The VII Corps was a military formation of the United States Army. It was active on four occasions from 1918 to 1992. Activated in 1918 for World War I, it was reactivated for World War II and again during the Cold War. During both World War II and the Cold War it was subordinate to the Seventh Army, or USAREUR and was headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, West Germany, from 1951 until it was redeployed to the US after significant success in the Gulf War in 1991, then inactivated in 1992.

World War I VII Corps was organized at the end of World War I on 19 August 1918, at Remiremont, France and was inactivated on 11 July 1919. It was commanded by Major Generals William M. Wright, Omar Bundy, William G. Haan, and Henry Tureman Allen. It was composed of the 6th, 81st and 88th Divisions, and served in the Vosges Sector.

Post-World War I

The VII Corps was constituted in the Organized Reserve on 29 July 1921, allotted to the Seventh Corps Area, and assigned to the Third Army. Per General Order #2, Headquarters, Seventh Corps Area, the corps headquarters was activated on 9 January 1922 at the Old Customhouse, 3rd and Olive Streets, St. Louis, Missouri, with Regular Army and Organized Reserve personnel. The corps headquarters was responsible for providing and planning administration, organization, supply, and training for army, corps, and other nondivisional Reserve units, less field and coast artillery, in the Seventh Corps Area. The headquarters was relieved from active duty on 27 January 1923 and all Regular Army personnel were reassigned to the Headquarters, Non-Divisional Group, Seventh Corps Area, which assumed the responsibilities previously held by the VII Corps. Both the corps headquarters and headquarters company remained active in the Organized Reserve.

The VII Corps headquarters was withdrawn from the Organized Reserve on 15 August 1927 and allotted to the Regular Army. As part of the four-army plan put into effect on 1 October 1933, the VII Corps was relieved from the Third Army and assigned to the Fourth Army. Concurrently, the VII Corps headquarters was partially activated at Omaha, Nebraska, with Regular Army personnel assigned to Headquarters, Seventh Corps Area, and Reserve personnel from the corps area at large. On the same date, the headquarters company, VII Corps, was withdrawn from the Organized Reserve and allotted to the Regular Army. As a "Regular Army Inactive" unit, the corps headquarters was organized provisionally for short periods using its assigned Reserve officers and staff officers from Headquarters, Seventh Corps Area. These periods included several Second Army command post exercises (CPXs) in the 1930s and that part of the Fourth Army maneuvers held at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, in August 1937. The designated mobilization station for the corps headquarters from 1927 to 1939 was Camp Pike, Arkansas, where it would assume command and control of its assigned subordinate corps troops, which would then be mobilizing primarily in the Seventh Corps Area. Although the 1939 Protective Mobilization Plan changed the mobilization station for the corps headquarters to Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

World War II

The headquarters, VII Corps, was activated on 25 November 1940, less Reserve personnel, at Fort McClellan, Alabama; the headquarters company had been activated there two weeks before on 10 November. At Fort McClellan, the VII Corps assumed command and control of the 27th, 33rd, and 35th Divisions. The corps headquarters was transferred on 25 January 1941 to the Ramsey Building at 19th Street and North E Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama. The corps participated in the Tennessee Maneuvers in May–June 1941 and the Louisiana Maneuvers in September–October 1941 as part of the Second Army. After the Louisiana Maneuvers, the corps headquarters returned to Birmingham, where it was located on 7 December 1941. In late December 1941, VII Corps headquarters was moved to San Jose, California as part of the Western Defense Command and as it continued to train and prepare for deployment.

Its first return to continental Europe took place on D-Day in June 1944, as one of the two assault corps for the U.S. First Army during Operation Overlord, targeting Utah Beach via amphibious assault. For Overlord, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were attached to VII Corps. After the Battle of Normandy the airborne units were assigned to the newly created XVIII Airborne Corps. Subsequently, VII Corps participated in many battles during the advance across France; this included taking 25,000 German prisoners during the Battle of the Mons Pocket in early September 1944. The corps subsequently took part in the invasion of Germany until the surrender of the Third Reich in May 1945. The corps was inactivated in 1946.

Battle of Normandy

For the Normandy Operation, VII Corps was part of 21st Army Group under the command of General Bernard Montgomery and the U.S. First Army commanded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges. The Corps was commanded by Major General J. Lawton Collins.

VII Corps led the initial assault of Operation Cobra, the First Army-led offensive as part of the breakout of the Normandy area. Its success is credited with changing the war in France from high-intensity infantry combat to rapid maneuver warfare. Elements of VII Corps saw much combat in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest.

Assigned Units and Commanders 4th Infantry Division, Major General Raymond O. Barton 8th Infantry Regiment Colonel James A. Van Fleet 12th Infantry Regiment Colonel Russell P. Reeder (11 June) Lieutenant Colonel Hervey Tribolet 22nd Infantry Regiment Colonel Hervey A. Tribolet Colonel Robert T. Foster (26 June) 9th Infantry Division, Major General Manton S. Eddy 39th Infantry Regiment Colonel Harry A. "Paddy" Flint 47th Infantry Regiment Colonel George W. Smythe 60th Infantry Regiment Colonel Frederick J. de Rohan 79th Infantry Division, Major General Ira T. Wyche 313th Infantry Regiment Colonel Sterling A. Wood 314th Infantry Regiment Colonel Warren A. Robinson 315th Infantry Regiment Colonel Porter P. Wiggins Colonel Bernard B. McMahon (24 June) 82nd Airborne Division, Major General Matthew Ridgway 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel William E. Ekman 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel George V. Millett Jr. Colonel Edson D. Raff (15 June) 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel Roy E. Lindquist 325th Glider Infantry Regiment Colonel Harry L. Lewis 90th Infantry Division, Brigadier General Jay W. MacKelvie 357th Infantry Regiment Colonel Philip De Witt Ginder Colonel John W. Sheehy (13 June) Lieutenant Colonel Charles M. Schwab (15 June) Colonel George B. Barth (17 June) 358th Infantry Regiment Colonel James V. Thompson Colonel Richard C. Partridge (16 June) 359th Infantry Regiment Colonel Clark K. Fales 101st Airborne Division, Major General Maxwell D. Taylor 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel Howard R. Johnson 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel George Moseley Jr. (WIA 6 June) Lieutenant Colonel John H. Michaelis (6 June) 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment Colonel Robert Sink 327th Glider Infantry Regiment Colonel George S. Wear Colonel Joseph H. Harper (10 June) 4th Cavalry Group (Mechanized), Colonel Joseph M. Tully 4th Cavalry Squadron Lieutenant Colonel E. C. Dunn 24th Cavalry Squadron Lieutenant Colonel F. H. Gaston, Jr. 6th Armored Group, Colonel Francis F. Fainter 70th Tank Battalion Lieutenant Colonel John C. Welborn 746th Tank Battalion Lieutenant Colonel C. G. Hupfer

+Battle casualties, 6 June – 1 July 1944VII Corps, G-1 Reports, June 1944 Unit Total Killed Wounded Missing Captured All Units 22,119 2,811 13,564 5,665 79 4th Inf Division 5,452 844 3,814 788 6 9th Inf Division 5,438 301 2,061 76 0 79th Inf Division 2,438 240 1,896 240 0 90th Inf Division 2,376 386 1,979 34 0 82d A/B Div. 4,480 457 1,440 2,571 12 101st A/B Div. 4,670 546 2,217 1,907 0 Corps Troops 304 37 157 49 61

Cold War

From reactivation in 1950 and throughout the Cold War, the corps guarded part of NATO's front with the Warsaw Pact. Headquartered in Stuttgart at Kelley Barracks it was one of the two main US combat formations in Germany along with V Corps, which was headquartered in Frankfurt am Main at Abrams Building.

As finally envisaged in the General Defense Plan circa 1989, the 1st Canadian Division with its main headquarters at Kingston, Ontario, would have been assigned to the Commander, Central Army Group's tactical reserve, fighting alongside either the German II Corps or VII Corps.See Sean M. Maloney, War Without Battles: Canada's NATO Brigade in Germany 1951–1993, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd, (Toronto, Montreal, and others) 1997.

Structure 1989

At the end of the Cold War in 1989 VII Corps consisted of the following units:

VII Corps, Stuttgart, West Germany 1st Armored Division, Ansbach 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Riley, Kansas (Exercise Reforger unit) 1st Infantry Division (Forward), Göppingen, West Germany 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), Würzburg VII Corps Artillery, Augsburg 17th Field Artillery Brigade, Augsburg 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, Wertheim 210th Field Artillery Brigade, Herzogenaurach 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Nuremberg 11th Aviation Brigade, Illesheim 7th Engineer Brigade, Kornwestheim 14th Military Police Brigade, Kornwestheim 93rd Signal Brigade (Corps), Ludwigsburg 207th Military Intelligence Brigade, Ludwigsburg 2nd Corps Support Command, Nellingen auf den Fildern 602nd Air Support Operations Group, USAF Stuttgart

Gulf War

After Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, the corps was deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of the second major wave of deployments of American forces. Its presence took US forces in theatre from a force capable of defending Saudi Arabia to a force capable of ejecting Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

In the Gulf War, VII Corps was probably the most powerful formation of its type ever to take to the battlefield. Normally, a corps commands three divisions when at full strength, along with other units such as artillery of various types, corps-level engineers and support units. However, VII Corps had far more firepower under its command. It consisted of 1,487 tanks, 1,384 infantry fighting vehicles, 568 artillery pieces, 132 MLRS, 8 missile launchers, and 242 attack helicopters.Bourque p.90 It had a total troop strength of 146,321 troops.Bourque p.473

Its principal full-strength fighting formations were the 1st Armored Division (United States), the 3rd Armored Division (United States) and the 1st Infantry Division (United States). The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division as its third maneuver brigade. In addition, the corps had the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (United States) to act as a scouting and screening force, and two further heavy divisions, the 1st Cavalry Division (United States) and the British 1st Armoured Division, as well as the 11th Aviation Group. Although both 1st Cavalry Division and 1st Armoured Division had only two maneuver brigades, they were still powerful formations in their own right.