i lol’d at the pic with japs, the 2 random japs on the corner modeling for the picture. I remember a story where a US company ‘liberates’ around 50 german horses from the Germans. It was a fantastic funny story.
Either. It depended on the circumstances of the moment. When Patton made his grandsweep across France he had a Cavalry Group reporting directly to his HQ. In the case of the 14th Armored Cavalry Group in the Battle of the Bulge it started the battle under a Corps HQ.
The squadron or battalion was the primary unit and conformed to the standard organization. There were also Group HQ of company size. These were identified by the old regiment numbers and were often refered to as regiments. They commanded “Groups” (or regiments) of one or more cavalry squadrons. Other battalions or companys were often attached depending on the mission assigned to the Cavalry Group.
The corps and Army also had Groups or pools of engineer, artillery, tank, transport, tank destroyer, antiaircraft, ect… battalions and company that were independant of the divsions. These were used to reinforce the divsions, or to form independant Groups or Task Forces. The Armored Cavalry Group HQ were convient commands for basing these temporary task forces on. Sometimes infantry battalions were detached from divsions to fill out a Armored Cavalry Group for a task. The Combat Command HQ of the Armored Divsions were used the same way in the divsion. They did not have a formal organization, but were task organized as the divsion commader saw fit. Occasionally these HQ were detached from the division for the same purpose as a Armored Cavalry group.
Armored Divsions also had their own Cavlary Squadron similar to the independant squadron used to for the AC Group.
Thank you very much CS. That kind of information was just what I was asking for.
Could you clarify for me what ‘regiment’ means in a strict sense in WWII US Army usage, as distinct from the less strict US and other English-speaking usage meaning units of various sizes with a particular identity?
I understood a US infantry regiment to be equivalent to a brigade in English or Australian usage, being on a triangular basis three infantry battalions with three infantry brigades forming a division.
Regiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment
Commonwealth armies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment#Commonwealth_armies
U.S. Army Combat Arms Regimental System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Arms_Regimental_System
Organization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Arms_Regimental_System#Organization
Difference between a brigade and a regiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Arms_Regimental_System#Difference_between_a_brigade_and_a_regiment
In a regiment not organized under CARS, there is a fixed number of organic elements organized into battalions or squadrons. For example, the infantry regiment of World War II contained Companies A through M divided into three battalions, plus supporting elements such as the service company.
A brigade, on the other hand, is a flexible organization; it has no organic (permanently assigned) elements. A brigade may have several different kinds of units attached to it, such as three infantry battalions, a cavalry troop, an engineer company, and other supporting units.
In tactical structure, therefore, it is very similar to the Regimental Combat Team of World War II and Korean War. Its maneuver (infantry and armor) elements were not required to be from the same regiment. Since they were flexible, except for the headquarters and headquarters company, no two brigades need be alike, whereas all regiments were fixed with organic elements provided for under basic tables of organization and equipment.
Regimental combat team
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regimental_Combat_Team
A regimental combat team was a provisional major infantry unit of the United States Army during the Second World War and Korean War. The regimental combat team, or “R.C.T.”, was formed by augmenting a regular infantry regiment with smaller tank, artillery, combat engineer, mechanized cavalry, reconnaissance, signal, air defense, quartermaster, military police, medical, and other support units to enable it to be a self-supporting organization in combat.
World War II
World War II RCTs were generally of two types: (1) temporary organizations configured for the accomplishment of a specific mission or series of missions, and (2) semi-permanent organizations designed to be deployed as a unit throughout a combat theater. An example of the latter is the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.Regimental combat teams combined the high cohesion of traditional regimental organization with the flexibility of tailored reinforcements to accomplish any given mission. Believing that future battlefields would be dominated by tactical nuclear weapons, the U.S. Army broke up its infantry regiments in the mid-1950s and formed battlegroups, four or five of which composed a Pentomic infantry division. Although the Pentomic structure was deemed a failure, reorganizations in the 1960s (ROAD) replaced the infantry regimental combat teams with brigade combat teams that were modeled after the World War II combat commands employed by U.S. armored divisions. As a consequence, infantry battalions that were formerly grouped into regiments were scattered among the new brigades with a consequent loss of unit cohesiveness and unnecessary complication of unit traditions that related both to the old parent regiments and to the new brigades.
Yes, the retention of the same battalions in each infantry regiment and the retention of the same regiments in each divsions was consistent. The infantry regiment also had a cannon company with six howitzers and a AT company with twelve light AT guns, which were seldom detached to other units. Occasionally a battalion or company would be temporarily moved to another unit for reinforcing a special mission task force. But that was the exception. The converse was not true. Companys from the independant battalions, or the entire battalion were often attached to the infantry regiment. These were usually tanks or tank destroyers and engineers. Less often artillery might be directly attached, or anti aircraft and armored cavalry. In those rarer cases it was because the infantry regiment was assigned a mission seperate from the divsion as a whole.
Regiments were dropped as a offcial designation and organization for all independant units outside the divsion, other than some independant infantry regiments. This occured between 1939 & 1943. The field artillery disolved the last of its heavy or corps regiments in early 1943. The battalions were reorganized slightly for this and the old regiment HQ were reorganized to act as either Group or brigade HQ. The Group could be any size and composition, vs the set TO & E of the old artillery or engineer regiments.
What vehicles were used in Cavalry Groups and Recon squadrons?
Greyhounds, Stuarts and Chaffees?
All of the above and more. Some units had Tank Destroyers and mobile artillery.
Yes, I understood that from earlier responses.
TDs: Wolverines, Hellcats and M36 (forgot its’ nickname)?
SPAs: Priests?
Were supporting units self propelled or towed? (Motorised units preferred for mobility?)
I’m sure there were Priests.
Link to the 87th Armoured Field artillery website, which is excellent. It has a picture of a Priest on the front.
The M-36’s nickname was “The Slugger.” It’s official designation was the “Jackson.”
I find the Name of “Slugger” and Jackson attached to the M-36, and lets not forget the great origins of American Cavalry,
The TO/TE changed during the war. Circa 1943 the squadron had three troops of a mix of armored infantry and armored cars. Twelve armored cars and eight M3 halftracks in each troop. The infantry included 60mm mortars. A troop of 17 light tanks and a cannon troop of six halftracks with 75mm howitzers filled out the fire power. Including the HQ troop the unit totaled about 800 men.
In 1944 M4 medium tanks were added in & the M7 SP were replacing the 75mm cannon/halftrack combination.
I’ll have to check to see if any Tank Destroyers were a offcial part of the TO/TE. The Group often had a company or battalion of TD attached, which were usually distributed amoung the squadrons and troops.
There seem to be some slight differences between the armored cavalry squadrons of the armored cavalry groups or regiments and those that were part of the armored divsion.
And people made fun of the Germans for using pack animals in the invasion of the Soviet Union…they had their uses.
Particularly since German industry, even after the conquests were exploited, could not build enough trucks. Even in 1943 & 1944 roughly 75% of the German artillery was horse drawn. France had a much better ratio in 1940 of 60%, and that was with a larger artillery arm. To have replaced all the horses required would have meant another quarter million trucks minimum for Op. Barbarosa.
The Germans were lucky the European farms could supply the necessary horses. Another decade of farm industrialization and they might have been pulling thei cannon with requisitioned farm tractors:(
The 1st Cavalry Division Still have a garrisoned mounted cavalry company for parade duty at Ft Hood,Tx
As for the Picture heck its much easier to ride than walk…
Cavalry Gunner :rolleyes:
Ft Sill kept a horse drawn half section, with a old French 75 gun, for the same purpose. They’d gallop out and fire a salute for parades. Retiring Generals called it their execution squad.
interesting i never knew this