 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Operation Cowboy" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Operation Cowboy | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWestern Front ofWorld War II | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 StandartenführerHans Kempin | |||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 325 | Unknown, but greater than the opposing force | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Several killed or wounded | 100+ killed 100+ wounded | ||||||
Operation Cowboy was fought in the town ofHostau,Sudetenland (nowHostouň in theCzech Republic), on 28 April 1945, in the last days of fighting in theEuropean theater ofWorld War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of theWehrmacht fought side by side against theWaffen-SS,[1] the other being theBattle of Castle Itter.
After theannexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, theLipizzaner Breeding Mares of theSpanish Riding School inVienna were transferred to an experimental farm in the town ofHostau, inNazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The goal was to create a race of "Aryan horses".[2] The head of the Spanish Riding School,Alois Podhajsky, was a famed German horseman and dressage expert as well as a bronze medallist at the1936 Olympics. He had also been anAustrian Armycolonel, and by 1938 had been enrolled in theWehrmacht with the rank ofmajor.[3]
In the final phases of World War II, Hostau was on the advancing path of theSovietRed Army from the East, and the German soldiers on the farm were unenthusiastic about surrendering to the Russians. On the other side, to the West, theXII Corps of the AmericanThird Army was also advancing towards the farm, commanded by GeneralGeorge Patton, racing with theSoviets for theliberation of Prague.[2]
The morale of the situation was already incredibly low as refugees, out of desperation and starvation, attempted to raid the farm to steal the horses for their meat. The soldiers anxiously waited for when the Soviet Red Army would sweep through Hostau and promptly kill the horses for the food or work the animals to death.[4]
German veterinarians at the farm, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, were afraid that the Russians would kill their horses, since during theliberation 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, ageneral 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 the2nd 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 themechanization. They immediately planned an operation to rescue the horses.[2]
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.[3]
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 theYalta Conference. The advancing Red Army would likely not have agreed with the operation, had they reached the farm in time.[2]
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 withM8 scout cars, someM8 howitzer motor carriages and twoM24 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 the11th Panzer Division that a few days later would surrender atPassau.[2]
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 AlliedPOWs, including British, New Zealanders, French, Poles and Serbs, who were freed from concentration camps in the area. Andrews also gave arms to the German soldiers of theHeer and theLuftwaffe, even if they were formally prisoners of war. He also accepted the help of a Russian anticommunistCossack,Prince Amassov. Amassov led a small force of Cossack cavalry that had deserted the German1st Cossack Cavalry Division and was present in the area.[2]
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, CaptainThomas 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 as the first SovietT-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.[2]
The 1963 American adventure war filmMiracle of the White Stallions released by Walt Disney, is loosely based on Operation Cowboy. Thenon-fiction bookGhost Riders: Operation Cowboy, the World War Two Mission to Save the World's Finest Horses byMark Felton is a historical account, that is also about Operation Cowboy.
49°33′38″N12°46′9″E / 49.56056°N 12.76917°E /49.56056; 12.76917
