Operation Cowboy

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Operation Cowboy
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Date 28 April 1945 (1945-04-28) Location Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Result Allied success Many POWs freed
Belligerents
United States Wehrmacht POWs Allied POWs 1st SS Cossack Cavalry Division deserters	Germany Waffen-SS
Commanders and leaders
Captain Thomas M. Stewart Major Robert P. Andrews Lt.Col. Walter Holters Lt.Col. Hubert Rudofsky	Unknown
Units involved
42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Group, XII Corps	Waffen-SS Infantry
Strength
325
Casualties and losses
2 killed	Many taken POWs

Operation Cowboy was fought in the town of

German veterinarians at the farm, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, were afraid that the Russians would kill their horses, since during the liberation of Hungary they had already killed the whole Royal Hungarian Lipizzaner collection. Luftwaffe intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Walter Holters, not part of the farm personnel but forced there due to a fuel shortage, tried to arrange an agreement with the advancing US troops. Holters, a general staff officer, was senior to Rudofsky but they agreed about saving the precious horses. Contact was made with the nearest US unit in the area, the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 2nd Cavalry Group. The 2nd Cavalry Group, commanded by Colonel Charles H. Reed, was famous for its daring deep strikes. The unit was known among German troops as the "Ghosts of Patton's Army". Despite being a mechanized unit, many of the officers of the Group were horsemen and had served in mounted units before the mechanization. They immediately planned an operation to rescue the horses.^[1]

A meeting between Patton and Podhajsky, about a rescue operation of the horses apparently took place. A source states that the meeting between Holters and Reed was not casual, but planned before 26 April.^[2]

The operation was not simple for several reasons. First, German troops at the Czech border were not parties to the agreement and would likely oppose the American troops entering the area. Second, many of the hundreds of horses were pregnant. Most of the rest had just given birth. Also, Czechoslovakia had been posted in the Soviet area of influence during the Yalta Conference. The advancing Red Army would likely not have agreed with the operation, had they reached the farm in time.^[1]

Battle

General Patton, who agreed to the operation, gave orders to quickly create a task force, but available troops were scarce. Assigned were two small cavalry reconnaissance troops with M8 scout cars, some M8 Howitzer Motor Carriages and two M24 Chaffee light tanks and a screening infantry force of 325 men. The task force was commanded by Major Robert P. Andrews. The path to the farm was 20 miles long, into still German-occupied territory. Thousands of German troops, including two understrength armoured divisions were still present. Among them was the 11th Panzer Division that a few days later would surrender at Passau.^[1]

After having passed German defences at the border, with the help of an artillery barrage by the XII Corps, Andrews secured the farm. He was then confronted with the task of evacuating the horses. As the horses outnumbered the men in the task force, Andrews enrolled many Allied

After arriving at the farm, Colonel Reed looked for vehicles to move the pregnant horses and new-born foals. Meanwhile Major Andrews turned over the task force to his deputy, Captain Thomas M. Stewart. Before being able to evacuate the farm the composite force was attacked twice by Waffen-SS infantry. Both attacks were repelled with some dead and wounded. The SS unit suffered more losses and eventually retreated. Immediately afterwards, Stewart managed to evacuate the horses. Some horses were mounted and the rest were herded, leaving just before the first Soviet T-34 appeared in sight. The Soviets did not oppose the evacuation. The operation was concluded when all the horses were loaded into trucks near the border and secured behind American lines.^[1]

In popular culture

The 1963 American adventure war film Miracle of the White Stallions released by Walt Disney, is loosely based on Operation Cowboy.

References

49°33′38″N 12°46′9″E / 49.56056°N 12.76917°E / 49.56056; 12.76917