The 7th Armored Division landed in France in August 1944 and joined the pursuit, driving through Chartres and across the Seine before advancing to Verdun. After difficult fighting along the Moselle approaches in September, the division shifted north into the Netherlands, operating in the flooded Peel Marshes through the autumn as part of the effort to clear the Antwerp approaches.

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World War II Campaign Map of the 7th Armored Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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Its defining service came during the Ardennes offensive. Rushed south in December 1944, the division moved into St. Vith ahead of the main German armored thrust. For six days it held the road junction under assault from two German corps, its combat commands conducting a fighting withdrawal through successive positions that disrupted German timetables and bought critical time for the Allied response. The delay at St. Vith — described by Eisenhower's staff as one of the battle's decisive contributions — was purchased at severe cost. In January 1945, the division helped recapture the town during the Allied counteroffensive.

After the Ardennes, the division moved to the Siegfried Line front and crossed the Roer before reaching the Rhine. Crossing from the Remagen bridgehead in March 1945, it helped seal the eastern face of the Ruhr Pocket while other forces closed from the south and west — the resulting encirclement trapping some 300,000 German troops. With the Ruhr secured in mid-April, the division drove northeast across the Westphalian plain and into Mecklenburg, covering the final miles of the war in rapid marches through crumbling resistance. Its forward elements made contact with Soviet forces near the Baltic approaches when Germany surrendered on May 7 — its record shaped above all by the defense of St. Vith and the role that action played in determining the Ardennes battle's outcome.