Hi all. I was copying a movie from 1934 this morning. Walter Huston starred in "Keep 'em Rolling", a story, based on a factual history of the 16th Field Artillery during the First World War. In fact the movies used the services of the members of the 16th, stationed at Fort Myers in Virginia (I think - anyway it was near Washington DC). The story centered around the relationship between a sargeant, Benny Walsh and his horse, Rodney. The movie is pretty good, if dated, and is interesting in showing the field artillery of that era. The way the movie showed it, except for using field howitzers, the delivery system wasn't much different from that of the Civil War. So here's a question for the armor guys, when were the horses officially retired from the US Army as draft animals? The movie was made, as I said, in 1934 and the guys wrestling those field pieces around definately looked like they knew what they were doing. But I don't remember hearing about horses used during the Second World War.
Horse-drawn US Army Artillery
Mar 17, 2008
11 Replies
With the exception of mules in some theaters of war (Burma I think was one) the US Army had completely switched over to motorized drayage by the beginning of WWII. The last cavalry units were disbanded (as horse cavalry) in 1938-39.
The Germans still made massive use of horses and as a result had more problems than any of their opponents -- even the Soviets had mostly motorized their gun tractors by 1941 with the exception of cavalry brigades and other special purpose (e.g. mountain, cossacks) units.
Cookie Sewell
never read about american horses in ww2 but i sure have seen a lot sbout the russians and germans. apparently neither side produced satifactory amount of transport mechs, i've read estimates of 70% of german and 80+ were horses in their respective armys. also that mech stuff went to the "glamor ss" or elites soviet outfits. i have rad the germans lost over 300,000 horses in the first year if the invasion of russia. the polish had calvaru units and attacked panzers with the, brave, but foolhardy.
the german course i read said the sovs used far more than they did. i believe you over him, cookie.
i read german sources, so it would surprise me if i read biased sources.
Uh, yes and no. What I've read is that they were moving down a road after some infantry, rounded a curve and ran smack into an advancing panzer column. As far as American units go I've read there was some cavalry action against the Japanese in the Phillipines. It may have been a largely Filipino unit.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
wouldn't. i fixed one typo to create another.
'Would' or 'wouldn't'? Unfortunately I can't recall where I read that bit I typed out above. It may have been a "Military History" mag.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
I think there was a mountain division somewhere in Italy that used mules too. There was a history channel program on the group.
Sometime during my career, probably in the mid 1990s, I recall reading an article about the Army finally closing or ending the mule/ packhandler portion of the Jungle Warfare School in Panama.
This site has a history of US Army horse and mule use:
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Great site! It has the answers to most, if not all of my questions.
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