American troopers and German troops fought Waffen-SS items collectively in Czechoslovakia on April 28, 1945. The mission was to rescue a few of Europe’s rarest horses earlier than the Soviet Crimson Army arrived.
Operation Cowboy stands as one in every of solely two documented events throughout World Warfare II when U.S. and Wehrmacht forces fought alongside one another in opposition to a standard enemy. The raid saved greater than 1,200 horses, together with 375 irreplaceable Lipizzaners whose bloodlines stretched again 4 centuries. Days later, the Czechs greeted their American liberators with flowers as U.S. armor rolled into Pilsen. However the Yalta Convention had assigned Czechoslovakia to the Soviet sphere of affect.
Three years after celebrating freedom from the Nazis, Soviet-backed communists seized management, starting 40 years of repression that attempted to erase each the horse rescue and the American liberation from the nation’s historical past.
Nazi Breeding Program for ‘Aryan Horses’
Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939. After this, they transferred the Spanish Using College’s Lipizzaner breeding mares from Vienna to a navy stud farm in Hostau, Czechoslovakia.
In the course of the conflict, the Third Reich pursued eugenics experiments on each human captives and animals alike, together with these horses. Nazi veterinarians wished to engineer what they known as an “Aryan horse” by selective breeding. Lt. Col. Hubert Rudofsky commanded the Wehrmacht veterinary group assigned to the horses.
In the meantime, Alois Podhajsky supervised the coaching operations. Podhajsky was an Austrian colonel who gained bronze on the 1936 Berlin Olympics in dressage, an occasion that exams the partnership between horse and rider.
By the top of the conflict in 1945, Hostau housed over 1,200 animals. The gathering included 375 Lipizzaners, 100 Arabian horses, 200 thoroughbreds, and 600 captured Russian horses. The Lipizzaner breed dated to the sixteenth century Habsburg Dynasty. These white horses carried out haute école dressage on the Spanish Using College in Vienna. The actions are known as “airs above the bottom” and require years of coaching for each horse and rider. They weren’t solely extraordinarily uncommon, however prized for his or her genetics and expertise.
By April of 1945, the horses have been in grave hazard. The Crimson Army was advancing westward by Jap Europe towards Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops, although they used cavalry extensively, hardly cared about uncommon European horses and as an alternative considered captured German horses as meals.
Soviet forces had already killed Hungary’s complete Royal Lipizzaner herd because the nation fell. German veterinarians at Hostau knew their horses would probably meet the identical destiny. In the meantime, ravenous refugees tried to raid the farm to kill the animals for meat. A number of German troopers and guards have been posted there to guard the veterinarian group and the horses.
A German Officer Asks for Assist
Lt. Col. Walter Holters was stranded at Hostau when his Luftwaffe intelligence unit ran out of gasoline. His unit was transferring towards American strains to hopefully give up to them over the Soviets. Realizing the state of affairs at Hostau, Holters made a plan to contact the closest American unit for assist. Rudofsky initially resisted, fearing he could be shot for treason if he surrendered.
Holters went forward anyway, Rudofsky finally modified his thoughts as he realized the Soviets have been getting nearer. They contacted the forty second Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of Col. Charles Reed’s 2nd Cavalry Group underneath Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army. They supplied to give up the farm and the horses to American forces if they’d conform to evacuate the animals.
German troops known as Reed’s mechanized cavalry the “Ghosts of Patton’s Army” due to their aggressive reconnaissance missions behind enemy strains. Lots of the unit’s officers had served in mounted cavalry earlier than the Army mechanized. They understood the worth of the horses. As a result of the horses have been situated behind pre-arranged post-war boundaries and German items have been nonetheless guarding the border, Reed wanted approval from increased command.
Patton accredited the operation instantly, saying, “Get them. Make it quick.” The overall was a former cavalryman himself and had beforehand competed in Olympic equestrian occasions. He assembled a job drive of two cavalry reconnaissance troops armed with M8 scout automobiles, M8 howitzer motor carriages, two M24 Chaffee gentle tanks, and 325 infantry troopers. Maj. Robert P. Andrews commanded the duty drive.
The boys realized the individuality of American cavalrymen getting down to rescue horses from the enemy. It sounded just like the plot to a Western film. The boys dubbed the mission Operation Cowboy.
The mission confronted a number of main issues. Hostau sat 20 miles inside German-held territory. Lots of the mares have been both pregnant or nursing new child foals. The Yalta Convention had assigned Czechoslovakia to the Soviet sphere of affect, that means Moscow might oppose American operations there, particularly as Crimson Army troops operated close by. German items defending the Czech border additionally hadn’t agreed to any of this and would probably battle.
XII Corps unleashed huge artillery barrages at a number of German defensive positions to clear a path to Hostau. Capt. Thomas Stewart rode into Hostau and met with German veterinarian Capt. Rudolph Lessing to barter give up phrases. Stewart was the forty second Squadron’s intelligence officer and spoke some German. Reed picked him partly due to his equestrian expertise.
People and Germans Struggle the SS Collectively
Stewart was a 29-year-old Tennessee native who landed at Normandy the earlier June. He entered Hostau on April 28, 1945. Andrews put Stewart in tactical management and diminished the drive to at least one cavalry troop, two tanks, two howitzer carriages, simply 180 troopers complete.
Nonetheless, the German garrison surrendered, however Stewart confronted one other downside. His small drive could not safe the farm, the city, the highway again, and defend in opposition to assaults whereas evacuating over 1,200 horses on the identical time.
Stewart turned to whoever might assist. About 400 Allied prisoners of conflict labored on the farm as compelled labor, together with British, New Zealanders, French, Poles, and Serbs. All of them volunteered when supplied captured German weapons. Stewart additionally obtained assist from a number of anti-communist Russian Cossacks within the space who opposed the Soviets. Figuring out the hazard to the animals, the surrendered Wehrmacht troopers requested to help as nicely. The combined drive turned often called “Stewart’s International Legion.”
Waffen-SS items attacked the farm twice. SS infantry hit positions defended by American GIs, German Wehrmacht troops, Russian Cossacks, and Allied former POWs. The skirmishes have been temporary however brutal. The SS had no need to see their fellow Germans or horses give up to the People. Each assaults failed with a number of casualties on both sides. The SS withdrew after taking heavier losses than anticipated.
Two American troopers died through the operation. PFC Raymond Manz and T/5 Charles Sutton, each from Troop A of the forty second Reconnaissance Squadron, have been killed in combating close to Bela nad Radbozou.
Reed organized the evacuation of the horses between the assaults. American, German, and Cossack officers mounted most of the stallions and rode them out. Some mares have been herded on foot like a Wild West cattle drive. Pregnant mares and new child foals rode in each German and American vehicles. The column left Hostau simply as Soviet T-34 tanks reached the jap fringe of city.
There was a tense standoff as Soviet and American troops stared one another down, nicely behind the boundary strains agreed upon at Yalta. The Crimson Army commanders selected to not have interaction or work together with Reed’s forces. The horses reached American strains safely.
Stewart acquired the Bronze Star for the mission. Austria awarded him its Nationwide Gold Award. Patton personally gave Stewart a German-made Drilling shotgun.
When later requested why the People agreed to the rescue, Reed mentioned, “We have been so uninterested in dying and destruction, we wished to do one thing lovely.”
The horse rescue was a part of the Third Army’s bigger push into Czechoslovakia. Whereas Stewart’s job drive fought alongside Germans to avoid wasting the Lipizzaners, different American divisions have been breaking by the Czech border. Inside days, U.S. troops would liberate cities that had suffered six years underneath Nazi occupation.
Czechoslovakia’s Second of Freedom
Patton’s Third Army crossed into Czechoslovakia on April 18, 1945, to guard his advancing flanks. American divisions freed Aš on April 20. Cheb fell six days later. U.S. forces fought by the forested border areas deeper into Czech territory.
Pilsen’s inhabitants revolted in opposition to Nazi occupation on Might 5, 1945. Residents crammed the streets to tear down German swastikas and different symbols. Wehrmacht troops counterattacked to suppress the rebellion and put town underneath siege.
American armor arrived early on Might 6 when the sixteenth Armored Division’s tanks entered Pilsen round 8 a.m. Col. Charles Noble’s Fight Command B led the assault and confronted scattered resistance. The 2nd Infantry Division and Belgium’s seventeenth Fusilier Battalion bolstered the assault. The German protection began collapsing.
Czech civilians crammed Republic Sq., celebrating their liberation. Grateful residents gave American troopers flowers and meals whereas waving selfmade flags.
First Lt. John Patterson wrote house, “I’ve by no means seen so many individuals joyful at one time. It made us all really feel it was price it. Czechs are great individuals.”
Combating continued even through the celebrations. After accepting flowers and greetings, American troops went again to clearing German defenders from town.
Third Army items pushed to inside 50 miles of Prague. Radio broadcasts from the capital requested for assist as Czech resistance fighters launched an enormous rebellion in opposition to German forces on Might 5. Sadly, Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ordered American forces to halt. The Yalta Convention agreements had assigned Prague and Czechoslovakia to the Soviets.
The Crimson Army entered Prague on Might 9, 1945. The ultimate pictures of WWII in Europe occurred close to Příbram, southeast of the capital. American operations liberated greater than 3,400 sq. miles throughout western Czechoslovakia, together with Pilsen, České Budějovice, and Karlovy Differ.
U.S. forces suffered fewer than 1,000 casualties killed or wounded through the offensive. Soviet forces advancing from the east suffered about 50,000 casualties. German forces misplaced between 200,000 and 250,000 troopers, with greater than 860,000 surrendering to each Allied armies.
American forces remained in western Czechoslovakia by early December 1945. U.S. troops helped restore authorities providers, rebuild infrastructure, and keep public order till native Czech authorities might perform on their very own. The rescued Lipizzaner horses returned to Austria and the Spanish Using College, the place Podhajsky cared for them till 1965. Their descendants nonetheless carry out there at this time.
The Czechs celebrated their American liberators and the horse rescue that turned well-known throughout the area. However Czechoslovakia’s future was bleak, and it could not keep free for lengthy.
From Liberation to Soviet Management
Czechoslovakia’s temporary second of liberation lasted barely three years. The Communist Occasion gained 38 p.c of the votes within the 1946 elections, one of many strongest Communist showings in any aggressive European election. The celebration shaped a coalition authorities with non-Communist events underneath President Edvard Beneš.
Common help collapsed in the summertime of 1947. Communist police actions angered residents. Farm communities rejected collectivization plans. Industrial employees opposed productiveness calls for with out wage will increase. Public opinion polls in January 1948 confirmed Communist help had fallen to 25 p.c. Moscow noticed that the celebration would lose the scheduled Might 1948 elections.
Soviet chief Joseph Stalin ordered Czechoslovakia’s Communist Occasion to grab energy instantly. Twelve non-Communist cupboard ministers resigned in February 1948 to protest Prime Minister Klement Gottwald’s refusal to cease placing Communists all through the police businesses. The ministers thought Gottwald would compromise relatively than danger the federal government collapsing. They have been mistaken.
Armed Communist militia items took over Prague. Staff’ demonstrations crammed metropolis streets. Gottwald threatened a basic strike except President Beneš accepted Communist calls for. On Feb. 25, 1948, Beneš gave in, fearing civil conflict and doable Soviet navy intervention. He accepted the resignations and appointed a brand new cupboard managed by the Communists and their supporters.
International Minister Jan Masaryk died on March 10, 1948. His physique was discovered on the pavement beneath his workplace window at Czernin Palace. Authorities by no means decided if he jumped, fell, or was pushed. The circumstances stay unresolved.
The adjustments got here shortly. The Nationwide Meeting accredited a brand new structure on Might 9, 1948, declaring the nation a “individuals’s democratic state.” Elections on Might 30 gave voters a single accredited checklist of candidates. The Communist victory turned official. 1000’s misplaced their jobs. Tons of have been arrested. 1000’s extra left the nation.
The brand new authorities moved to rewrite historical past. Communist authorities erased any indicators of American participation in Czechoslovakia’s liberation from official accounts. Tales of the Third Army’s advance, the liberation of Pilsen, and missions like Operation Cowboy disappeared from textbooks and public dialogue. The regime emphasised the “Soviet liberation” of Prague whereas suppressing Western Czechoslovakia’s expertise with the People.
Officers in Pilsen destroyed town’s “Thank You, America” memorial and banned tributes to U.S. forces. One Czech witness described attempting to put flowers on the demolished monument, “I had purchased crimson and white carnations and went to put them on the memorial. Abruptly, a lorry appeared and a number of other uniformed Nationwide Safety officers obtained out. Pointing their weapons at us, they shouted at us to disperse. In the course of the night time, vehicles got here. They took all of the bouquets, the flags, and even the monument and threw them within the garbage.”
The Reminiscences Survived Behind the Iron Curtain
Residents of Pilsen saved their non-public reminiscences alive regardless of the federal government’s official suppression efforts. Households taught kids in regards to the American troopers who introduced them freedom in Might of 1945. They shared tales of the Third Army’s battles, the liberation in Republic Sq., and even tales of the horse rescue at Hostau. The regime might destroy monuments, however Czech civilians remembered what the People had finished for them.
The Velvet Revolution lastly ended Communist management in November 1989. Pilsen organized its first Liberation Competition in Might 1990. Tons of of 1000’s got here to publicly honor what they’d remembered privately for many years.
“It felt so proper that our city was free of the Nazis by a Western military,” Frantisek Kotva informed the Related Press throughout that first pageant. “All of us beloved the GIs, however then we needed to neglect about them for a very long time.”
The annual Liberation Competition happens every Might. The occasion commemorates the Third Army’s advance into Czechoslovakia, the liberation of Pilsen, and missions like Operation Cowboy that occurred throughout these closing days of World Warfare II.
Tens of 1000’s attend yearly, together with American veterans and their households as honored company. Tons of of restored U.S. navy automobiles from World Warfare II parade by town streets within the “Convoy of Liberty.” Re-enactors arrange interval navy camps. Czech law enforcement officials give flowers at memorials.
American cavalrymen from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the successor to the American cavalry that participated in Operation Cowboy, additionally participates in occasions within the nation annually.
A rebuilt “Thank You, America” monument receives visits from the Czech President and worldwide officers every anniversary. The ceremony falls on Might 6, the date when Fight Command B rolled into Pilsen over 80 years in the past, shortly after American cavalrymen and German troops fought collectively to avoid wasting a gaggle of horses from the SS and the Soviets.
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