Heer Cavalry Troops

[Sixx]

Hello,

I am just trying to find some more detailed info about German Wehrmacht Cavalry Troops in WW2. To my understanding their use was exclusivley on the Eastern Front throughout the war. And they were used as highly mobile infantry or more often as scout troops. There was never an instance of them charging and therefore I can't imagine they did much shooting from horseback either.

Were they often used as regular mobile infantry? In that case would they dismount their horses and go fight somewhere else from foot?

As the war progressed into its later days, did their role change in any way? Were their horses removed? I know in the case of the SS cavalry that horses were replaced with motorcyles.

I also see a lot of photos of soldiers on horses towing field guns and such. Were these logistics troops or actual cavalry troops?

Equipment wise, did most cavalry men carry sabres in the early war period? I recall seeing a photo of one with a sabre. If so, was it a special model or simply a reguar dress-sword? I know that many carried pistols and that there was a special saddle-holster designed for the K98 rifle.

Did they see much much combt action overall? Reason I ask is because I have gotten a very salty 2nd LT's private purchase cavalry officer's tunic. Looks like it was combat used. All correct waffenfarbe and insignia. The exterior is ok with a few grass and dirt stains but the interior has tons of brown-reddish stains and a few stretch tears.

[tigre]

Hello pal ; may be this article gives you a little point of view about the German cavalry in the Eastern Front.........

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=22350

Cheers. Raúl M .

[John W. Howard]

This brief but informative book will be of help. It has more about cav ops than the anti-Hitler plot: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=31189

[Ypenburg]

If, f.e., you'll have a look on the 1. Kavallerie-Division you'll see that it was used as mobile Infantry. Before going into real action they dismounted. After 1. Kav.Div. was turned into 24. Pz.Div. the Germans quickly understood that the terrain in Russia was screaming for the use of Kav. units, so new Kav. units were raised again.

Most Infantry-Division had an Aufklärungs-Abteilung with a Reiterschwadron, so a Cavalry-comp. within the Recon-unit, like they often had a Radfahrschwadron (Bicycle-comp.)

You won't find many picture's of Cavalry having their sabre's with them during combat. Most wartime-picture's of Cavalry-units with sabre's you'll see them by-passing saluting officiers. It is also mentioned in "Erfahrungsberichten" from units of the 1. Kav.Div. that the sabre's weren't widely used and turned out to be almost only of use crossing heavely wooded area's. The soldiers weren't sabre-trained either.

Unless you belief rushing to an objective to get there before the enemy does is the same as a "real cavalry-charge" there weren't any German cavalry-charge's during WW2. It would have been suicide anyway.

Regarding the horse-towed fieldguns: Although we all know those fairytailes about the highly mobile German Army with only Panzers, armored vehicle's and kfz.'s , most divisions would have been nowhere without the horses. And the longer the war continued, the worse it got replacing lost vehicle's and the more they had to rely on the horses.

There are some good books on those cavalry-units, however most I know are written in German.

[michalst]

you also have two brigades that where created in 1944.

3. kav.brig
4. kav.brig

They where later upgraded to divisions, although their strength was on brigade level.

They fought on the eastern front:
-"bagration" - 2 AOK
-"konrad" operations