Horses in World War II were used by belligerent countries to transport troops, artillery, equipment, and, to a lesser extent, in a moving cavalry force. The role of horses for each country depends on military strategy and economic circumstances and most prominently in German and Soviet land forces. During the Nazi war Germany and the Soviet Union employed over six million horses.
Most British cavalry regiments were mechanized between 1928 and the outbreak of World War II. The United States maintains a horse-drawn army stationed in the Philippines, and the German Army maintains a brigade. The French Army of 1939-1940 incorporated horse regiments into their mobile divisions, while the Red Army of 1941 had thirteen cavalry divisions. Italian, Japanese, Polish and Romanian troops use large cavalry formations.
Horse-drawn transport is of utmost importance to Germany, as it is relatively lacking in natural oil resources. Horse-drawn infantry and artillery formed most of the German Army during the war; only a fifth of the army belongs to mobile panzer and mechanical divisions. Each German infantry division employs thousands of horses and thousands of men who care for them. Despite losing horses to enemy action, exposure and disease, the Germans retained the supply of work and saddle horses until 1945. The cavalry in the Army and the Waffen-SS gradually increased in size, culminating in six cavalry divisions in February 1945.
The Red Army was substantially engined from 1939-1941 but lost most of its warfare equipment in Operation Barbarossa. This loss is temporarily corrected by forming an installed infantry mass used as a troop strike within the Battle of Moscow. The great victims and shortages of the horse immediately forced the Soviets to reduce the number of cavalry divisions. Due to the production of Allied tanks and supplies made for the 1941 losses, the cavalry is combined with the tank unit, forming a more effective strike group. From 1943 to 1944, the cavalry gradually became a moving infantry component of the tank army. At the end of the war, the Soviet cavalry forces were reduced to prewar power. The role of horse logistics in the Red Army is not as high as in the German Army because of the Soviet domestic oil reserves and the supply of American trucks.
Video Horses in World War II
Motorization in interwar period
The trench war on the Western Front of World War I resulted in a strategic impasse: defense weapons and tactics prevail over the available offensive options. The early tanks, supported by artillery and foot infantry, provided weapons to penetrate the front lines but were too slow to turn violations into strategic attacks; railroads from France and Germany provide a defensive side with the ability to move troops and counterattack in sufficient time. The Postwar troops concentrated on developing more effective attack tactics through the mechanization of ground troops. The mechanization strategy is influenced by the state of the economy, anticipating war scenarios, politics and lobbying within civil and military government. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany chose three different strategies. The fourth option was chosen by the Soviet Union which, influenced by the experience of the war moving from the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War, introduced mechanical forces and air forces. Each strategy closes the gap between cavalry and mechanical infantry.
Other factors that drive motorization are the decline of the national horse stock and the inability to return it within a reasonable time. Of all the great powers, only England, which is weakened by the loss of Ireland, is partly forced to move the motor for this reason; stock horses in Germany, the United States and the Soviet Union remain sufficient for at least their peacetime troops. In 1928 the British Empire became the first country to begin the replacement of horse cavalry with motorized troops and in 1939 became the first to mobilize their national army, although some Yeomanry regiments plus regular cavalry units serving abroad remained attached. The British experimental armor units have performed impressively since 1926, but, faced with resistance from traditional branches of service, remain unpopular among the top brass to the Battle of France.
The French Army partially moved their cavalry in 1928, creating divisions of dragons portà © (moving dragoons) that incorporated motor and horse driven elements. In the next decade, France looked for the perfect mixture, testing five different division configurations. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania follow a French mixed pattern; The mobile division of Austria and Czechoslovakia is similar but with higher horse parts. Polish troops buy tanks and Lithuanian soldiers buy trucks but instead both continue to use World War I army troops with horsepower. The US cavalry commander approved the French strategy but made no radical changes until the 1940 reforms that completely obliterated the horse troop.
German analysts reject the French concept of troop and mixed forces as unworkable. The Wehrmacht had its own enemy mechanization, but with the support of Adolf Hitler, Ludwig Beck, Werner von Fritsch and Heinz Guderian succeeded in forging a compact but effective panzer troop that coexisted with traditional foot infantry masses and horse artillery throughout World War II. Willis Crittenberger observes that "France is limited to armored divisions, while Germany has created armored branches." In 1939 the Wehrmacht dispersed their 18th cavalry regiment, leaving an active cavalry brigade; cavalry troops with their war horses are integrated into the infantry division.
Motorization of the 1930s raised a number of concerns, beginning with the need to secure a sustainable fuel supply. The new lineup has much larger footprints in the parade: the French motor division of 1932 took 52 kilometers of road space compared to 11.5 kilometers for horse-mounted formations, raising concerns about control and vulnerability. The Spanish Civil War and other conflicts of the 1930s did not provide a definite solution and the problem remained unresolved until the beginnings of World War II. Only the German blitzkrieg achieved in the Battle of France finally convinced the world's military, including the United States, that the tanks had replaced horses on the battlefield.
Maps Horses in World War II
Horse logistics
The German and Soviet army relied heavily on working horses to attract artillery and supplies. Horses seem to be cheap and reliable transportation especially in the spring and autumn sludges on the Eastern Front but the associated costs of daily feeding, horse care and handling are staggering. In theory, horse units can feed the country, but grazing on the grass alone makes horses unfit to work and troops have no time to search in the villages for food. The hard-working horse takes up to twelve pounds of seed every day; fodder carried by troops became a major part of their supply trains.
The horses need helpers: installing a six-horse field artillery team, for example, requires six people to work for at least an hour. Horse health deteriorates after just ten days even with medium loads, which require frequent repairs; healing takes months and substitute horses, in turn, take time to mix with their teammates and their handlers. Good enclosures around the front line are still scarce, emergency lodging causes wear and early disease. Refit the front-horse unit consumed eight to ten days, slowing down the operation.
The movement of more than 30 kilometers (daily horse travel limit) is very slow and complex. Longer hauling is thrown into the truck at the first opportunity, while the horse stays at division level and in additional units. Horse transport was inadequate in deep offensive operations, just like in 1914. American trucks supplied to the Soviets enabled operations up to 350 kilometers away from the relheads, which were not possible for a horse-drawn sled. Similarly, the replacement of field artillery horses with jeeps allows a 120 mm mortar puller in line with advanced forces, another tactic impossible with horses.
The use of trucks was limited by the lack of fuel and high cost of synthetic gasoline on the German side, and equipment losses in 1941-1942 on the Soviet side. The Soviets managed to lose money by forming 76 horse battalions of 500 horses each, and employing wildebeest in the Arctic and camels in the South. But overcoming the lack of the horse itself can not be overcome: a working horse in three to four years; agricultural stock has gone horses and tractors. The countries of Western Europe, beginning with the British Empire, witnessed the shortage of horses since 1920 and adjusted their forces. Germany in 1920 managed to restore the population of their horses, but then declined again when the horse farm was replaced by motor power.
The United States Army, with its large reserves of fuel and trucks, picked the logistics of all trucks since the beginning of the 1940 military reform. As General Robert W. Grow wrote, "there is not a horse in the American Army in Europe. cavalry action. "Nevertheless, horses, mules, donkeys and even oxen remain important in rural and remote areas of the Pacific.
Belligerent troops
French
Permutations of pre-war horse division-and-truck divisions produce 1939 Light Cavalry Division (DLC). Each DLC retains the 1,200 sabers horse brigade. At the beginning of World War II France mobilized more than half a million horses, it can be said to drain the resources that should be invested into the real mechanical and tank formations. The German offensive in May 1940 forced France to reconsider the effectiveness of their light cavalry and to move it to a more appropriate place, the Ardennes. But there too they were immediately destroyed by a decisive German attack. In 1945, the only French troops who retained operational roles were some of the Morocco and Algerian spy squadrons serving in North Africa and in France itself.
German
The German army entered World War II with 514,000 horses, and during the war used, in total, 2.75 million horses and mules; the average number of horses in the Army reaches 1.1 million.
Logistics
Most of these horses were employed by infantry and horse artillery troops who formed most of the German Army during the war. Of the 264 divisions active in November 1944, only 42 were armored or mechanized (November 1943: 52 of 322). In addition to horse work each infantry division has a spy battalion with 216 cavalry - the legacy of cavalry regiments is dissolved. They wore the cavalry badge until September 1943. During the war, the elements of this horse were reduced, and the 1945 division had no equestrian forces at all. The reconnaissance and antitank wards are the only moving elements in the German infantry division.
The organization of infantry forces and their commander's mindset radically differ from front-panel troops. Mechanization of the German Army substantially lagged behind the Red Army, although the 1941 blitzkrieg temporarily flipped the tables: the Germans caught tanks, trucks and tractors but lost horses: 179,000 died in December 1941 and January 1942 alone. A German soldier wrote: "The odd smell will stick to this campaign, a mixture of fire, sweat, and the corpse of a horse."
A German division should be logistically self-sufficient, providing troops, horses, and own equipment to transport its own supply from an Army-level railroad. The Soviet division, on the other hand, relies on Army level transport. The supply train from 1943 German infantry division employs 256 trucks and 2,652 horses attended by 4,047 people, while other division configurations have up to 6,300 horses. The supply of trains from 1943 slim Soviet infantry divisions, compared, has only 91 trucks and 556 horses attended by 879 people. Luftwaffe Field Division is designed to lean and rely on trucks and half tracks but in real life it is replaced with horses and mules. Incidentally, the psychotherapist Ernst GÃÆ'¶ring, the nephew of Luftwaffe Hermann GÃÆ'¶ring, used horsemanship therapy to rehabilitate injured pilots, but in 1942 the program was closed for being too expensive.
Horse logistics slowed Germany's progress. The 6th Army, involved in the city warfare in Stalingrad, could not feed or graze their horses and send them back. When the Soviets enveloped the 6th Army in November 1942, German troops were cut off from their horse transportation and would not be able to move the artillery if they tried to evacuate the city. In the previous envelope, Demyansk Pocket, 20,000 horses were trapped along with 95,000 people and transported cattle that drained valuable air transport capacity. However, these horses also provide food for soldiers in an environment where "axes rise again as rocks from the corpse of frozen horses."
Cavalry Force
During the war, German cavalry units increased in number from one brigade to a larger but still limited force of six cavalry divisions and two headquarters. All regular cavalry troops served on the Eastern Front and the Balkans as well as several Cossack battalions serving on the Western Front.
The German Army of 1941 had a cavalry division assigned to the Heinz Guderian panzer group. Continued to be involved against the Soviet forces, increased to six regiments and in early 1942 reformed into Panzer Division 24 who later died in the Battle of Stalingrad. In April-June 1943, Germany formed three separate cavalry regiments ( Nord , Mitte , SÃÆ'¼d ) - a horse unit reinforced with tanks and halftrack - infantry installed. In August 1944 these regiments were reformed into two brigades and divisions, together with the 1st Hungarian Cavalry Division, Gustav Harteneck Cavalry Corps operating in Belorussia. In February 1945 the brigade was reformed into a cavalry division (German stud farms in East Prussia were unaffected by the Allied air raids that paralyze German industry).
SS operated both paramilitary units of horses (23 cavalry regiments in 1941) and SS Waffen military cavalry. The SS Cavalry Brigades, formed in 1940, fought civilians and militants in the occupied territories and were subsequently vetted by Soviet Rzhev-Sychevka. In 1942 SS reformed the brigade into the 8th SS Cavalry Division manned by volksdeutsche, which operated on the Eastern Front until October 1943. In December 1943 the 8th Cavalry spun from the 22nd SS Cavalry Division manned by Hungarian Germans. These divisions are enlarged well with heavy artillery, field and anti-aircraft. Another SS cavalry division, the 33rd Cavalry, was formed in 1944 but never deployed to full force.
Germany recruited anti-Soviet cossacks from the start of Operation Barbarossa, although Hitler disapproved of the practice until April 1942. The Army Cossacks of 1942 formed four regiments and in August 1943 were merged into the 1st Cossack Division (six regiments, up to 13,000 men ) were trained in Poland and stationed in Yugoslavia. In November 1944 the division was split into two and reformed into the XVth Cossack Corps. Kalmyks formed another cavalry corps, which was used in the rearguard duties.
In February 1945 the German and Hungarian cavalry divisions were cast into Lake Balaton's attack; after limited success, German forces were crushed by a Soviet counterattack. The remains of the army cavalry fell back to Austria; 22,000 people surrendered to Western allies, bringing along 16,000 horses. The remains of the SS cavalry, joined to the 37th SS Division, followed the same route.
Greek
Two Greek horse regimes, plus one partially motorized, saw service during the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940. These units proved effective on the rough terrain of the Greco-Albanian border region
Hungarian
Hungary entered the war with two traditional equestrian cavalry brigades. His war effort was divided between supporting Germany in the east and guarding the border with a hostile Romanian "ally". In 1941 the 1st Cavalry Brigade, part of the Movement Corps, ran as far as 600 miles from Galicia to Donetz Pier ending with the loss of most of its motor vehicles. In October 1942, the Hungarian cavalry was reorganized into the 1st Cavalry Division, which in 1944 eventually defended Warsaw from the Soviets as part of the Von Harteneck Cavalry Corps. Secondly, the reserve cavalry division was quickly formed in August 1944.
Italy
The Italian Colonial Empire inherited by the fascist regime maintains a diverse colonial army, including regular and irregular cavalry. Of the 256,000 colonial troops available in 1940, 182,000 were recruited from native North and East Africans. The cavalry element installed between these consists of seven squadrons of savari and four spahl groups from Libya plus 16 squadrons of Cavalleria Coloniale from East Africa of Italy. On 4 July 1940 four Eastern-African cavalry regiments and two colonial brigades captured Kassala at the cost of over a hundred men;
Italy Benito Mussolini entered the Russian Campaign in July-August 1941 by sending CSIR, the power of moving 60,900 people and 4,600 horses, to Ukraine. The CSIR retains the traditional sword-holding cavalry (The Savoia Cavalleria and Lancieri di Novara regiment of the 3rd Cavalry Division) and relies on horse transportation and various types of civilian trucks. Despite many casualties, in 1942 Mussolini sent reinforcements - the Eighth Army numbered 227,000 people, renamed the ARMIR, mainly infantry troops. On August 24, 1942, when the Italian front collapsed, Savoia Cavalleria accused the Red Army of nearby Izbushensky and managed to expel two Soviet battalions. In December 1942, the Italians, numbering more than 9 to 1, were occupied and destroyed by the Saturn of Soviet Operations.
China
The cavalry provided a central element in the Chinese army of 1937-1945. Both KMT Army and CPC Army use cavalry for patrol, reconnaissance and direct conflict as infantry installed with Japanese troops. The Mongolian horses provide most of the horses in the Chinese army with the larger Ningxia horses sometimes used. In the late 1940s the Chinese People's Liberation Army included about 100,000 troops, grouped in 14 cavalry divisions and considered to be the elite.
Japanese
The Japanese environment, historically, did not encourage the practice of horse breeding, so after the 1904-190 Russian-Japanese War the government established a breeding agency that imported Australian and British stallions, forming new local stock. After World War I, the Japanese Army mixed most of the cavalry regiments into 32 existing infantry divisions to provide installed reconnaissance battalions. This wholesale integration created the perceived weakness in the Japanese battle order that survived until the late 1930s, although in 1938 four cavalry brigades had been set aside from infantry for independent service in the vast interior of China. Contemporary observers wrote that in 1940 these brigades were obsolete, incompatible with the proper role of the army of shock. One Japanese cavalry unit saw active service outside China, in the 1941 Malaya campaign.
Japan also exploits additional troops from Mongolia, recruited in Japanese-controlled territories to patrol the Soviet and Mongolian borders.
Polish
The Polish army and its tactics were influenced by the Polish-Soviet Wars where the cavalry was a decisive force. At the start of the war Poland deployed 38 cavalry regiments organized into 11 cavalry brigades and 2 mechanical brigades (though only one, 10 Motorized, were actually deployed). The cavalry accounted for about 10% of the Polish Army remaining, mostly, World War I troops. The government took military threats seriously and counted to take over the privately owned horses. Stock horses are regularly reviewed at local exhibits, and the best breeders are rewarded.
The Polish campaign in September 1939 counted fifteen significant cavalry actions. Two of them are pure, fast-paced troops with spears and swords, others fighting on foot. Poland claimed twelve wins, including a successful escape attempt. The most striking Mokra battle pits the Wo 'y Caval Brigade? Ska quickly against the 4th Panzer Division with 295 tanks. Poland fended off a wave of tank and infantry attacks for two days, giving Germany a "bloody beating".
The legendary accusation of the Polish cavalry against the German panzer, however, is a myth of propaganda influenced by Charge at Krojanty. In this battle occurred on September 1, 1939, the Polish Cavalry Regiment accused and dismissed the German infantry unit. Shortly thereafter, Poland itself was shot dead by German armored vehicles and retreated with heavy casualties; after the beating was fictitiously presented as a cavalry attack against the tanks.
After the collapse of Poland, the remnants of the cavalry reappeared in France as the 10th Armored Brigade and in England as the 1st Armored Division. A new Polish cavalry brigade was formed in the Soviet Union for the Polish Armed Forces in the East. The final act by the Polish cavalry occurred on March 1, 1945 near Schoenfeld, when the Warsaw Independent Brigade stormed the German anti-tank position.
Romanian
The Romanian cavalry is the largest force installed among German allies. Romania started a war with six brigades and reformed them into disunity in 1942. A half-hearted modernization introduced a motorized regiment in each division; before placement in Southern Russia the 7th Cavalry Division was fully motorized. Four divisions were destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad. Two divisions trapped in the Crimea and escaped the Crimean offensive in 1944 with the loss of all the hardware.
Mongolia
In the early stages of World War II, the fledgling Mongolian People's Army units were engaged in the Khalkhin Battle of Gol against the invasion of Japanese forces. Soviet troops under Georgy Zhukov's command, along with Mongolian forces, defeated the Japanese Sixth Army and effectively ended the Soviet-Japanese Border. After the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact of 1941, Mongolia remained neutral throughout most of the war, but its geographic situation meant that it served as a buffer between Japanese and Soviet forces. In addition to guarding about 10% of the population under weapons, Mongolia provides half a million horses trained for use by the Soviet Army. In addition, several Mongolian People's Army units installed supported the Soviet Army on the western side of Operation Manchuria's Strategic Assault in 1945. They formed part of the Mongolian Mongolian Cavalry Group under the command of I. A. Pliyev
USSR
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Agricultural collectivization reduced the stock of the Soviet horses from about 34 million in 1929 to 21 million in 1940. 11 million were lost to advance the German army in 1941-1942. Unlike Germany, the Soviets had sufficient oil supplies but suffered from lack of horses during the war. Red Army logistics, aided by domestic oil supplies and American trucks, were mechanized more than the Wehrmacht, but the Soviets employed more combat cavalry troops than German soldiers. Total Red Army employs 3.5 million horses.
The experience of the First Cavalry Army and the increase of commanders to the military summit significantly affected the development of Soviet war doctrine in the interwar period. Although the cavalry forces were dissolved after the Russian Civil War, the Red Cavalry reached 14 divisions and 7 independent brigades in 1929 and culminated in 32 divisions and two brigades in 1938, although some of them were actually downgraded to nominal forces. 1939 and 1940 were spent in massive reorganization of troops into the mechanical corps and tanks, their formations influenced by the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of France and their dissolution imposed by the inability to supply and manage large formations appropriately. The cavalry's role was unexpectedly driven by the decline suffered by mechanized forces in 1939 in Poland and in 1939-1940 in Finland.
A 1941 Soviet rifle division standard 14,483 people rely on horse logistics and has a supply of 3.039 trains of horses, half of a complementary German infantry division of 1941. Various reorganizations make the Soviet units smaller and slimmer; the last division standard (December 1944), upgraded to a minimum of 1943, provided only 1,196 horses for the regular division and 1,155 horses for the Guards division. At this time some divisions once had more than half of their standard human appendages, and their logistical capacity was lowered accordingly.
Destruction of 1941
In June 1941, the Red Army had four cavalry commandos and thirteen Cavalry Divisions (seven in the western military district), compared to sixty-two Infantry Corps and twenty-nine Mechanical Corps. By 1941 standards, each division counted 9,240 people - four cavalry regiments, a BT tank mechanical regiment and two artillery battalions; the 1941 cavalry corps had two divisions reinforced with more war and artillery equipment. In real-life cavalry and infantry units, their tanks and trucks are disarmed, into horse and pure legs with limited mobility and firepower. Even the disarmed divisions are too large to be handled effectively by their inexperienced and inefficiently unorganized and destroyed commanders by Germany (for example, 60 to 80 percent of the 6th Cavalry Corps are destroyed on June 22 as they struggle to gather at the establishment).
By the end of 1941, organizational problems were solved by reducing the units into "light cavalry" divisions with the force of roughly half of the "normal" cavalry division (3,447 people in three regiments). The loss of tanks and trucks in the summer of 1941 made these eight divisions, combined into the Cavalry Corps, "about the only remaining moving units in the Soviet." It is used to attack en masse at critical points, ideally working with tanks but rarely with foot infantry. In defense, the cavalry is useful in examining the advance of the enemy at an early stage, attacking the German wing and quickly avoiding enemy reactions.
The cavalry action of 1941 was poorly led and executed, with high casualties; tactics were enhanced when the cavalry division was reinforced with mechanical infantry units and anti-aircraft artillery. These attachments, making the cavalry division permanent and elevated to the Cavalry Corps, were first massed during the winter attacks of 1941-1942. Again, incompetent or indifferent commanders regularly throw their cavalry against a targetted target with many casualties. Fighting losses and severe winters reduced the stock of horses to the point where 41 cavalry divisions were dissolved due to lack of horses. Stock horses are not and can not recover and the remaining cavalry division, even when reparations, never has a complete horse.
Consolidation
Joseph Stalin liked the idea of ​​a reformed Cavalry Army initially opposed by the military, fearing its vulnerability to enemy tanks. The concept of cavalry integration, infantry and tank division (Tank Army of the future) emerged as a cavalry mechanical group (CMG) in the fall of 1942. 1942 CMG functions like an actual Tank Army, but the infantry rides instead of trucks. The number of cavalry divisions was further reduced to adjust the number of CMG (then Tank Armies) and stock of horses available, to 26 divisions by the end of 1943. These divisions obtained their own light tanks and increased to 5,700 each. Their horse element, though vulnerable to enemy fire, is indispensable to be able to follow tank breakthrough before enemies can recover their defenses. Usually on the night before the attack they were concentrated in a 12-15 kilometer jumping area from the front line, and broke along with tanks as soon as the first wave had penetrated the enemy line.
In 1943, the Red Army acquired enough experience and equipment to deploy much of the Tank Army. They are the main strike weapons and the degraded cavalry to additional offensive tasks that require all-terrain mobility - usually involving siege and cleansing of enemies that have been destroyed and broken by tank forces. During the Voronezh Front operation in the Upper Don area under Golikov, the Soviet cavalry struck with great success for the Valuiki and in the pale winter sunshine on January 19, the black-clad horseman and hijab flew into the unfortunate Italians , killing and injuring. more than a thousand before the brief resistance by fleeing, hungry and frozen people from the 5th Infantry Division of Italy ended.
The 1944 Cavalry Corps, in turn, has up to 103 tanks and destroyers in addition to three Cavalry Divisions which again are slim and lightweight and dependent on horses only (4,700 people with 76-mm field guns and no armor). At the end of the war with Germany, the Soviet cavalry returned to the prewar nominal power of seven cavalry corps, or one cavalry corps per each tank army. CMGs of the period (one Tank Corps and one Cavalry Corps) are regularly weapon of choice in operations where the banned field of use of Tank Soldiers is fully deployed.
The last CMG action in the war took place in August 1945 during the invasion of Manchuria. General Issa Pliyev CMG, marching to Peking across the Gobi Desert, is actually manned by Mongolian horsemen - four Mongolian cavalry divisions alongside a division of the Soviet cavalry, plus five mechanical brigades with heavy tanks. They were opposed by Mongolian horsemen who fell without fighting.
United Kingdom and the United Kingdom
The replacement of horses with armored cars in the British cavalry began in 1928. For the next eleven years all the regular regiments placed in England, in addition to the Household Cavalry, were ridden, and their horses were sold or allocated to other units. Mechanical cavalry regiments retain their traditional titles but are grouped with the Royal Tank Regiment as part of the Royal Armored Corps established in April 1939.
British troops in the Mediterranean war theater continued the use of horses for transportation and other support purposes. The horses used are both local and imported. For example, the Sherwood Foresters infantry regiment, moving to Palestine in 1939, brought with it a thousand English horses. Two mounted cavalry regiments already exist in the region. The lack of vehicles delayed the motorization plan of these troops until 1941. In 1942 the British still employed 6,500 horses, 10,000 donkeys and 1,700 camels, and used local donkeys in Sicily and mainland Italy.
The Imperial Army, especially the Frontier Transjordan and Arab Legion, remained on horseback. All 20 Indian cavalry regiments were mechanized between 1938 and November 1940. The last British cavalry ride took place on March 21, 1942, when a Burmese Army patrol faced Japanese infantry - initially mistaking them as Chinese troops - at Toungoo in central Burma. Led by Captain Arthur Sandeman of the Central Indian Horse (King George V's Own Horse 21), the BFF detachment was imposed and most were killed.
United States
The United States economy of the interwar period quickly removed the old horse: the national horses' stock was reduced from 25 million in 1920 to 14 million in 1940. Nevertheless, the US military was one of the last countries to receive armored warfare and troop mechanization.
In December 1939, the United States Cavalry consisted of two mechanical regimens and twelve horses of 790 horses each. Head of Cavalry John K. Herr, a supporter of horse troops ("conservative mossback and really" according to Allan Millett has not been "sublime and tragic in his loyalty to horses" according to Roman Jarymowycz), which is meant to raise it to 1,275 horses each. A cavalry division included two brigades of two horse regiments each, eighteen light tanks and a terrain artillery regiment; Artillery chiefs lean on horse and truck tractors and dismiss self-propelled artillery to avoid cross-coordination with other service branches. Cavalry has become a favored force for the defense of Mexican borders and the Panama Canal Zone from Mexican robbers and enemy occupation, a threat that began to be abandoned in the 1930s, if not for increased Japanese influence. A fleet of horse trailers called portees helps the cavalry to cross the road. Once installed, the cavalry forces will reach the battlefield by riding a horse, down and then fighting on foot, essentially acting as a light infantry move.
After 1940 the Louisiana Maneuver cavalry unit gradually reformed into the Armored Corps, starting with Adna R. Chaffee's First Armored Corps in July 1940. Another novelty was introduced after the maneuver, the 4x4 Bantam car soon became known as the jeep and replaced the horse itself. The debate over the integration of armor and horse units continued into 1941 but the failure of "marrying horses with armor" efforts was evident even to ordinary civilian observers. The Head Office of the Cavalry was eliminated in March 1942, and the newly formed ground forces began to mechanize the remaining horse units. The 1st Cavalry Division was reorganized as an infantry unit but retained its appointment.
The only significant involvement of American horsemen in World War II was the defensive action of the Philippine Scouts (26th Cavalry Regiment). The scouts challenged the Japanese invaders in Luzon, detained two soldiers and two infantry regiments during the invasion of the Philippines. They deflected a tank unit in Binalonan and managed to defend the ground for the withdrawal of Allied forces into Bataan. What will be the cargo of the last horse-drawn horse in the history of the US Army took place in Morong on the western side of Bataan, on January 16, 1942, when most Filipino troops 'G' Troop, 26th Cavalry (PS), led by Southern Illinois Lieutenant 1 native Edwin Ramsey, managed to subdue their mounts on Japanese powers that were far superior to armor-backed infantry, surprising and scattering it. The lightweight 27-armed force from the US Horse Cavalry, under heavy fire, held Japan for several crucial hours. Ramsey earned Silver Star and Purple Heart for this action, and 26 was immortalized in the history of the US Cavalry.
In Europe, American troops only deployed several cavalry and supply units during the war. George S. Patton deplored their shortcomings in North Africa and wrote that "if we had an American cavalry division with artillery packages in Tunisia and in Sicily, no German would escape."
References
Source
Further reading
- Paul Louis Johnson (2006). The German Army's Horse in World War II . Schiffer Publishing. ISBNÃ, 0-7643-2421-7, ISBNÃ, 978-0-7643-2421-5.
- R. L. DiNardo, Austin Bay (1988). Horse-drawn Transportation in the German Army . Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 23, No. 1, 129-143 (1988). doi: 10.1177/002200948802300108.
- Janusz Piekalkiewicz (1979). World War II Cavalry . Orbis Publishing. ISBNÃ, 0-85613-022-2, ISBNÃ, 978-0-85613-022-9.
External links
- "World War II Museum Fair Exposition to Honor Heroes" Horse online edition, July 23, 2010 edition
- Military Horse Collection
- Australian Merchant Merchants: haul horse
- ??????????? (Chinese cavalry during World War II)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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