"'You have horses ...'" Topic

'… for s sake'.

As the angry paratrooper pointed out in 'Band of Brothers' the Wehrmacht used horses until the end. Can anyone recommend who makes the best 20mm scale German mounted figures? Preferably they should be compatible with AB Figures.

I think they used horses for towing artillery and transport wagons. I'm not sure if there is any evidence for German troops actually riding horses.

Caesar and Waterloo 1815 both make plastic German cavalry in 20mm – see Plastic Soldier Review for more information.

I think HAT also did a set. Waterloo also did a set of WW2 Italian cavalry as I recall. Would be interesting to see a set of early WW2 US cavalry.

I think they used horses for towing artillery and transport wagons. I'm not sure if there is any evidence for German troops actually riding horses.

Besides the draught horses for pulling wagons, infantry battalions had a number of riding horses available to some of the officers and messengers, see for example the organisation charts here:

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However, the Germans still fielded a small number of actual cavalry units, too. In the early war, there was a Heer cavalry division, and during the war SS put together some cavalry units that may have been primarily sent on anti-partisan missions.

The Germans fielded tens of thousands of riding horses and whole divisions of horse cavalry, mostly on the Eastern Front.
One reason they thought horses were helpful in the West was that horses can forage for food but vehicles need gasoline. They were unsure they could supply fuel for their supply trucks.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

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Major (as he was then) Christopherson of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry famously Road a horse on D-Day though to be fair, the horse was not on the establishment.
Christopher's on had earlier taken part on one of the last mounted actions of the British army, in Palestine, prior to the mechanisation of his regiment.

Revell produce a horse towed artillery set and HaT produce a set of horse drawn wagons.

Does anyone know of any pictures of horse drawn equipment in North Afrika? Germans or Italians?

The Italian and German forces in North Africa were motorised. No horses. The British did have 1st Cavalry Division in Palestine for a while. It was converted into an armoured division.

"I think they used horses for towing artillery and transport wagons. I'm not sure if there is any evidence for German troops actually riding horses"

Along with entire divisions of horse cavalry, the establishment of the bulk of German infantry divisions included mounted recce elements, increasingly replaced with bicycles later in the war.

As been on a Napoleonic era draft horses and now oxen have been researching how they actually get used to haul limbers and wagons, and seems in WWII it's not much different. Look for movies ( YouTube works for old movie reals) and you will see even getting Napoleonic era draft horses will work I think for you.
Early Russian WWIImovies ( my favorite) will show up nothing different than my troops

The Italians had horse mounted troops in East Africa and on the Eastern Front in case you are interested.

I'm going thru Rex Trye's book, "Mussolini's Soldiers" and he has some tantalizing points.
He closes out the Veterinary Service section with "The Italian army retained a large number of horses and mules for the transportation of equipment and supplies…".
While this does not place any animals in N.A., it does say how important they were.
Under Field Artillery, "… in many parts of Italy pack or horse-drawn artillery was more suitable than mechanized forms".
Here he specifies Europe exclusively.
I believe that the most intriguing information come from the section Infantry Divisions:
"One artillery regiment was attached to each infantry division. This was either pack (where the guns were disassembled and secured to the backs of mules in purpose-built packs for transport) or horse-drawn, but certain pack types could be horse- or tractor-drawn."
I can see the Italian 10th Army advancing into Egypt in Operazione E. Graziani expressed doubts about the capabilities of the large non-mechanized force. I imagine the Italian infantry divisions walking east along the coast with horses or mules hauling up the guns and maybe the supplies.
I know that fodder doesn't grow well in the sand, but petrol doesn't just spring up from wells either.
Also, I remember reading somewhere that the northern coast of N. Africa was fertile and farmed by Italian colonists. I imagine hay or some kind of horse yummy was grown there.
I don't know why photos don't exist of horses in N. Africa. Maybe photographers didn't think they were important? Maybe after the 1940 campaign the horses were gone and only petrol vehicles were shipped over there? Maybe the only ships carrying horses and mules were sunk?
I'm going to do up a couple of horse-drawn limbers and paint them a nice grey-green color so I can use them for N.A., Russia, Sicily or wherever.
Maybe even the Germans will borrow them!
Just random thoughts and wanderings from an old gamer.

I read a German infantry division had 5,000 horses. I remember because a German doctor in Stalingrad was demoted to veterinarian after proving via autopsy the solders were dying of starvation.