodyguard, the division took part in the Inchon landings along with the 1st Marine Division.
Related Items7th Infantry Division Unit Crest (DUI)
7th Infantry Division Unit Patch (SSI)Dubbed the “Bayonet Division” by General Douglass MacArthur because he foresaw it stabbing into the heart of North Korea, the unit was at the very least the tip of the spear for many of the U.N. offensive operations during the war. From the Inchon invasion and the advance to the Chosin Reservoir to the desperate fighting retreat against overwhelming Chinese forces and the bloody fighting for now-famous topographical spots such as Heartbreak Ridge and Pork Chop Hill, the history of the 7th Infantry in Korea reads like a Cliff’s Notes version of the war.
After defending the Korean Demilitarized Zone until 1971, the division was reactivated in 1974 and saw action during Operation Just Cause in Panama. Inactivated in 1994, the unit was reactivated to carry out training of active-duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard units. It was inactivated yet again in 2006, but in 2012 it was reactivated as an administrative headquarters to oversee the training and preparedness of seven brigades at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.Approved as a shoulder sleeve insignia in October 1918, the hourglass outline found on the unit’s CSIB is based on the shape formed by two “7’s” placed side by side and the hemispheric triangles they form being colored black. The unit crest (Distinctive Unit Insignia) uses the same motif, but the triangles are colored both and red black. Also, note there are two Unit Crests: one left-handed and one right-handed. The 7th Infantry Division’s original nickname of “Hourglass” became the official Special Designation “Bayonet” following its heroic actions in Korea.