Fighting Cavalry: The Tactical Evolution of the US Army's Mechanized Cavalry in World War ii

by Louis Dimarco

Fighting Cavalry details the evolution of the doctrine, organization and missions of the US Army’s Mechanized Cavalry in World War II. A popular myth is that the horse cavalry was replaced on the battlefield by the tank and armored forces –this is not what happened in the US Army. In the US Army the horse cavalry regiments never really went away –they just gradually evolved into what in WWII was known as mechanized cavalry. When the US Army entered combat in WWII in North Africa it did so with no practical knowledge of modern armored warfare. The Army learned rapidly in the desert of North Africa that many of its assumptions about how to employ the new mechanized technologies were wrong. One of the things the Army got wrong was the vital role of the new highly mobile mechanized cavalry. By the time the Army arrived on the beaches of Normandy it had begun to understand that the horse was gone but the new mechanized cavalry was a powerful combat tool that was vital to victory in Europe. Over the ten months of the European campaign the role of cavalry continued to evolve and proved to be indispensable to victory. By the time of VE day, the WWII Mechanized Cavalry had firmly established itself as a critical part of the US Army combined arms team and has remained a critical component of the US Army structure into the 21st Century.

134 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2021

Reviews

[Fred Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on the development and use of US Mechanized Cavalry in WWII. Worth the read if you are interested in US Army WWII doctrine.