Yes, quite a colorful outfit. One question -- are you sure about the "northern Germany" location ? I thought they broke through to British 8th Army lines in NE Italy / S Austria.

Cheers

BW

Your evidence is pretty convincing, armoured cars and obsolete tanks were used in anti partisan operations but PAK and 88mm guns are unsuited to anti partisan work and unlikely to be issued to rear area units when there was a shortage of good AT guns in most first line units.

Thank you for the discussion. For a "TiredOldSoldier", you certainly made me dig through my duffel bag of books!

More on German cavalry at German Horse Cavalry and Transport, U.S. Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946 (Lone Sentry)

Cheers

BW

Couple of nice pics.
Soviet Maxim M1910 on its horse drawn portee
Soviet Maxim transporter.jpg
Soviet Cavalry parade note the sabres and the PPSh41 tradition and technology
soviet cavalry.jpg

Hey guys,

My first post in here and I hope I can find some information through this.

Im searching information about the tactics of WWII-era cavalry troops. I know that swords were widely issued, but they also had rifles/sub-machine guns. Did they have any tactics that enabled them to use those guns from mounted position, or were they reserved to situations where troops had to unmount their horses?

Also, were the rifles always the same as for infantry or were they issued regularly the shorter version of the rifles, for example M38/44 in Russia.

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Swine flu *oink*
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The vast majority of mounted cavalry in WW 2 acted more like dragoons than traditional cavalry. That is they were more like mounted infantry than true horsed troops. I have seen photos of mounted troops firing from horseback and also using swords in the very occasional times where they mounted a traditional horsed attack.

But, the norm became for them to act as mounted infantry using their horses for greater tactical and operational mobility.

The German Cavalry - and the Horse Platoons of the Infantry Regiments and Mounted Squadrons of the Recce Battalions as well - wore their sabers until early 1941. It is said that smaller formations used it 1939 in Poland as well as their Polish enemies.
In early December 1941 the 44th Mongol Cavalry Division of the Red Army - 3000 men and horses strong - rode an attack over an open plain against an German light howitzer battery in an open position. The artillery opened fire with kind of shrapnel and shot the Mongols to pieces. No German suffered any harm during this action. The only tactical gains for the Russians were a reduced ammunitions supply of the German artillery and a little time.
The successfull night attack of German Cossack Cavalry happened during the night of 22th to 23th March 1945 in Hungary. The German General Officer Commanding the Cossacs, the last Field Ataman of the Free Cossacs, General von Pannwitz, was a descendant of an old Prussian Officers family, whose ancestors had already served under Frederick the Great.
The re-formed German Army Cavalry Brigades were indeed regarded as élite and privileged in receiving modern equipment such as assault rifles and camouflage clothing. They had their own assault gun companies, but, at this time, every infantry division should have had 10 to 14 assault guns. After being united to a Cavalry Corps, they had often not only the Hungarian Hussar Cavalry Division, but also Armoured Divisions assigned. The founder and commanding officer of one of the new Cavalry Regiments was Oberstleutnant Georg von Boeselager. He was killed in action at the head of his regiment. In the Bundeswehr, the Armoured Recce Battalions compete every year for the Boeselager Trophy, named after him. His brother Philipp, who died a few years ago, was involved in some failed plots to kill the Führer. Last week, Defense Minister Jung named a Kaserne (Barracks) after him.

Has anyone of You ever seen the Polish movie "Lotna" from the famous Director Andrzej Wajda? The movie recounts the fate of an Uhlan Squadron in September 1939. Lotna is the name of a wonderful white horse they acquire on an estate, although they know that it is completely unsuitet for modern warfare because of its color. It is owned in succession by the Captain, the Lieutenant and the Ensign, bringing none of them good luck. There is also a love story, ending tragically, the Ensign making his wife a widow after a few days of marriage. In the movie the Squadron rides a successful attack against German forces, as described by Triple C, but gets then caught by German Tanks (in the movie disguised T-34's) and decimated. Until now, I didn't know that the movie insofar followed the real tide of the events in September 1939.

My grandfather was US calvalry and served with horses and mules during the war. He was based in the Panama Canal Zone, and would supply the jungle training center. Although vehicles were used there were apparently some areas where resupply was impractical with anything but critters.

FWIW light colored animals were tea-dyed.

Ah, Panama. My first overseas posting was at Ft. Sherman. I prefer jungle vs arctic warfare.