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Dutch Cavalry 1940

Discussion in 'Western Europe 1939 - 1942' started by yan taylor, Jan 9, 2017.

  1. yan taylor

    yan taylor Member

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    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.
     
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  2. Durruti

    Durruti New Member

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    The people over at Axis History Forum might help: they have a section on minor Allied nations.
     
  3. yan taylor

    yan taylor Member

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    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.
     
  4. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    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.
     
  5. yan taylor

    yan taylor Member

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    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.
     
  6. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    Hyperwar is a wonderful source. Opana and others have done a magnificent job of making some really significant documents available.
     
  7. Ruud

    Ruud Member

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  8. yan taylor

    yan taylor Member

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    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.
     
  9. Ruud

    Ruud Member

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  10. yan taylor

    yan taylor Member

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