On the eve of America’s entry into the war, there were 23 cavalry regiments on active service. Only two of these were mechanized (i.e. armoured reconnaissance units, another was being fully mechanized), nine were horse-mechanized and twelve were still mounted.
Cavalry regiments in the US Army were indeed regimental strength units, unlike in many European armies, where the traditional term “regiment” for cavalry and armored units only referred to battalion strength units. A “Mounted Cavalry Regiment” of the US Army in the late 1930s was a formidable unit at full war strength (78 officers, one deputy officer, 1,608 non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, 1,812 horses): in fact, however, only the 26th Cavalry saw combat duty in this organizational form during the Second World War. At peacetime strength, a “Mounted Cavalry Regiment” with just under 800 men was only battalion-sized. Although there were no anti-tank guns and only two mortars, the proportion of machine guns was enormous: the Machine Gun Troop had twelve water-cooled M1917A1 machine guns (caliber .30-06), plus four heavy M2 machine guns (caliber .50), as well as the two mortars mentioned above (caliber 60 mm). The supply parts of the cavalry regiment were motorized; unlike most European cavalry units, field kitchens, ambulances, field smithies and supply wagons were not manned but motorized. According to army regulations, the last motorized wagon of a US cavalry regiment was the canteen wagon.
In addition to the staff and supply units in the staff company, the regiment had a scout platoon with six White M1 scout cars, as well as a number of trucks and off-road or commercially available cars. Such a regiment had two squadrons of 404 men each, each squadron (each commanded by a lieutenant-colonel) consisted of a leadership group of only eight men and three rifle troops. Each troop (each commanded by a captain) had a 16-man lead group, a light machine gun platoon with three air-cooled M1919A2 machine guns (caliber .30-06) and three rifle platoons. A Rifle Platoon (commanded by a Lieutenant) had a five-man lead group and three eight-man squads, each commanded by a Corporal. Each man in the Rifle Platoon was armed with a Garand rifle and a Colt Government M1911 pistol (caliber .45 ACP), except for the Lieutenant, who had only one pistol. Each squad consisted of two four-man sub-squads: Scout, Leader, Horseholder, Rifleman. When dismounted, the horseholder held the horses, while the other three members of the team took an infantry approach. When mounted, the attack was made at a gallop or stretched gallop, opening fire with the pistol at 25 yards (in accordance with army regulations). The sabre had been removed from the inventory in 1934. Officers were entitled to a second horse. The price paid for the purchase of a cavalry horse was between 100 and 150 US dollars (the purchase was made by a special procurement agency, the “US Army Remount Service”, which also maintained its own breeding program). Around 90 percent of the cavalry horses were Thoroughbreds or Half-Thoroughbreds, other breeds such as Arabians or Morgans were only sparsely represented.
However, it was not only the horses that distinguished a cavalry regiment from an infantry regiment. When many cavalry regiments were reorganized as infantry units during the war or nominally remained as cavalry but were deployed as infantry, many organizational changes had to be made. For example, the troopers of the Cavalry (although equipped with the standard Garand infantry rifle) did not have bayonets. Infantry units had much greater firepower, mainly because each infantry rifle squad had a BAR (“Browning Automatic Rifle”), which the cavalry had not had before. Between 1943 and 1945 there was a plethora of directives concerning the issue of additional weapons and the increase in manpower, probably no unit of the US Cavalry was up to date with the latest command situation. One could ask why the infantry units of the US Cavalry were not simply organized like infantry: presumably they were too attached to old traditions. A comparison of manpower levels (1943/44) between Cavalry and Infantry makes this clear:
| Cavalry | Infantry |
| Squad: 8 | Squad: 12 |
| Platoon: 32 | Platoon: 41 |
| Troop: 165 | Company: 193 |
| Squadron: 521 | Battalion: 894 |
| Regiment: 1,726 | Regiment: 3,207 |
During the Second World War, when the1st Cavalry Division and the 112th Cavalry Regiment fought as “dismounted cavalry”, i.e. infantry, in the Pacific theater of war, the reduced manpower was noticeable despite the reinforcement by Paks, scout vehicles and mortars. Consequently, both cavalry units were infantry-organized in July 1945 (when they were planned for an invasion of the Japanese mainland), although their regiments still lacked the third squadron/battalion. https://militaeraktuell.at/der-legendaere-daimler-scout-car/ Compared to the mounted regiments, a “Horse-Mechanized” regiment of the US Cavalry had greater firepower and a certain anti-tank capability. The Horse-Mechanized regiments (one for each army corps) were created with the transfer of the National Guard regiments in the spring of 1941: 4 th and 6 th Cavalry (Regular Army); 101 st Cavalry, New York National Guard; 102 nd Cavalry, New Jersey National Guard; 104 th Cavalry, Pennsylvania National Guard; 106 th Cavalry, Illinois National Guard; 107 th Cavalry, Ohio National Guard; 113 th Cavalry, Iowa National Guard; 115 th Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard; A “Horse-Mechanized” regiment of the U.S. Cavalry consisted of the regimental staff, the headquarters troop, the service troop and two squadrons:1st Rifle Squadron (Horse) with Troops A, B and C; and the2nd Reconnaissance Squadron with Troops D and E (scout cars) and Troop F (motorcycles, mostly Harley-Davidson WLA). These regiments were heavily armed: 110 .30-06 caliber machine guns and 32 .50 caliber machine guns (not including the armament of the armored cars). Of the 1,524 men in a regiment, according to the TO&E, 175 men (mostly the Kradmelder) had a Thompson submachine gun, 541 men a Garand M1 rifle. In true cavalry tradition, all troopers carried a .45 Colt Government pistol.
Horse-Mechanized Regiment according to the TO&E of 1940:
HQ and Band: 36 men; Headquarters Troop: 171 men, 17 scout cars, six 37 mm PAKs, 21 motorcycles (including sidecar bikes), 14 cars & trucks; Service Troop: 222 men, three scout cars, 123 bikes (including sidecar bikes), 39 cars & trucks, 74 horse transporters (tractors and trailers); Horse Squadron: 530 men, 494 riding horses, 51 pack horses; Mechanized Squadron: 565 men, 48 scout cars, 19 trucks, 123 bikes (including sidecar bikes),
Detached:
Medical Detachment: 60 men, two ambulances, two sidecar bikes, two pack horses, three horse transporters. The tractor unit of the horse transporter was the “Truck, 2½-ton, 4×4, Tractor, COE”. COE stood for “Cabin Over Engine”, the model was a GMC AFKX-502-8E, the four-wheel drive version of a civilian vehicle type. However, not all “Horse-Mechanized” regiments could be equipped with this vehicle, as production could not keep up. The development of the “Horse-Mechanized Regiments” was inspired by European developments; the US Cavalry’s decision to introduce battalions with armoured cars into the cavalry caused quite a stir. In principle, the Polish cavalry regiments that bled to death during the German Wehrmacht attack in 1939 were also “horse-mechanized”. “Horse-Mechanized” was the diplomatic term for a troop that was neither fish nor fowl; the characteristic vehicle was the horse transporter: a tractor with a six-ton trailer for eight horses, eight riders and their equipment. This allowed the cavalry to be transported quickly to the deployment area by road, at least in theory. However, this was a tactical dead end. The large maneuvers in 1940 and 1941 showed that the large horse transporters in particular were difficult to handle: they were almost impossible to camouflage, road-bound and unwieldy. Armored cars were already part of the equipment in the 1930s. These were used by the “Horse-Mechanized Cavalry”, the fully mechanized units and the purely mounted units (as already mentioned, however, only in small numbers). An Armoured Car was defined as “an armed and armoured wheeled motor vehicle designed primarily for reconnaissance”. https://militaeraktuell.at/kanadische-brueder-c15t-und-otter-light-reconnaissance-car/ Between 1938 and 1940, the designation changed from Armoured Car to Scout Car. The scout cars were intended to carry out reconnaissance and only engage in combat operations in emergencies, with combat missions being reserved for riders. Accordingly, they were not armored scout cars with on-board cannons and machine guns in the turret, no, they were lightly armored personnel carriers with an open-top fighting compartment. However, this corresponded to the requirements of the cooperation between riders and scout cars: communication was easy – verbally, by dispatch note or with a set of flags. It was easy to pick up the wounded and hand out ammunition and water to the riders. Messages could also be transmitted over long distances quite easily: by carrier pigeon. The M1/M2/M3 scout cars were also quite suitable as towing vehicles for various trailers, and the M2 was actually designed as a towing vehicle. The Scout Cars met the tactical requirements of a bygone era. But the tactical concept was long outdated. Even the idea that the Scout Cars should be reserved for pure reconnaissance missions was pure wishful thinking.
Even for the Mechanized Cavalry, when the Armoured Force was established in 1940, reconnaissance was the only task – at least in theory. When the missions carried out were examined after the end of the war, it turned out that real reconnaissance missions had only been part of the missions carried out (and not even the largest). The M3A1 White Scout Car, the last in the line of scout cars for the cavalry, would remain in service long after the US Cavalry was fully motorized and see worldwide service in a variety of roles. However, this was due more to its versatility than to its suitability as an armored scout car, which was rather mediocre. The first “Mechanized Cavalry Regiment” had already been set up in 1932/33, the1st Cavalry Regiment at Fort Knox had switched to light tanks and armoured reconnaissance vehicles. However, the further development of mechanization was very slow. In June 1940, it became clear that the regiments of the7th Cavalry Brigade at Fort Knox were so different from the other cavalry regiments that the then Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, ordered that they and their accompanying infantry units should become the starting point for the newly formed “Armored Force”.
Literature reference: Ollesch, Detlef et al: “The US Cavalry in the Second World War; Organization, Operations, Equipment“; Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2015.
