German cavalry units in World War II, though secondary to the Wehrmacht’s emphasis on mechanized and armored forces, retained importance especially on the Eastern Front due to challenging terrain, fuel shortages, and the need for mobile reconnaissance and security forces in areas unsuited to vehicles. Prior to and at the start of the conflict, most of the army’s 18 pre-war cavalry regiments were disbanded or converted into bicycle and reconnaissance battalions integrated into infantry divisions, leaving only the 1. Kavallerie-Brigade which was expanded in October 1939 into the 1. Kavallerie-Division; this formation, consisting of multiple Reiter-Regimenter along with horse artillery and support elements, participated in the Invasion of Poland, the Battle of France where it advanced through the Netherlands and Belgium into central France, and Operation Barbarossa in the central sector before growing to six regiments and being converted into the 24. Panzer-Division in late 1941. Across the entire war the German Army depended overwhelmingly on horses for logistics, employing a total of approximately 2.75 million horses and mules to pull artillery, supply wagons, and sustain infantry divisions, with an average of over one million animals in service at any time and each infantry division often relying on thousands for its trains. Dedicated cavalry formations saw a resurgence in the Waffen-SS starting with the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade raised in 1940–1941 for rear-area security and "Bandenbekämpfung" anti-partisan operations in the occupied Soviet Union, particularly in the Pripet Marshes, before being reorganized in 1942 into the 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division “Florian Geyer” which conducted extensive security duties, scorched-earth withdrawals, and combat support until its destruction in the Siege of Budapest in early 1945; this was supplemented by the 22. SS-Kavallerie-Division “Maria Theresia” raised from Hungarian Volksdeutsche volunteers. In the Heer a parallel revival occurred from 1943 onward when three independent cavalry regiments—Kavallerie-Regiment Nord, Mitte, and Süd—were formed under Army Group Center for reconnaissance, screening, and anti-partisan roles, later reorganized in 1944 into the 3. Kavallerie-Brigade and 4. Kavallerie-Brigade, each typically built around two two-battalion Reiter-Regimenter and reinforced with limited armored cars or assault guns; these brigades were upgraded to full divisions in February 1945 and operated within the I. Kavallerie-Korps alongside the Hungarian 1. Kavallerie-Division, seeing heavy defensive fighting such as repelling Soviet breakthroughs between the Bug and Narew rivers. Foreign auxiliaries further augmented German cavalry strength, notably the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division formed in 1943 from Soviet defectors and later expanded into the XV. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps. By early 1945 German and SS cavalry had reached a wartime peak of six divisions plus supporting corps headquarters, participating in final offensives such as the Lake Balaton operation before the remnants retreated into Austria and surrendered, often still accompanied by thousands of horses.
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HEER
Generaloberst
Eberhard von Mackensen (1889-1969) was born on 24 September 1889 in
Bromberg, Kingdom of Prussia, the fourth of five children of
Generalfeldmarschall August von Mackensen, and entered the Imperial
German Army on 1 October 1908 as a Fahnenjunker in the XVII. Armee-Korps
in Danzig, receiving his commission as Leutnant on 22 March 1910; at
the outbreak of the First World War he served as Regimentsadjutant in
the 1. Leib-Husaren-Regiment Nr. 1, was promoted to Oberleutnant on 25
February 1915, suffered a severe wound on 23 August 1915 that led to his
transfer as Ordonnanzoffizier to the Generalstab of Heeresgruppe
Scholtz, and ended the war as Hauptmann (promoted 20 May 1917) on the
Balkan front, earning both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz. After the
armistice he briefly served with a Freikorps in the Baltic states before
joining the Reichswehr, commanding a squadron of the 5. (Preußisches)
Reiter-Regiment in Belgard, rising through staff positions including the
Heerestransportabteilung and the Stab of the 1. Kavallerie-Division,
becoming Major in 1928, Oberstleutnant in 1932, Oberst in 1934, Chef des
Stabes of the Kavallerieinspektion and later of the X. Armeekorps,
Kommandeur of the 1. Kavalleriebrigade in Insterburg, and Generalmajor
on 1 January 1938 before serving as Chef des Generalstabes of
Heeresgruppenkommando V under Wilhelm List in Vienna. At the start of
the Second World War he was Chef des Stabes of the 14. Armee during the
invasion of Poland and later of the 12. Armee in the Battle of France,
receiving promotion to Generalleutnant on 1 January 1940 and to General
der Kavallerie on 1 August 1940; appointed Kommandierender General of
the III. Armeekorps (mot.) on 15 January 1941 within Panzergruppe 1 of
Heeresgruppe Süd, he led his corps with distinction during the opening
phase of Operation Barbarossa, breaking Soviet resistance near
Wladimir-Wolynsk, fighting the tank battle west of Zalurce, advancing
through Luck and Festung Rowno, crossing the Horyn, penetrating the
Stalin Line, and capturing Zhitomir, for which he was awarded the
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 27 July 1941. In the Second Battle
of Kharkov his III. Panzerkorps formed the southern pincer of the German
encirclement, linking up with the 6. Armee south of Balakleja on 22 May
1942 and contributing to the annihilation of the Soviet 6th and 57th
Armies, earning him the Eichenlaub (95th award) on 26 May 1942;
he subsequently commanded the 1. Panzerarmee from November 1942
(including the Third Battle of Kharkov), was promoted to Generaloberst
on 6 July 1943, and from November 1943 led the 14. Armee in Italy until
relieved in the summer of 1944 after the Allied breakthrough of the
Gustav Line during Operation Diadem. After the war he was tried by a
British military court in Rome for his role as superior of the military
commandant of Rome in connection with the Ardeatine Caves massacre of
335 Italian civilians on 24 March 1944, sentenced to death on 30
November 1946 (later commuted to 21 years), released on 2 October 1952,
and lived quietly near Nortorf until his death on 19 May 1969 in
Neumünster.
Generalleutnant
Helmuth von Pannwitz (1898-1947) was born on 14 October 1898 into a
family of Prussian nobility on his father's estate at Botzanowitz in
Silesia, near the then German-Russian border. At the age of twelve he
entered the Prussian cadet school at Wahlstatt and later the main cadet
school at Lichterfelde, joining the Imperial German Army as a volunteer
with the 1. Ulanen-Regiment upon the outbreak of the First World War and
being promoted to Leutnant at sixteen while earning both classes of the
Eisernes Kreuz for bravery. After the war he fought in Freikorps units
in Silesia, lived for a time in Poland as a farm administrator, returned
to Germany under amnesty in 1931, served briefly in the SA, and
rejoined the army in 1935 as Rittmeister in Reiter-Regiment 2 before
transfer as Major to Kavallerie-Regiment 11. At the start of the Second
World War he commanded Aufklärungs-Abteilung 45 of the 45.
Infanterie-Division in the Polish and French campaigns. On 4 September
1941, as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur of that Abteilung, he received
the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes for actions in the Pripet Marshes
during the opening month of Operation Barbarossa, when his
Vorausabteilung secured Pinsk on 4 July, thrust into the
Dawidgrodek-Turow area near Olszany on 8 July against strong Soviet
forces, and launched a lightning attack around Olszany that rescued
hard-pressed German troops east of the canal while preparing the
division's subsequent advance to seize the territory between the
Mostwa/Stwiga and the Pripet. Promoted to Oberst, he later formed and
led the improvised Reiter-Verband von Pannwitz (also called Kampfgruppe
Pannwitz) under 4. Panzer-Armee of Heeresgruppe Don, consisting of
Panzer-Abteilung Sauvant, a Romanian cavalry brigade, Romanian heavy
artillery, German alarm units, Cossacks and Flak. In November 1942
northeast of Kotelnikowo near Scharnutowskij this force annihilated the
Soviet 61st Cavalry Division, then destroyed the 81st Cavalry Division
near Kotelnikowo itself and a Soviet rifle division near Pimen
Tscherni/Nebykow, thereby stabilizing the front in that sector and
earning him the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 23 December 1942
as the 167th recipient. Thereafter he organized the Cossack volunteer
formations that became the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division and eventually
the XV. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps, which he commanded as Generalleutnant
and later SS-Gruppenführer while being elected Feldataman by the
Cossacks. He surrendered with his corps to British forces in Austria in
May 1945, voluntarily accompanied his men into Soviet custody despite
being exempt as a German national, and was tried in Moscow, sentenced to
death and hanged in Lefortovo Prison on 16 January 1947.
Oberst
Georg Freiherr von Boeselager (1915-1944) was a German nobleman and
Wehrmacht cavalry officer born on 25 August 1915 near Kassel who was
killed in action on 27 August 1944 near Łomża in German-occupied Poland
at the age of 29. As Oberleutnant and Chef of the
1./Divisions-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 6 he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des
Eisernen Kreuzes on 18 January 1941 for his actions during the Battle of
France, when on 9 June 1940 he and a small group of men from his
Schwadron swam across the Seine near Les Andelys to establish a
bridgehead on the far bank which he then expanded by seizing the village
of Villers, and on 16 June 1940 he led his Schwadron in a decisive
flank attack that captured a French battery impeding the advance of the
Vorausabteilung. Promoted to Rittmeister, he received the Eichenlaub zum
Ritterkreuz on 31 December 1941 for his outstanding performance during
Operation Barbarossa, most notably on 4 October 1941 when his Schwadron
together with attached bicycle elements ruthlessly advanced to capture
the locality of Komarj and secured a bridgehead over the Lebasmuna
stream, thereby blocking the Bjeloj-Cholm road and obstructing the
Soviet withdrawal route from the Bjeloj area toward the Dnieper
positions, in addition to his consistent excellence in reconnaissance
and river crossings earlier in the campaign. As Oberstleutnant and
Führer of the 3. Kavallerie-Brigade he was posthumously awarded the
Schwerter zum Ritterkreuz on 28 November 1944 for the brigade’s
distinguished success in the heavy defensive fighting between the Bug
and Narew rivers during August 1944, where it excelled through
relentless attack momentum and hardness under his leadership at the
front; he met his death while personally leading an assault against a
heavily fortified Soviet position near Łomża on the Narew River.
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WAFFEN-SS
SS-Gruppenführer
Hermann Fegelein (1906-1945) was born on 30 October 1906 in Ansbach and
began his career in 1925 with the Reiter-Regiment 17 before joining the
Bavarian State Police and transferring to the SS in 1933, rising
rapidly through equestrian units to command the Haupt-Reitschule München
and later the SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte, which evolved into the
SS-Kavallerie-Brigade deployed on the Eastern Front. As
SS-Standartenführer and Führer of the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade under the
XXIII. Armee-Korps of the 9. Armee in Heeresgruppe Mitte, he received
the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 2 March 1942 for his leadership
in the fighting around Rzhev, where from late January 1942 the brigade
held a sector against breakthroughs, then on 5 February attacked and
captured the road junction and station at Tschertolino against superior
forces, followed by a night assault on 9 February that destroyed an
enemy group of over 1,800 men, and the seizure of Jersowo on 14 February
that enabled the final annihilation of the encircled Soviet forces
southwest of Rzhev. In December 1942, as SS-Oberführer commanding
Kampfgruppe Fegelein in the great bend of the Don with Heeresgruppe B,
he earned the Eichenlaub on 22 December after launching a personal
counterthrust with staff elements and Sturmgeschütze against a Soviet
penetration into a gap in his lines, defeating the attackers in close
combat, sealing the breach, and on a reconnaissance thrust capturing a
Russian corps headquarters including its commanding general, chief of
staff, and operations documents, though he was twice wounded by snipers
on 21 and 22 December. Appointed commander of the 8.
SS-Kavallerie-Division “Florian Geyer” in May 1943 and promoted to
SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS, then later
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS, Fegelein received
the Schwerter on 30 July 1944 for the division’s successes near
Orel, extensive anti-partisan operations in the Pripet Marshes during
summer 1943 including Operations Weichsel, Zeithen and Seydlitz, and
defensive fighting south of Kharkov in late summer 1943, where between
26 August and 15 September the division repulsed five assaults of divisional
strength and about eighty-five of battalion strength, notably around
Bespalowka and Bol’shaya Gomol’sha. After severe wounds in September
1943 he became Waffen-SS liaison officer at the Führerhauptquartier,
married Gretl Braun on 3 June 1944, was lightly wounded in the 20 July
bomb plot, and on 28 April 1945 was arrested in civilian clothes in
Berlin, court-martialed for desertion, and executed by firing squad in
the garden of the Reichskanzlei.
Source :
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/wwii-german-cavalry-horses-of-the-blitz/
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