World War Two Cavalry Bibliography

Pat Holscher · Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:04 pm

So much good stuff has been listed on the Punitive Expedition bibliography that I thought it might be interesting to have another list on cavalry in WWII.

Pat

Camp Little · Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:29 pm

The following are mainly textbooks and Field Manuals from the 30's into WWII, but I'm also including some Autobiographies by a couple of old Cavalrymen who transitioned into "the Modern Army" during the war.

Tactics and Technique of Cavalry, 5th Edition, The Military Service Publishing Company, 1934

Horsemanship and Horsemastership, Parts One through Five, The Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1935

Cavalry Combat, United States Cavalry Association, 1937

The ROTC Manual, Cavalry, Basic-Vol. I & II, Military Service Publishing Co., 1941

The ROTC Manual, Cavalry, Adv.-Vols. III & IV, Military Service Publishing Co., 1940

Cavalry Field Manual 2-5, Cavalry Drill Regulations, 1944

Cavalry Field Manual Vol. II, Mechanized Cavalry, 1938

T/O & E 2-10-1 Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, Cavalry Brigade, Horse, 1944

Cavalry Field manual 2-15, Employment of Cavalry, 1940

Basic Field Manual 21-15, Equipment, Clothing, and Tent Pitching, 1940

Basic Field Manual 25-5, Animal Transport, 1939

Technical Manual 10-430, The Saddler, 1942

He's in the Cavalry Now by Brigadier General Rufus Ramey, 1944

Twilight of the US Cavalry-Life in the Old Army, 1917-1942 by Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., University Press of Kansas, 1989

Combat Commander by Maj. General E.N. Harmon, Prentice-Hall Inc, 1970

selewis · Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:10 pm

Thanks for leaving me an easy good one; or is it that no one can remember how to spell Piekalkiewicz (?), Janus: 'The Cavalry of World War II', Stein And Day, New York, 1980. Translated from the German. 50/50 pictures and text. Interesting commentary accompanying photos.

Pat Holscher · Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:23 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by selewis
 Thanks for leaving me an easy good one; or is it that no one can remember how to spell Piekalkiewicz (?), Janus: 'The Cavalry of World War II', Stein And Day, New York, 1980. Translated from the German. 50/50 pictures and text. Interesting commentary accompanying photos.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I wish somebody would come out with a new book of this type. The translation is spotty, and the book isn't really complete. It's a necessary reference, but as a pioneering work, it can't be the last word. Unfortunately, there aren't any books that follow on it, as a one volume proposition.

Pat

Pat Holscher · Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:24 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Camp Little
 Cavalry Combat, United States Cavalry Association, 1937
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Steve, is this the book that analyzes various WWI cavalry actions or a different one?

Pat

Pat Holscher · Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:27 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Pat Holscher
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Camp Little
 Cavalry Combat, United States Cavalry Association, 1937
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Steve, is this the book that analyzes various WWI cavalry actions or a different one?

Pat
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I see where my question was already answered in the WWI thread. I'd forgotten that mechanization was breifly addressed at the end of this book.

This book makes for a pretty entertaining read.

Pat

Camp Little · Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:41 pm

I probably should have included it in the WWI posting, but given it was published in 1937, I figured it represented the mindset guiding the Army at the dawn of WWII.

Steve

Pat Holscher · Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:53 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Camp Little
 I probably should have included it in the WWI posting, but given it was published in 1937, I figured it represented the mindset guiding the Army at the dawn of WWII.

Steve
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Steve, you did include it in the WWI list as well. As it is a treatise put out right before WWII, it does give a good look at what the Army thought was important at that time.

Pat

Pat Holscher · Sat Feb 19, 2005 12:06 pm

Axis Cavalry in World War II. Dr. Jeffrey T. Fowler, Illustrated by Mike Chappell. Men at Arms number 361, Osprey Publishing. 2001. A short nice synopis of Axis European cavalry. Japanese cavalry, which would be Axis cavalry, is not discussed.

Pat

Pat Holscher · Sat Feb 19, 2005 12:08 pm

From the pdf texts section of this forum:

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Pat Holscher
 German Cavalry In WWII.

This is a post war report by the U.S. Army.

German Cavalry In WWII

Pat
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Pat

deddygetty · Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:46 am

SECOND UNITED STATES CAVALRY -- A HISTORY
THE GHOSTS OF PATTON'S THIRD ARMY
Historical Section, Second Cavalry Association, A.L. Lambert, Maj. Cav; G.B. Layton, Maj. Cav. Munchner Graphische Kunstanstalten GMBH, Munich, Germany, 1947.

Sam Cox · Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:49 pm

Marsmen in Burma by J Randolph

Sam Cox

Paul E. Hanson · Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:55 pm

Horse Soldiers Vol. IV - Randy Steffen
Longknives - The U.S. Cavalry and other Mounted Forces 1845-1942; GI Series #3, Greenhill Publ.
Cavalry of the Wehrmacht 1941-1945 - Klaus Christian Richter
Weapons and Equipment of the German Cavalry 1935-1945, KCR
The United States Cavalry - Gregory J. W. Urwin; brief coverage of WWI to WWII
Arms and Uniforms - The Second World War Part 1 thru 4; Liliane and Fred Funcken - throughout the uniform plates are examples of many countries' cavalry uniforms and equipment. I think OOP but not hard to find.

Paul Hanson

Paul E. Hanson · Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:59 pm

I only have the french text but
L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre 1914-1918 - 2 Cavalerie-Artillerie-Génie-Marine; Liliane et Fred Funcken, is good for some varied WWI cavalry uniforms.

Paul Hanson

deddygetty · Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:11 pm

F TROOP - THE REAL ONE, Through the Eyes of Trooper James V. Morrison

RW Sutherland Printing, Hiawatha, Kansas, 1988.

A former horse cavalryman gives a personal account of the last decade of horse cavalry in the US Army as seen through his eyes while with F Troop, 2nd Cavalry.

deddygetty · Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:43 am

THE STORY OF THE US CAVALRY 1775-1942 by Major General John K. Herr and Edward S. Wallace; Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1953.

Don't attract gunfire. It irritates the people around you.

Pat Holscher · Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:36 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by deddygetty
 THE STORY OF THE US CAVALRY 1775-1942 by Major General John K. Herr and Edward S. Wallace; Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1953.

Don't attract gunfire. It irritates the people around you.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I haven't read Gen. Herr's book, but does it have much to do with WWII cavalry?

Gen. Herr is a bit of a sad character, in a way. He was head of the cavalry branch leading into World War Two. Contrary to his popular image, he really wasn't opposed to mechanization at first, but he made a fairly sudden switch right before the US involvement in World War Two. At that time, he became a really ardent spokesmen in opposition to mechanization. He was out of step with most of the officers in the cavalry branch in that, but his opposition was so sweeping, that the common belief has come to be that the cavalry branch was opposed to mechanization, when it was really that Herr and a few like him suddenly came to be. It's almost forgotten that officers like Chaffee and Patton, who were ardent proponents of mechanization, were also cavalry officers.

Herr's opposition to mechanization caused the Army to maroon him, and there ceased to be a cavalry chief. Some have felt, and did at the time, that Herr wrecked the ability of the cavalry to go on to truly be the armored branch. Indeed, somewhere on this forum we have a copy of a letter written by Patton to Herr in which Patton bitterly accuses Herr of that.

Anyhow, I knew that Herr wrote this book, and it might deserve a seperate thread of its own (if it doesn't already have one, I think it might) but does it cover much about World War Two? Having not read it, I shouldn't comment, but I'd be a little skeptical of Herr's objectivity on World War Two topic, and I might be skeptical of his objectivity in general, given as he retired from being essenstially shunned aside for his views, and then went on to write this book.

It might make for an intersting topic.

Pat

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World War Two Cavalry Bibliography

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