"US Cavalry Recon in Europe in WW2" Topic

My father served in the 106th Cavalry Recon Group (121st Squadron, A Troop) that fought in France, Germany, and ended the war in Austria. I grew up hearing lots of stories about jeeps (known as 'bantams'), armored cars, light tanks, deploying troopers on the ground, and the rest.

I would love to hear from anyone of you who has deployed units like this in action on the wargame table. Your impressions, in particular, about the tactics, use of weapons, effectiveness in combat, etc.

Well, Flames of War has a problem with them… too many tabletop commanders try to use recon as an assaulting element, not as a 'nope, no antitank guns in ambush here' element.

So, unless I missed something in the most recent hardcovers, the BF organization isn't historical. But it's better to fight with.

Well, I have accumulated enough to put on a meeting engagement scenario in 28 mm with recon elements on both sides. Should be interesting. It will involve limited visibility (fog, rain or snow, perhaps predawn probing) and unit markers with dummies. Reinforcements are the main body, the advantage going to the side that holds the high ground and can see the enemy deployment, what cannot be spotted is also represented by markers.

A Cavalry squadron, part of the 13th Cav Group, found themselves trying to cover an extended part of the line near Losheim at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. They held on for most of the day before the Germans finally ground them down to being noneffective, but they took on the bulk of two divisions. It is an interesting aspect to the fight.
Also, a number of years ago, Readers Digest reprinted a story written by a young officer (that eventually made General), who wrote of his exploits as a recon officer going across the Elbe River and trying to link up with the Soviets prior to the end of WWII. I cannot recall his name, but the last name may be Burton.

From my readings, most of the time cavalry units were used to hold quiet sectors of the line to allow the Americans to concentrate more force at the point of their attacks. Only a few times was the cavalry able to really get out in front in a recon/pursuit mode.

@Lion,

If you have only seen people fighting with recce in Flames of War then you have seen people wasting some of their most valuable assets. I always take recce in my FoW forces if I can but very rarely actually shoot them at anything.

My recon spend their time early in the game pinning back enemy ambushes, in the mid game they normally work on removing gone to ground status on enemy defenders.

Compared to many other rulesets I think FoW does a very good job on the way recon works.

There was a battle in the late stages of the Bulge that used a cav group as the core of an assault. Dismounted, the cav served as infantry, with TD SP AAA in support.

Scott, my impressions are quite different, at least as it applies to the 106th Cavalry. They were an active part of the race across France after the breakout from Normandy. In this capacity as well as after the crossing of the Rhine (after March, 1945), they were used to probe the enemy, and often got into combat when they came into contact.

My dad describes the usual formation as a column of bantams and armored cars moving quickly down the road. They would only know they were in the presence of the enemy when the first artillery and/or mortar shells started to drop in their midst. At times, they might also hit a mine. They would immediately deploy and see whether they could handle the forces ahead of them. They had light tanks (M5's and later, the M24's) and what they called assault tanks (modified M5's with 75mm howitzers). If the German strongpoint was too difficult to manage, they would call back for support from heavier elements.

Here's some visual evidence. I posted this photo

which was take of disabled M5A1 Light tank, Troop F, 121st Squadron photographed in August, 1944 just outside Ahouille, France. This tank and two others behind it were caught in an ambush and knocked out by German anti-tank weapons with one man killed. This photo is unpublished, and was sent to me by a journalist who lives in this town and interviewed the locals.

The 106th, which always operated in smaller sized parts rather than the entire recon group, also was assigned special missions. Their most famous was a run into the Alps to re-capture King Leopold of Belgium from his Axis captors. Members of the 106th also were among the first Allied soldiers to enter Hitler's resort compound at Berchesgarten.

Damn! I thought this was going to unearth a previously unknown U.S. horsed unit!

If you have only seen people fighting with recce in Flames of War then you have seen people wasting some of their most valuable assets. I always take recce in my FoW forces if I can but very rarely actually shoot them at anything.

Why else would BF change from the historically-correct M8 + gun jeep + mortar jeep organization to the unhistorical 2x M8 + gun jeep + mortar jeep?

I need to remember my BF account info so I can get back in there and suggest a different org: M8+Gun Jeep+jeep, 3x carbine teams (can dismount one carbine team as a 60mm mortar team instead)

I agree that Flames has good recon rules. I just have never seen anyone actually USE them!

DCW1962,

In my comment I said "most of the time". :) The race across France and the final drive into Germany are the exceptions. But from D-day until the start of Cobra and from September '44 until about March of '45, the lines were fairly static with only slow, grinding advances. The Americans concentrated their infantry and armored divisions to attack and long stretches of the line were held by cavalry or even engineer units.

The argument is there…

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