THE HORSE IN THE GERMAN ARMY IN WWII
A common sight: Light field wagons (IF 1) being towed behind a prime mover. Note, unusually, the unit insignia on the rear one showing they belong to an artillery regiment.
The general utility of the horse in warfare began to decline in the mid-nineteenth century. The introduction of the rifle and then the machine gun made using horses on the battlefield highly dangerous. World War I, with its endless lines of trenches, doomed the cavalry as an effective tactical arm forever. But the horse still soldiered on in a number of ways, most notably for transport purposes. Horses actually saw more service during the Second World War than during the First. Indeed, despite the popular image of Polish lancers futilely charging German tanks (which never took place outside of the imagination of the German propaganda ministry), the horse cavalry made something of a comeback during the war, albeit not in its traditional roles. So unexpected was this development that it caught most armies by surprise. The German Army, for example, began World War II with one cavalry division. This performed profitably during the Polish and French campaigns but was converted into the 24th Panzer Division early in the Russian campaign. Soon afterward, the peculiar circumstances of the Russian front prompted the Germans to raise new mounted formations, which were found particularly effective in antipartisan operations and raids, notably in the frequent dense forests of western Russia. By the end of the war the Germans had seven horse cavalry divisions, mostly in the Waffen SS, largely comprised of non-German personnel, mostly Ukrainians and various Central Asians who preferred to fight against Stalin rather than for him.
Consider the vaunted Wehrmacht, whose pride was the mechanized might of the panzers. When Hitler invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, the German Army had over 750,000 “hippotrain” (horse-drawn) guns and other vehicles, in contrast to only about 600,000 motor vehicles, including some 3,500 armored fighting vehicles. Aside from the operational limitations that the use of horses and mules imposed on the German Army, they also proved an enormous logistical burden. On average, to feed three horses doing useful work hauling howitzers and such required the services of two more horses to haul their weekly rations of feed and fodder. And since horses and mules are not as sturdy as cars and trucks, during the war on the Eastern front the German Army lost an average of 1,000 horses a day. About 75 percent of these losses were due to combat, 17 percent to heart failure brought on by overwork, and the balance, 8 percent, to diseases, exposure, and starvation. Replacing horses was a major problem. Nevertheless, since the Germans had an inadequate supply of motor vehicles, they continued to rely on horseflesh through the entire war. The total number of horses used by the German armed forces during the war is unknown, but losses appear to have totaled about 2.7 million, nearly double the 1.4 million that were lost in World War I. This includes animals killed for food: Unlike wrecked trucks, dead horses could be eaten, and this was done regularly by Germans and Russians alike.
CAVALRY DIVISIONS (KAVALLERIE DIVISIONEN)
The position regarding German cavalry (ie genuine mounted troops) is not entirely clear since it was very little used in the West and, hence, there is little Intelligence information. At the outbreak of war there were in existence the four Leichte Divisionen with their mounted rifle regiments and also 1st Cavalry Brigade. This unit after participating in the Polish campaign attached to a Panzer group, was raised to divisional status in time for the 1940 French campaign. As a partly mechanised mobile Division it then fought in Russia until the end of 1941 when it was converted into 24th Panzer Division.
It would appear, however, that there were always cavalry units operating on the Russian front after 1941. Certainly the Waffen SS had their SS Cavalry Division (the SS Division Florian Geyer), with mounted infantry Regiments, and mounted regiments were operating as autonomous units with the army during 1942 and 1943. In May 1943 six regiments were combined to form the Army Kosaken Division (Cossack Division) patterned after the Russian cavalry and having largely horse-drawn support units roughly equivalent to those in a mountain division but without anti-tank protection. This was a true cavalry Division and operated as such until it was taken over by the SS at the end of 1944 and split up to form the nucleus of XV SS Kavallerie Korps (2 Divisions); these two appear to have been organised similarly to mobile infantry divisions so far as the war situation allowed. For a period, until it was annihilated there was also a Hungarian Cavalry Division in the order of battle. The cavalry units taken to form Kosaken division were obviously missed since, by February 1944, at least three strong cavalry regiments were operating with Army Group Centre. Between February and May 1944 these were organised into the basis of 3 and 4 Kavallerie Brigaden each composed of two, two battalion regiments with strong and partly motorised supporting units. These were obviously a means of providing mobile striking forces under Russian conditions where the horse had advantages even over motor transport at times, and were mounted infantry rather than true cavalry. With the ‘loss’ of Kosaken Division they were both upgraded to Divisional status from the end of February 1945 by the addition of appropriate Divisional services units. At the war’s end there were two army and four SS Cavalry Divisions officially in the field with a fifth SS one forming.
Horse-drawn Transport
German Divisional horse-drawn transport was designed to be as efficient as such vehicles could be. It was issued both to Infantry Divisions and to infantry corps supply columns on a definite scale and can be divided into two major types: battle transport (Gefechtstross) and support or supply transport.
The battle transport, issued to infantry formations down to platoon level, was intended for carriage of ready-to-use supplies and heavy weapons. The intended vehicles were modern, light and often steel-bodied. Mounted on pneumatic tyres, they comprised two-horse wagons (usually the Hf 7 or Stahlfeldwagen – Steel fieldcart – and various patterns of one and two-horse limber and trailer units. The most common were the If 8 Infanteriekarren, small load carriers with tarpaulin covers and capable of taking an AA machine gun mounting; and the two-horse MG Wagen 36 with its communications variants. These were true limbers carrying 2-3 men and coupled to two wheeled caissons containing guns, tripods and ammunition, or other equipment; they were issued to the heavy-machine gun sections using MG 34s and MG 42s. Typical allocations to a 1944 pattern infantry rifle company were: HQ one If8; each rifle Zug two If8; heavy machine gun Staffel one Hf7 and two If8.
The support vehicles were often of more archaic pattern dating back in some cases to WW I and included the very widely used Hf I light field cart, a wooden vehicle pulled by two horses and various limber and trailer combinations
