Index to the General Orders of the 7th Army, in WWII
This is the twenty-fifth in a series of indexes of all the divisions, corps, armies and commands of the US Army during WWII. Others will be published as they are completed.
This work includes all decorations cited in the general orders of the 7th Army.* Please note that many decorations presented to members of the 7th Army may have been cited in general orders of other commands. Most awards of the Purple Heart Medal were cited in the general orders of the hospitals that the men were evacuated to and are, therefore, outside the scope of this work. This index does not attempt to list all of the awards of the Bronze Star Medal that were retroactively awarded under Change 13 to Army Regulation 600-45, Department of the Army, 4 November 1947. Most awards of the CIB and CMB were made in general orders of the respective infantry regiments. I have made no attempt to list the Unit Awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,7Army) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “7Army” (7th Army).
Most general orders numbered below #186 of the 1945 series do not give the numerical designation of the recipient’s assignments. I have listed the recipient’s branch of service in the rare instances where there was no unit information provided in the general order.
The 7th Army awarded a large number of decorations to members of the French Army. Tony Margrave has graciously shared with me his knowledge and understanding of the Free French order of battle in World War II. With his assistance, I was able to list most of the French recipient’s assignments thru division, if the unit was a divisional asset. One issue that I was not able to resolve was the fact that many French recipients were listed in the general orders by their duty position rather then their rank. I have listed the Muslim troops names as they appear in each general order, even though I suspect that some last names were not identified as such in the general order.
*The last general order present at the National Archives is General Order #92 of the 1946 series, which is dated March 30, 1946. Currently I feel that it is very likely that the 7th Army awarded more decorations beyond General Order #92 of the 1946 series. It is also likely that the 7th Army continued to award decorations for service during WWII throughout the 1947-1949 series, which are missing as well.
Anyone with copies of any of the missing General Orders is encouraged to contact the author.
Every effort has been made to minimize errors and misspelled names. An error may be attributable to the source document, or may have occurred while transcribing the names/units. Some of the original documents are of very poor print quality, making them difficult to decipher.
Distinguished Service Cross 681
Silver Star Medals 467
Distinguished Flying Cross 2
Soldier’s Medals 205
Bronze Star Medals 5,419
Air Medals 782
Purple Heart Medals 562
Army Commendation Ribbons 26
Combat Medic Badge 1
Prisoner of War 1
Total Awards 8,124
This book has 161 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-06-5
ISBN 1-932891-06-4
Library of Congress Control Number 2004-271871
7th Army's WWII Order of Battle
The composition of armies during combat operations varies, almost on a daily basis. Making it difficult to construct their orders of battle other than during a short specific period of time
WWII Campaigns
Sicily
Naples-Foggia
Southern France
Rhineland
Ardennes-Alsace
Central Europe