in the opening battles of world war two cavalry was deemed worthless. However it never faded from use and still has a place.
The history of man in warfare can easily be called the history of the horse in warfare. It seems that for as long as man has fought one another he has done so with horses nearby. The death of the cavalry was declared many times. In the first battle of Tannenberg in 1410 German knights sank on their heavily overloaded mounts into the frozen lakes and cavalry was deemed to be a sideshow. When French Cuirassiers could not break the British squares at Waterloo in 1815 cavalry was said to be useless. The Polish Lancers in 1939 ineffectively charging German panzers was the final nail in the horse soldier's coffin. Right?
Wrong!
Actually horse soldiers still saw much further use. During world war two US Cavalry engaged Japanese troops in the Philippines campaign, Titos partisans were often mounted in their efforts in Yugoslavia, and Italian Dragoons conducted real live saber wielding cavalry charges (successfully) against soviet troops. In 1945 an entire corps of Russian horse mounted Cossacks fighting for the Nazis surrendered to the British Army in Austria.
This again, wasn't the end. In postwar occupied West Germany the US Army's constabulary units had several equine equipped MP units including the 287th and 759th MP Horse Platoons until 1957. The Swiss Army, never one to let a good thing go, kept its stables full until it disbanded the last Dragoon regiments in 1973.
The Portuguese Army formed the Grupo de Dragoes in Angola in 1967 and it conducted operations in that country against communist rebels. Mounted on South African and later argentine horses. The animals carried large loads in harsh conditions including feed for man and animal for at least five days, groundsheets, saddlery, a HK G3 7.62mm rifle with 150 rounds of ammunition, a Walther P-38 9mm pistol with four magazines, plus assorted radios, medical kits, grenades and all the other instruments of modern war. The normal speed of travel was 4-7 miles per and up to 30 miles per day, with each operation being between 500-700 miles traveled. This group was very successful and was used in conjunction with helicopters and armored vehicle borne troops. It was disbanded with the collapse of the colonial government in 1975.
The highveld and lowveld of Rhodesia was conquered by the troopers of the Grey's Scouts, made up of three combat squadrons each of 96 men broken into eight man sections. It was found that a mounted eight man unit could cover the same area of ground as a foot borne infantry battalion of 500 men. They turned out to be a very tough and well used outfit that only put its horses to pasture with the end of the conflict and the forming of Zimbabwe in 1980.
Was that the last hurrah for the cavalryman?
Currently many armies maintain 'ceremonial" units such as the Tins and Blues of the Household Cavalry in the UK, the US Army's Caisson Unit, and Lord Strathconia's Horse in Canada. Russia is turning over guarding sections of its border to newly re-formed Cossack units. India still fields the 61st Cavalry Regiment as a partially mounted unit (they are also very good at Polo) and horse cavalry are still found on the order of battle of several Latin American militaries (Chile still fields a brigade of mountian troops who ride horses). In the Alps, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria all still use pack horses to some extent in mountain warfare units. These are not true cavalry horses but instead are Mules, Maultier in German (crossbreed spawn of a horse stallion and a donkey mare) as well as Haflinger horses.
Even in our wars of the future, there is still a place for the horse. US Army Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) conducted scouting and reconnaissance operations in the hills of Afghanistan in 2001 from the back of horses.
The pasture hasn't grown yet that the last cavalry horse will graze.
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