Horse cavalry in WWII European Theatre? (WW2, war, Roman, Japanese)
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Is it true that US paratroopers encountered horse mounted German cavalry in Normandy and Sicily and were pretty badly mauled in second case? Did any of the Western Allies employ horse cavalry or mounted infantry in the ETO?
I know horse cavalry and mounted infantry were very common on the Eastern Front and were used all the combatants there (Germany, USSR, Italy, Romania, Hungary, etc) and in the Pacific and the CBI theater by the British and the Japanese. We (the US) also had horse cavalry (the 26th Cavalry Regiment) in the Philiphines in 1941/42. I believe a few horse mounted cavalry regiments were sent to North Africa and Italy as well but were dismounted when they arrived at the front.
I know the Germans had Cavalry units at the outbreak of the war and used them principally in Poland and Russia. Not aware of any in the Normandy campaign although I could be wrong. Interesting side note is that the bulk of German supplies and artillery were horse drawn right down to the end of the war.
I have never heard of German calvary in Normandy or Sicilly. The SS at least had calvary formations, but I believe they operated only in the Balkans and the Eastern Front. It was not a case of them charging anyone (which is suicidal) but of using them for transportation. Once they arrived at the battlefield they dismounted.
Calvary has a variety of advantages over mechanized forces in areas with poor road and logistic networks. Also they can swim rivers better than tanks
And they don't cost as much as a tank or a helicopter!
Im still trying to find the sources where I read this. The Normandy reference might have been in Band of Brothers (the book version where Ambrose briefly mentions encountering mounted German cavalry).
And they don't cost as much as a tank or a helicopter!
Im still trying to find the sources where I read this. The Normandy reference might have been in Band of Brothers (the book version where Ambrose briefly mentions encountering mounted German cavalry).
Well as far as "Band of Brothers" goes, the only encounter with a horse riding German, appears on page 197. He wasn't calvary, the German was just riding a horse, and it wasn't Normandy but rather the Ardennes.
I found a source for Sicily. On page 38 of Osprey Publishing's MAA 361 Axis Cavalry in World War II:
Quote:
It is reported that during the Allied landings in Sicily in July 1943, Italian cavalry offered stiff opposition to some of the scattered American paratroopers.
Unfortunatly, it does not offer more then this
The same book also mentions Russian Cossacks in German service in Normandy. On page 39:
Quote:
1/82 Cossack Sqn, serving faithfully until they were eventually destroyed - At St. Lo, Normandy, in 1944!
I found a source for Sicily. On page 38 of Osprey Publishing's MAA 361 Axis Cavalry in World War II: Unfortunatly, it does not offer more then this
The same book also mentions Russian Cossacks in German service in Normandy. On page 39:
Just a word of warning, just because a unit is designated as being calvary doesn't mean that the fought on horses, which was apparently the case with the Cossack calvary units that were actually attached to panzer units.
I found a source for Sicily. On page 38 of Osprey Publishing's MAA 361 Axis Cavalry in World War II: Unfortunatly, it does not offer more then this
The same book also mentions Russian Cossacks in German service in Normandy. On page 39:
Most histories don't suggest any Italian formation on Sicily offered stiff resistance and I have never seen any German calvary unit mentioned as being there. So unless they are talking about a small (say battalion unit) I am skeptical of this.
There were certainly cossacks in at least one German division in normandy - they engaged paratroopers during their drop. But they were not mounted I believe, just native cossacks pressed into a German infantry division. There is actually an ASL scenario on that battle.
Its very true that some calvary divisions had no horses in them (or no non-transport horses). An obvious example of that is the US 1 Calvary Division that fought throughout the Pacific War (and later Korea and Vietnam). They had no horses being mounted on AFV and IFV.
British armored formations commonly kept the calvary names (such as Hussars or Dragoons) for regiments that were in the 2nd World War armored.
I found some interesting information on cavalry in WWII. The last US horse based cavalry charge officiall took place in the phillipines in Jan 1942 (the unit was actually part of the phillipine scouts). The last swords were issued to US units in 1934, this one consisted largely of people shooting at Japanese with pistols from horseback. The last British cavalry charge was two months later in Burma. Charge is a doubtful word of course, since that engagement occured when the British unit blundered into Japanese entrenchments and got waxed....
The last Italian charge occured in 1942 againsts partisans in Croatia, so if Italian cavalry fought the allies in 1943 in sicilly it was dismounted.
A humerous rejoinder:
In January 1941 he [an Italian officer in North Africa] led a remarkable charge through a British tank column without being absolutely destroyed.
[SIZE=3]The last Cavalry charge in history took place on August 23, 1942, at Izbushensky on the River Don. The Italian Savoia Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Bettoni, and consisting of 600 mounted Italian troops, charged against 2,000 Soviet troops who had opened a breach between the German 6th Army and the Italian Army. The Italian Lancers destroyed two Soviet Infantry armored vehicles before being forced to withdraw with slight losses, about thirty-two casualties.[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]CavHooah.com - The Cavalry's Role in World War II (http://www.cavhooah.com/wwii.htm - broken link)
This has the Italian OB for Sicilly in it. There is one Italian cavalry battallion in it, but they fought dismounted (as part of an Italian naval group defending the harbor).
I looked at another OB as well for the battle and it showed no Italian cavalry
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