Operation Cowboy

Military.com did a pretty interesting article on the real story of Operation Cowboy. Doesn’t sound familiar? To many of a certain age, “The Miracle of the White Stallions” was an entertaining Disney movie – like anything they did then, a but sanitized, but for Disney, not far from the real story.

Let’s open with read the linked article. Military.com  Lot of info in there, and you don’t want me to just block and copy it here, right? You learned how to read a long time ago and actually got pretty god at it? Yep, so you don’t need me to interfere – much.

Back in ’45, there were two times on record when US forces and Wermacht troops fought together – in this case against advancing Soviet troops. For those who missed the movie: In Austria the Spanish Riding School (it was established by the Hapzburg’s to showcase equestrian arts with Spanish-bred horses, hence the name) and was famous for the Lipizzaner horses which as they grow turn snow-white. Very striking ( intelligent and trainable) horses. After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia starting with the Sudetenland starting 1938,  the riding school was moved to a military stud farm in Hostau, Czechoslovakia. There they tried to genetically and eugenically breed “Aryan” horses – one suspects the snow white color was a big draw. The program was run by Lt. Col Hubert Rudofsky, whose chief trainer was a former ’36 Olympics equestrian dressage Bronze medalist name of Alois Podhajsky.

By the end of the war in 1945, Hostau housed over 1,200 animals. The collection included 375 Lipizzaners, 100 Arabian horses, 200 thoroughbreds, and 600 captured Russian horses.

By April of 1945, the horses were in grave danger. The Red Army was advancing westward through Eastern Europe toward Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops, though they used cavalry extensively, hardly cared about rare European horses and instead viewed captured German horses as food.

A Luftwaffe intel officer, Lt. Col. Walter Holters who was stranded at Hostau when his unit ran out of fuel wanted to contact the advancing Americans for help. After initial resistance, Rudofsky gave in and elements of the 2nd Cav’s 42d Reconnaissance Squadron, part of Patton’s 3rd Army,  were contacted.

Because the horses were located behind pre-arranged post-war boundaries and German units were still guarding the border, Reed needed approval from higher command.

Patton approved the operation immediately, saying, “Get them. Make it fast.”

For those who may have missed it, Patton was a big “horse guy” who competed in the 1912 Olympics in the pentathlon, placing fifth.

He assembled a task force of two cavalry reconnaissance troops armed with M8 scout cars, M8 howitzer motor carriages, two M24 Chaffee light tanks, and 325 infantry soldiers.

One minor problem: Hostau was 20 miles into Russian-controlled territory. Think “Kelly’s Heroes” with hayburners instead of gold ingots. 1200 of ’em. including mares and foals.

Capt. Thomas Stewart rode into Hostau and met with German veterinarian Capt. Rudolph Lessing to negotiate surrender terms. Stewart was the 42nd Squadron’s intelligence officer and spoke some German. Reed picked him partly because of his equestrian experience.

The task force had been reduced to such a small size it couldn’t do the whole mission – control the horses, hold off the Russians, move all the horses – so Stewart recruited some help.

About 400 Allied prisoners of war worked at the farm as forced labor, including British, New Zealanders, French, Poles, and Serbs. All of them volunteered when offered captured German weapons. Stewart also got help from several anti-communist Russian Cossacks in the area who opposed the Soviets. Knowing the danger to the animals, the surrendered Wehrmacht soldiers asked to assist as well. The mixed force became known as “Stewart’s Foreign Legion.”

Waffen-SS units attacked the farm twice. SS infantry hit positions defended by American GIs, German Wehrmacht troops, Russian Cossacks, and Allied former POWs. The skirmishes were brief but brutal.

Eventually it ended in a standoff between advancing Russian troops and the ‘foreign legion’ – the Russians decided to let the American unit go without attacking and all became a Disney movie in the end. Lots more historical detail in the article, as well as a bit of post-WWII Czech history.

Category: None, We Remember, WWII