Hi everyone. I have been searching for information regarding Dutch Cavalry (Hussars) in 1940 and what I have discovered is that they had five regiments serving prior to the German invasion. The Hussar regiments were a mix of cyclists, motorcyclists and horse mounted squadrons and some may have had an attached armoured car squadron. the regiments numbered 1 to 4 are almost identical but the fifth regiment was fully mounted and also had a horse artillery component. Where I am getting confused is with the cyclist regiments which were located in the "light division", these are classed as Wielrijders (cyclists) and Motorriders (motorcycles), so are these regiments the same as the five Hussar regiments? Thanks for any help. Yan.
Yes, I posted a similar request over there, but alas no useful data was gleaned. They gave me a couple of links, but I had already explored them.
http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=dutch-army-organization states: Which doesn't add much to your original post. This reference: https://books.google.com/books?id=yOK0p46yeHYC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=dutch+hussars+1940&source=bl&ots=95i2WxIfvf&sig=tpRMpNnwt8Ws4_FGEJswq5SGvDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt0p6AtLjRAhXE7SYKHb9MAmMQ6AEILTAH#v=onepage&q=dutch%20hussars%201940&f=false Does mention "motorcycle Hussars" This is a gameing site but may be of use as it does have some low level OBs: http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/Early-war/Netherlands-1940.pdf This wiki article describes a battle that some Dutch Hussars were involved in. By following the references and links you may turn up something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mill This hyperwar link may also be of interest: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Netherlands/Ops-1940/#A1 It contains the following: There are a number of other references to Hussars in that document. Using your browser search function will turn them up pretty quickly. Hope this has been of some use.
Thanks LWD, That last link does help me quite a lot and also gives me more info on even more units then I thought. My suspicions were correct and we do have four types of regiment; 1st Cyclist Regiment 2nd Cyclist Regiment 1st Motorcycle Regiment 2nd Motorcycle Regiment 2nd Chasseurs Regiment 1st Hussar Regiment 2nd Hussar Regiment 3rd Hussar Regiment 4th Hussar Regiment 5th Hussar Regiment I can only find data on the 2nd Chasseur Regiment, which I think is a motorized mounted rifles formation. But it has pointed me in the right direction and finally I am getting somewhere, so thanks again. Yan.
Hyperwar is a wonderful source. Opana and others have done a magnificent job of making some really significant documents available.
Thank you Ruud. Are you familiar with that web site? I was wondering were the Chassuer regiments are located. It seems that the I and II Hussar regiments were in fact disbanded and could have been replaced with the two motorcycle regiments that I mentioned above, that could be were the confusion came from. Yan.
These are the units before may 1940: http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel/1165/Opbouw-van-het-Nederlandse-Leger-voor-de-Tweede-Wereldoorlog.htm?page=5 these are the units from start war: http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel/1165/Opbouw-van-het-Nederlandse-Leger-voor-de-Tweede-Wereldoorlog.htm?page=6 And this site is also about the first days of war in Holland: http://www.waroverholland.nl/ Hope this is helpfull.