Was Cavalry still useful in WWII ?

I read once that an ad hoc mounted unit was formed by the US Army in Italy in 1943 or 1944, but I have no details as to its activities.

 

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CAVALRY IN WW"?
1st. KDG found them usefull in the mountains of Italy.

 

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CAVALRY IN WW2?
"IF IT'S GOT A LEG ON EACH CORNER AND FARTS ALOT, WE'LL
HAVE ONE!"
"DONKET WALLOPERS RULE OK?"

 

These are pack mules and were used to move large amounts of supplies into hard to reach areas. Used in the Far East a great deal and carried almost anything. Heard about a unit that carried an AT gun up a rocky hill side in Italy to knockout a well positioned German tank. Did it a night and the Germans got a surprise in the morning!

 

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PACK MULES???
AS EX KDG DON'T TELL ME WHAT A HORSE LOOKS LIKE!
THIS TIME YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR DEPTH!

 

Sorry but the ears looked a bit long. You did not say what you used them for so when you said they were useful in Italy I just thought pack mules as they were used there. Did you use them for reconnaissance work?Good job I did not say cavalry charge against tanks in Poland!

 

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These animals were collected as spoils of war from any Italian stable or depot possible, yes, recce on difficult terrain, and leisure!!
As late as 1947 we had a pack of hounds and a cavalry troop in Libya,
on Sunday mornings our officers would gallop over the plains fox hunting.
We left these behind to the 13/18th Hussars in march 48.(the horses not the officers!)
www.qdg.org.co.uk

 

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CORRECTION.
www.qdg.org.uk

 

As a Italian Campaign vet what did you think of the British MP (not going to waste my time naming them) who in 1944 called you lot D-Day Dodgers. When I first read about this some years ago I thought how could someone running this country during a war not keep up with the facts. This was the only European front for over 6 months before the Normandy landings. Hope you don't mind.

 

Funny, notice one of the pictures showing orses moved in trucks! Double transportation! :lol:

 

Going back to the original question. If you mean lancers raised and sabars glinting in the sun then no but as "transport" then yes. The Polish used Mounted Rifle Brigades which used horses instead of lorries, similar to the Dragoons of old. If they walked they would have been Foot Rifle Brigades. In most parts of Europe it would have been easier to find fodder than petrol.

 

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refering to the horses in the truck, if you can manage to read the very small print below you will see that it says, they are being moved to an LST for transportation to Greece in December 1944.
This is because the 1st. KDG were sent to Greece to fight against the Rebel Forces opposing the then Greek Government. More lives were lost there, yhe Greek Government awarded a special War medal to members of the Regiment.
Many thanks for the compliment Paul, but I am not an Italian veteran
having joined the 1st.KDG later, many pre-war soldiers were still there
who had trained as horse mounted troops before mechanisation, any chance of horse ride they did not miss, as neither did any other cavalry
regiments.

 

Paul - yes, that is basically the division between cavalry & mounted infantry!

 

the cavalry

the cavalry is very old type of the army and it is very unuseful against machineguns and other weapons of world war 2

 

The Russians found that traditional cavalry *could* be effective in the winter, when conditions had stalled the German panzer units. The Eastern Front saw what were more than likely the last cavalry charges that will be seen in war. Outside of the movies, of course.

 

Italian cavalry, especially the "Savoia Cavalleria"regiment did some heroic and sucessfull charges at the eastern front, especially in the summer of 1942 in the Don area.
The one at Ibsucenkij was reportedly the last cavalry charge of the war.

 

That's very interesting. Does anyone have anything more on this unit and its actions? (especially the actions )

 

There were 2 italian cavalry regiments send to Russia in August 1941 with the CSIR(Corpo Spedizione Italiano in Russia)commanded by General Messe.
Both belonged to the division"Principe Amadeo Duca d'Aosta".The names of these regiments were"Sacoia Cavalleria" and "Lancieri di Novara".

In the summer of 1942, the two regiments participated in the german summer offensive.Their most important action was on 24 August 1942 at Ibsucenkij.
At this village, 650 men of the regiment"Savoia Cavalleria" charged against 2000 russian soldiers of 812 th Infantry regiment equipped with artillery, mortars and automatic weapons.
Despite the russian superiority, the italian charge was sucessfull, they conquered the village, killed 150 russians and captured over 300.they also captured 4 AT guns, several mortars and hundreds of individual weapons.
The"Savoia Cavalleria" lost 33 soldiers and 3 officers.Another 40 were wounded.Besides that they lost 150 horses.

Both regiments returned to Italy in 1943.

 

Interesting that they were sent home; I would have expected them to have had their horses taken and then deployed as infantry. Any idea how the ticket home happened?

 

As far as I know they were to be used against partisans in Yugoslavia, but Italy capitualted before they were deployed there.