On the grounds of the Hofburg: Podhajsky, Alois. My Dancing White Horses (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), pp. 95–96.
PART ONE: THE EUROPEANS
Equestrian art: The Complete Training of Horse and Rider in the Principles of Classical Horsemanship (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), loc. 220.
On June 12, 1936: Die Reitkunst der Welt an den olympischen Spielen 1936. L’Art équestre du monde…International Equitation, Etc. (Nachdruck der Ausgabe Berlin 1938) (Hildesheim, Germany: Olmse, 1978), pp. 70–148.
Nero, a gangly brown Thoroughbred: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 30.
“You’re finished”: Ibid., p. 29.
Today, they entered the arena: Ibid., p. 35.
He resembled a boy: Ibid., p. 32.
The crowd assembled to watch: The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936: Official Report (Berlin: Wilhelm Limpert, 1937), p. 880.
“Excited applause”: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 34.
The Nazis, in a clever propaganda move: “The Nazi Olympics, Berlin,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, www.ushmm.org.
To mark this importance: The XIth Olympic Games, p. 880.
Clad in a dark suit: Die Reitkunst der Welt an den olympischen Spielen 1936, p. 375.
This fifty-six-year-old: Fahnenbruck, Maya. “…Reitet für Deutschland”: Pferdesport und Politik im Nationalsozialismus (Göttingen, Germany: Die Werkstatt, 2013), pp. 231–32.
The press had called: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 41.
Nero once was flighty: Podhajsky, Alois, My Horses, My Teachers (North Pomfret, VT: Trafalgar Square), 1997, p. 85.
“Don’t be nervous”: Ibid., p. 77.
When the ringmaster gave the signal: The XIth Olympic Games, p. 888.
For more than a year: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 21–22.
He extracted a sugar lump: Ibid., p. 41.
When the German judge realized: Ibid.
Later, when Gustav Rau: Die Reitkunst der Welt an den olympischen Spielen 1936, pp.1–4.
the 1936 results have remained: DiMarco, Louis, “The Army Equestrian Olympic Team,” www.louisdimarco.com/armyeques.doc.
“His appearance had attracted notice”: Die Reitkunst der Welt an den olympischen Spielen 1936, p. 105.
On May 8, 1938: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows. German Party to Visit Sport’s Centers. Group Attends Races at Belmont,” The New York Times, May 10, 1938.
Despite his generally jovial air: Brandts, Ehrenfreid. Pferde zwischen den Fronten: Polnische Staatsgestüte und das Schicksal des Hengstgestüts Drogomysl/Draschendorf unter deutscher Besatzung 1939–1945 (Muich: Zugvogel Verlag Wenzel, 2007), p. 11.
Accompanying Rau: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows.”
ready to commence an itinerary: Ibid.
Rau had begun developing: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 111.
After World War I: Ibid., p. 118.
Hitler’s National Socialists: Ibid., p. 232.
On the cover of its April 3, 1933, issue: Westerman, Frank. Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse: Man and Beast in an Age of Human Warfare (London: Vintage Digital, 2012), p. 105.
That same season: “Hitler Watches Germans Win Equestrian Event,” The New York Times, February 10, 1934.
On May 24, 1933: JM correspondence.
“a whole race”: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 169.
As minister of food and agriculture: Ibid. Rau stepped down after only one year; his decision was rumored to be due to his refusal to cooperate with the National Socialists.
Reaching beyond its title: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 167.
Rau’s dream was that the German nation: Ibid., p. 112.
The first event: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows.”
“From concept to completion”: Moran, Paul, “Destination Immortality: At Belmont Park Nothing Matters but the Horse and the Test at Hand,” www.belmontstakes.com/history.
In truth, Belmont’s Jockey Club: The Right Blood: America’s Aristocrats in Thoroughbred Racing (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 25–48.
At Belmont Park, the races were run: “Destination Immortality.”
Belmont Park was not the only place: Kevles, Daniel, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Knopf, 1985), loc. 1259–1301.
In 1930, Alfred Frank Tredgold: “They Say,” The New York Times, October 26, 1930.
Sysonby’s scientific contribution: “Sysonby’s Body Exhumed, Museum of Natural History Takes on Great Horse’s Skeleton,” The New York Times, July 12, 1906.
From 1908 to 1933: Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, loc. 1756.
In 1921, to great fanfare: “Dawn Man Appears as Our First Ancestor,” The New York Times, January 9, 1927.
In August 1932: “Eugenics Conference Opens Here Today,” The New York Times, August 13, 1932.
After a day of sightseeing in Manhattan: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows.”
Standardbred racing, perhaps not surprisingly: Journal of the History of Biology 35 (2002), pp. 43–78.
From Goshen, Rau’s group: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows.”
Off Reisterstown Road: Krista, “Sagamore Farms: New and Improved,” Baltimore Fishbowl, May 17, 2013.
In his notes on the 1936: The XIth Olympic Games, p. 881.
The Americans had started their program: Livingston, Phil, and Ed Roberts. War Horse: Mounting the Cavalry with America’s Finest Horses (Albany, TX: Bright Sky Press, 2003), pp. 15–55.
At Rau’s Olympics: DiMarco, “The Army Equestrian Olympic Team.”
In 1938, the peacetime German Army: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 287.
In the blueprint forged: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 10.
Inside one of the stud: Smith, Linell, And Miles to Go: The Biography of a Great Arabian Horse, Witez II (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), p. 9.
It was an old Polish word: Ibid., p. 23.
The first mentions of Arabian horses: Schiele, Erika, The Arabian Horse in Europe: History and Present Breeding of the Pure Arab (London: Harrap, 1970), pp. 139–76.
Bolshevik marauders: Luft, Monika, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 1: The World War I and the Bolshevik Invasion.” Arabians Horse Mag. www.polskiearaby.com, March 21, 2011.
The stud farm’s assistant director: Pawelec-Zawadzka, Izabella. “Andrzej Krzyształowicz.” Magazyn z M do M, January 1998.
The dam, a gray mare: Smith, And Miles to Go, p. 10.
After days of wavering: Luft, Monika, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2—World War II.” Arabians Horse Mag. www.polskiearaby.com, April 6, 2011.
The long line of 250: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrzej Krzyształowicz.” See also Path to Glory: The Rise and Rise of the Arabian Horse. Directed by Jen Miller and Sophie Pegrum. Horsefly Films, 2011.
Devastated, Stanislaw Pohoski: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 1.”
Silently, Kristalovich pulled out his pistol: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrzej Krzyształowicz.”
After three exhausting days of trekking: Ibid.
With renewed hope: Ibid.
Orange flames stood out: Ibid.
Not seeing any alternative: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
unable to find an intact bridge: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrzej Krzyształowicz.” 30
On September 25: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
On the morning of October 5: Ibid.
Kristalovich watched in horror: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.” See also Path to Glory.
The troops torched the stables: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
Only after the war: Ibid.
Gustav Rau, dressed in his Sumatra greatcoat: Ibid.
In the words of Hans Fellgiebel: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 119.
With the organizational skills: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
Even so, eighty percent: Ibid.
But Kristalovich’s passion: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrzej Krzyształowicz.”
The Arabians seized at Janów: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
His sumptuous lodgings: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 1936.
He bragged: Ibid., loc. 1918.
The high-handed chief: Ibid., loc. 1914.
Those who knew Rau: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 10.
Out the window: Arnold, Dietbart. Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann (Bremen: Pferdesport-Verlag Rold Ehlers, 1995), p. 64.
“They’re gassing the Jews”: Ibid.
If the Germans win this war: Ibid.
Karl Koch, the camp commander: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 306.
The most notorious was on the grounds: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 2009.
The Germans were churning: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 287.
Together with Lessing: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, pp. 10–15.
Rau’s acquisitiveness focused: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” pp. 286–87.
He sent one of his adjutants: “Goodbye to Landstallmeister Ekkehard Freilinghaus,” DVM, NASS News: The Official Newsletter of the North American Shagya-Arabian Society, Summer/Fall 2008.
Rau sent some: Rudofsky, Hubert, “The Fate of the Lipizzaner During the War Years, 1941–1945,” UR papers.
Others were fanned out: JM, correspondence with author.
At first, Rau traveled: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 10.
Only twenty-six, Lessing: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 6.
Lessing hailed from Mecklenburg: Ibid.
As a young man: Ibid., p. 63.
At eighteen, he decided: Ibid.
His father advised him: Ibid.
Later, he would characterize: Ibid. “We young people at that time followed this mass delusion.”
After graduating from the veterinary: Ibid., pp. 40–44.
The experience had marked Lessing deeply: Ibid.
While most people tend to associate: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 287.
In spite of his father’s: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 63. “When I was eighteen, my father voluntarily became a Nazi, even though my father warned me. My father was not a Nazi. He said, right then, in 1934, the Nazis are going to war. He was right. He had foreseen it. I only realized this in 1943 when I was in Poland.”
But as he later described: Ibid.
The social and sporting realm: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” pp. 288–91.
In 1940, the Polish occupation police: Ibid., p. 289.
The Black Corps: Ibid., p. 291.
Gustav Rau had come: Ibid., pp. 288–91.
One day in 1942: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, pp. 63–64.
Speaking about Auschwitz: Ibid., pp. 64.
One day, Hermann Fegelein: Ibid.
Despite the mayhem that rocked Poland: UR interview. Lessing visited Poland after the war in his capacity as a horse expert. He reported that in the stud farm’s visitor log from the war years, only the SS officers’ names were crossed out.
Lessing realized that Rau: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 53.
Africa was high-strung: Podhajsky, My Horses, My Teachers, p. 137.
This was the first horse: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 67.
According to the school’s ancient traditions: HR interview.
They had been lavished: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 58.
The beauty and order apparent: Ibid., pp. 51–60.
Realizing that he could not: Ibid., p. 63.
He was painfully aware: Ibid., p. 86.
But Germany’s takeover of Austria: Ibid., p. 87.
But Podhajsky was hearing: Ibid., pp. 87–88. In his memoirs, Podhajsky says that none of his school stallions were taken out of Austria, but in fact, two school stallions were located in Hostau for breeding purposes (see Rudofsky, “The Fate of the Lipizzaner During World War II”).
The Winter Riding Hall was: Isenbart, Hans-Heinrich, Emil M. Bührer, and Kurt Albrecht, The Imperial Horse: The Saga of the Lipizzaners (New York: Knopf, 1986), pp. 99–103. A brochure for the Spanish Riding School, dated 1942, pictures the Winter Riding Hall with Nazi swastika flags affixed to the central pillars.
When the riding hall was: Ibid.
The purebred Lipizzaner: Ibid.
These snow-white horses: Ibid.
For the achievement: Morgan, M. H., The Art of Horsemanship by Xenophon (London, 1894), p. 64.
At the Spanish Riding School: Isenbart et al., The Imperial Horse, pp. 184–98; and HR interview.
At the Spanish Riding School: Sternthal, Barbara, The Lipizzans and the Spanish Riding School Myth and Truth (Vienna: Brandstätter, 2010), p. 68.
For centuries, these beautiful creatures: Ibid., pp. 37–42.
The cataclysmic Great War: Ibid., pp. 43–44.
In 1938, when Austria: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 51–53.
In 1934, there were 176,034 Jews: “Vienna,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Council, August 18, 2015.
In July 1942, Podhajsky set off: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 86.
Broodmares and young foals: See Legendary White Stallions, DVD, for an excellent overview of the life of young Lipizzaner in Piber. See also Sternthal, The Lipizzans and the Spanish Riding School, pp. 51–55.
Conveniently, this allied him: “…Reitet für Deutschland,” pp. 168–70.
Podhajsky was left feeling: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 87.
After returning to Vienna: Ibid., p. 88.
He was unaware that Rau: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 2240.
In early October, unbeknownst to Podhajsky: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 88.
The long-range plan: Isenbart et al., The Imperial Horse, p. 38.
In a panic, he immediately petitioned: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 89.
Arriving on the grounds of Hostau: Ibid., p. 89.
In Podhajsky’s words: Ibid.
While he was not in fact a doctor: JM correspondence with the author.
As Podhajsky had discovered: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 88.
Shortly after his return to Vienna: Ibid., pp. 88–89.
Also sixty-one, General Schulze: Jarymowycz, Roman, Cavalry from Hoof to Track (Westwood, CT: Greenwood, 2008), p. 185.
Schulze, who had a peaceable: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 88–90.
Aware of his deficiencies as an orator: Ibid.
“Your ideas are antiquated”: Ibid., p. 90. “He pronounced my ideas old-fashioned.”
Podhajsky accused Rau: Ibid.
Back at Hostau: Ibid., p. 91.
In just a few weeks: Ibid., p. 69.
On this night, Podhajsky: Ibid., p. 70.
As Podhajsky would later learn: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 306.
The stud farm at Hostau: Peter, Brigitte, “Hostau 1945: Die Rettung der Lipizzaner—Wagnis oder Wunder? Die Rettung der weissen Pferde am Ende des II. Weltkrieges.” Zyklus 2–4 (1982).
In addition to the main complex of stables: Ibid.
Throughout 1942, he: Rudofsky, Hubert, “The Fate of the Lipizzaner Horses,” unpublished manuscript, UR papers.
Austrian-born Hitler’s goal: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943).
Gustav Rau believed that these intelligent: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 2340.
As a young man: Ibid., loc. 1954.
Despite evidence of mounting technological: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” pp. 112–17. See also Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 1944–1972.
As head of the Polish stud farm: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 11.
As the war continued to escalate: Ibid.
He had predicted: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Without access to a modern understanding of genetics: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 2243–2244.
Rau wrote, “We have to promote…”: Fahnenbruck, “…Reitet für Deutschland,” p. 169.
As a civilian, Rudofsky: UR, interview.
Now a colonel: Ibid.
He owed his love: “The man originating from the Sudetenland found a new home in Boxberg. Horse-breeding became a vocation for stablemaster Hubert Rudofsky. His service as a stud director is known here and around the world.” Undated clipping, UR papers.
At the war’s end: Ibid.
In peacetime, Rudofsky was a civil servant: Ibid.
When the Germans occupied: Hubert Rudofsky, UR papers.
Soon after, Rudofsky: Ibid.
Rudofsky acquitted himself: “The man originating from the Sudetenland.”
The ability to drive a four-in-hand: RJC, interview.
One turn-of-the-century enthusiast’s: Outing, May 1897, p. 107.
On the day of the parade: “H. Rudofsky Album,” UR papers.
Lining up along the railings: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 63.
The parade began: “H. Rudofsky Photo Album,” UR papers.
As they circled: Ibid.
A few people pulled out: Ibid.
The grounds of the stud farm: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 63.
The SS officer: Ibid.
“You have no authority…”: Ibid. “Rau went to them and said, ‘If you do this then you will regret it. I will make a huge spectacle.’…Rau had an advantage that he could say that the stud farms were all under the power of the Wehrmacht and this event was a Wehrmacht event under his command.”
When the time came: H. Rudofsky photo album.
The doctors were unable to find: Rudofsky medical reports, UR papers.
Within Rudofsky’s own family: UR interview.
His father’s first cousin: Iggers, Wilma and Georg, Two Lives in Uncertain Times: Facing the Challenges of the 20th Century as Scholars and Citizens (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), p. 7.
His younger brother: UR interview.
His younger sister: Ibid.
Privately, Rudofsky disdained: Ibid.
Being closer to home: Ibid.
The devout Rudofsky: Ibid.
When he stopped: Ibid.
The stables full of white horses: UR interview; and SR correspondence with author.
When they arrived at Hostau: Ibid.
This carriage master: UR interview.
The day-to-day routine: Isenbart et al., The Imperial Horse, p. 52.
Rudofsky was a consummate: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 88–89.
During 1944, Alois Podhajsky: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Verena Podhajsky: Ibid.
But Podhajsky’s relationship with Colonel Rudofsky: UR interview.
Rau’s program at Hostau: Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 2445. 72
At special “birth clinics”: Daily Mail (London), January 9, 2009.
In this peaceful setting: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 94.
One view was that the school: Ibid.
After wrestling with the dilemma: Ibid.
Alois Podhajsky stood: Ibid.
Noticing that each of the stallion’s performances: Ibid., p. 95.
On May 24, 1944: Ibid.
No one, neither man nor beast: Ibid.
After several years of being well treated: Ibid.
By the summer of 1944: Ibid., pp. 95–96.
To Podhajsky, it seemed: Ibid., p. 96.
Secretly, throughout that fall: Ibid., pp. 94–106.
He had fulfilled his obligation: Ibid.
Podhajsky was reluctant: Ibid.
“Is the situation with the Lipizzaner under control?”: Ibid., p. 101.
“Due to the danger to the horses”: Ibid. The conversation between von Schirach and Podhajsky is related on pp. 101–2.
Unfortunately, the twenty-two Hungarian Lipizzaner: JM correspondence with author.
In early May, they received orders: Smith, And Miles to Go, p. 155.
As the train lurched: Ibid.
Already the newly established: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 117.
At the stallion depot in Drogomyśl: Brandts, quoted in Westerman, Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse, loc. 61.
In May 1944: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 119.
In late June, Rau: Ibid.
Rau persuaded a retired cavalry officer: Ibid.
Late at night, in the quiet of his home: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrzej Krzyszstałowicz.”
Hans Fellgiebel, the farm’s German director: Ludwig, Dieter. “Inge Theodorescu—eine große Pferdefrau lebt nicht mehr,” ludwigs-pferdewelten. de, April 12, 2010. See also Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 121.
In the end, Kristalovich: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrjez Krzyształowicz.”
On July 1, ninety-six: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 119.
Trucks loaded with sandbags: Ibid.
Nineteen days later: Ibid.
A few days later, Hans: Ludwig, “Inge Theodorescu.” See also Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 121.
The horses he had shipped to Sohland: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, pp. 119–20.
As a motley assortment of local farmers: Ibid., p. 119.
six months after fleeing Janów: Ibid.
In spite of the lack of sufficient staff: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 1,” p. 56.
Defying their own exhaustion: Ibid.
As they approached the city: Toland, John, “Death Descends on Dresden,” The Last 100 Days (New York: Bantam), ww2warstories.tripod.com. See also “Eyewitness Götz Bergander Recalls the Bombing of Dresden,” German History in Documents and Images, Nazi Germany (1933–1945), germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/section.cfm?section_id=13.
Green tracers: Toland, “Death Descends.”
In the words of an eyewitness: “Eyewitness Götz Bergander.”
Jan Ziniewicz, strong and wiry: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2,” p. 58.
Kristalovich, traveling with the mares and foals: Pawelec-Zawadzka, “Andrjez Krzyształowicz.”
The group congregated in Weisser Hirsch: Brandts, Pferden zwischen den Fronten, pp. 119–20.
Just as he prepared to leave: Ibid.
There were fewer than fifty: Luft, “The Lots of Arabian Horses in Poland, Part 2.”
The scene down at the Franz Joseph: See Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 103–6, for Podhajsky’s description of his flight from Vienna with the stallions.
Podhajsky hurried through the covered walkway: Ibid., p. 103.
People crowded around: Ibid., p. 105.
He had fallen in love: Podhajsky, My Horses, My Teachers, p. 24.
For two straight hours: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 105.
The stationmaster ran out and shouted: Ibid.
Podhajsky felt the boxcars roll: Ibid., p. 106.
PART TWO: THE AMERICANS
Under the wide blue Kansas skies: CH Reed papers, VMA.
Just three years ago: “Reich Equestrians Arrive for Shows.” 103
At that time, the young officer: CH Reed papers, VHA.
On February 9, during a radio speech: “Give Us the Tools,” Radio Broadcast, February 9, 1941, www.winstonchurchill.org.
The U.S. Army Remount Service: Waller, Anna L., “Horses and Mules in the National Defense,” 1958.
A group of Americans: “Arabians Are Given to War Department,” The New York Times, October 19, 1941.
A short while later: “Kellogg Arabian Horse Farm Turned Over to Army,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1943.
The Kellogg ranch: “W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch,” Los Angeles Times, January 2, 1931.
On August 10, 1941, the men of the 10th: “Crack 10th Cavalry Marks 75th Anniversary at Riley,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 10, 1941.
Here, where a sign near the officers’ quarters: Truscott, Lucian K., Jr., The Twilight of the U.S. Cavalry: Life in the Old Army, 1917–1942 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989), p. 76.
Major Hank Reed: CH Reed Papers, VHA.
Hank was born on a gentleman’s farm: RJ, interview.
The real action was happening out at Fort Knox: Hofmann, George, Through Mobility We Conquer: The Mechanization of U.S. Cavalry (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), pp. 209–38.
In the 1920s, it sent a young cavalry officer: JW interview.
At West Point, his fellow cadets: Yearbook page, CH Reed Papers, VHA.
As a student, he was average: “Commissions Given 122 at West Point,” The New York Times, June 14, 1922.
The West Point superintendent: Ibid.
He and the other young graduates: Ibid.
Reed would be heading: CH Reed Papers, VMA.
In 1930 and 1931, he showed off: CH Reed Papers, VMA. In sworn testimony given on June 17, 1945, Reed said, “I was a member of the Olympic Equestrian team but I wasn’t good enough to be allowed to compete.”
That year, he was also selected: CH Reed papers, VHA.
At the beginning of the year: Truscott, Twilight of the Cavalry, pp. 80–83.
Lessons on fording rivers on horseback: A Cavalry Team Crossing an Unfordable Stream, Training Film #14, War Department, 1933.
The cavalry training manual also described: The Cavalry School of Fort Riley, Kansas, Horsemanship and Horsemastership, cited in Ottevaere, James, American Military Horsemanship: The Military Riding Seat of the United States Cavalry, 1792 Through 1944 (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2005), p. 263.
A young African-American recruit: “Transcript of Interview with Dr. Elvin Davidson on April 4, 2000, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN, with Kurt Piehler,” Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Equitation, defined by the army: Ottevaere, American Military Horsemanship, p. 103.
Training included instruction: Ibid., p. 122.
As described by a journalist: “Now Men on Horseback Team Up with Machines,” Life, April 1941, p. 86.
Hank walked and talked and moved: JW interview for insights into the mindset of career cavalrymen.
Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, the army cavalry: Hofmann, Through Mobility We Conquer, pp. 201–57, for a detailed discussion of the debate over mounted versus mechanized cavalry.
In 1939, a new chief of cavalry: “Arms Before Men,” Time, August 22, 1938.
“cushion pushers”: “Now Men on Horseback Team Up with Machines.”
On April 21, 1941, a handsome cavalry soldier: Ibid., pp. 88–89.
The article opened: Ibid., p. 88.
“That is the reason I’ve been pouring”: “Crack 10th Cavalry.”
“When we fight an enemy…”: Ibid.
Speaking later about the 10th: Davison, Michael S., “The Negro as Fighting Man,” The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, published under supervision of NAACP Public Relations, February 1969.
On Monday, September 15, 1941: “Big Maneuvers Test US Army,” Life, October 6, 1941, pp. 33–43.
Congress had handed over: Gabel, Christopher R., “The US Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941,” Center of Military History, United States Army, 1992, p. 51.
Louisiana was not only the proving ground: Hofmann, Through Mobility We Conquer, pp. 277–79.
Especially since 1931, their status: “Tenth Cavalry Act as Flunkeys for White Polo Players,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 22, 1940. See also “Buffalo Soldiers on the Eve of War, at Fort Leavenworth in the Early 1930s and 40s.” Interviews conducted by George E. Knapp, Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, April 1991.
The unabated rain: Hofmann, Through Mobility We Conquer, pp. 277–79.
While the press focused their cameras: Rickey Robertson, “The Last Cavalry Horse,” www.sfasu.edu.
They also noticed: Ibid.
For a while, it seemed as if the horse: Ibid.
Among the horse cavalry: Hofmann, Through Mobility We Conquer, pp. 277–79.
“He lost it all”: Ibid., p. 287.
On February 21, 1942, Colonel Davison: CH Reed, letter from Colonel Davison, from the personal collection of Reed Johnson.
Reed was no Luddite: RJ interview.
Reed had brought his two polo ponies: RJ interview.
Just eight days later: “Second Cavalry Reactivated at Fort Jackson Ceremonies,” The State, January 12, 1943, in Lambert, A. L., and G. B. Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army: A History of the Second U.S. Cavalry. Compiled, edited, and published by Historical Section, 2nd Cavalry Association, 1946.
The mounted 2nd had been deactivated: Boese, Sam, “A WW2 Remembrance of an Old 2nd US Cav Trooper, 1941–1945, a Personal Account,” history.dragoons.org.
Reed evoked the 2nd’s: “Second Cavalry Reactivated.”
They would look to the lieutenant colonel: “Second Cavalry Association Newsletter, Thoroughbred #59” (Summer 1980), CH Reed Papers, VHA.
By January 22, the new recruits: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 33.
Soon, they were arriving twenty-four hours a day: Ibid.
Some of the recruits were so young: KO interview.
Everyone in the 2nd Cavalry: Ibid.
Among this mass of soldiers: EAD interview.
Tom had taken a shine to one: Ibid.
Tom cloaked himself: Ibid.
His nickname was “the little minister”: Ibid.
One day, Tom came home from school: Ibid.
On May 25, 1943, it was humid: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 37.
When the men finally reached: Ibid.
For a while, it had seemed: Ibid., p. 51.
On March 20, 1944, a small group: Ibid., p. 52.
A high-speed liner, the ship did not travel: Ibid., p. 53.
On May 31, 1944, a restless crowd: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army. My description of Patton’s speech to the XII Corps is drawn from “A General Talks to His Army” (expunged; as reported by Sgt. Griffin), pp. 55–59.
Then a captain: Ibid., p. 55.
Pundits joked: pbs.org/thewar/detail_5217.htm, retrieved 1/12/15.
An estimated five million tons: “D-Day, June 6th, 1944,” www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/d-day-june-6-1944.html, retrieved 1/16/15.
The buildup had started: Ibid.
The door to the black car: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 55.
“We are here,” he said: Ibid., p. 56.
Though Patton was eighteen years: “Army Team Fete Visiting Polo Players: Participants Are Guests at Dinner in Army-Navy Club,” The Washington Post, 1936.
Once, while playing: D’Este, Carlo, Patton: A Genius for War (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), p. 313.
Another time, he fell so hard: Totten, Ruth Ellen Patton, and James Totten, eds., The Button Box: A Daughter’s Loving Memoir (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005), p. 258.
Patton, like many others in the army: D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, p. 313.
“Men, this stuff we hear”: Province, Charles M., “The Famous Patton Speech, Part II, the Speech,” www.pattonhq.com.
Major Pitman hadn’t seen his wife: JHPK interview.
He remembered the moment: Ibid.
Since the days of his boyhood: Ibid.
“You are not going to die”: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 56.
Patton continued with his speech: Province, Charles M., “The Famous Patton Speech, Part I, the Background,” www.pattonhq.com.
“We are advancing constantly”: Ibid.
“Remember this,” he said: Ibid.
“No, sir, you can look him straight”: Ibid.
The next six weeks were a frenzy: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 59–65.
On the morning of July 16, Jim Pitman: Ibid.
The convoy’s thirty-one ships: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 69–70.
But Pitman was summoned: Ibid., p. 69.
By eight P.M., the convoy had sailed: Ibid.
The doctor diagnosed: Ibid.
But at eleven P.M., red flares shot up: Ibid.
Today, he was en route: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 111–12.
The mission of the 2nd Cavalry: Herron, Francis, “The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army,” Warweek, November 11, 1944.
Today, as Reed surveyed the valley: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 111.
“Sir, the commanding general of the Twelfth Corps”: Ibid.
Without missing a beat: Ibid.
In November 1944, Francis Herron: Herron, “The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army.”
An officer from the 2nd: Ibid.
In the words of one captain: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 80.
One such incident occurred: Ibid., p. 119.
In the words of cavalry historian: Hofmann, Through Mobility We Conquer, p. 330.
Between August and September: Burkhard, Marianne, “Ferdinand Sperl, 1918–2006: The International Life of a Swiss Hotelkeeper” SAHS Review 45 (February 2009), pp. 18–19.
Between camps, Reed led his command: Ibid.
Always in danger of a surprise: Ibid.
In the chill early morning of September 18, 1944: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 145–61.
Just two weeks earlier, Pitman: Ibid., pp. 106–7.
Colonel Reed was telling: “James H. Pitman 1940 Cullum Number 2006, September 18, 1944. Died in Lunéville, France,” www.westpoint.edu.
Trained to perform under duress: JHPK interview.
He radioed the coordinates of a meeting place: Ibid.
Just as Pitman stepped: Ibid.
At that same instant: Ibid.
Jim O’Leary picked his way: KO interview.
But as they gathered around Reed: “Thoroughbred #59.”
As the daylight waned on September 18: Dickerson, Bryan J., “The Battles of Luneville: September 1944,” Military History Online, www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/luneville.aspx.
So many of their vehicles: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 154–55.
Each time a shell hit: Ibid., p. 155.
Reed was sent to Paris for surgery: “Thoroughbred #59.”
But when visitors came: Ibid.
By December 1944, he was back: Ibid.
To each officer and soldier: FS papers.
Out of the blue, a single piece: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, p. 212.
Though James: Dickerson, “The Battles of Luneville.”
PART THREE: THE MISSION
Along a country lane: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 109.
They were not its only inhabitants: Ibid.
The village was full to the bursting point: Ibid., pp. 108–9.
As Podhajsky described: Ibid., p. 109.
It was General Erich Weingart: Ibid., p. 112.
But the general reassured him: Ibid., p. 111.
General Weingart continued: Ibid.
Only later would he learn: Ibid., p. 112.
Trying not to draw attention to himself: Ibid., pp. 110–11.
As their tense vigil continued: Ibid., p. 110.
But late at night, as Lessing: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann.
The veterinarian lent a hand: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
In mid-March 1945: Ibid.
They had fled: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 117.
Every detail of the stud farm director’s: UR interview.
Next to Rudofsky: Peter, “Hostau 1945” refers to the mysterious visitor by the name “Walter H”; however, it was most likely that Rudofsky was aware of the colonel’s real name, Luftwaffe Oberstleutnant Walter Hölters, director of a group of interrogators of captured Russian pilots known as “Auswertestelle Ost” or “Duty Station East.” For a description of Hölters, see Dolibois, John S., Pattern of Circles, pp. 72–73. Also JD correspondence with the author.
A tasseled gold-threaded Arabian headdress: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
“Vienna has already fallen”: Ibid.
“I’ve spent time on the Eastern Front”: Ibid. See also Reese, Mary Ellen, General Gehlen and the CIA Connection (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1990), p. 45. Hölters despised the Russians because his daughter was raped by a Russian and later committed suicide.
Trakhenen, Germany’s famed “city of horses”: “The History of the Trakhener Horse,” trakehners-international.com/history/index.html.
Germany’s greatest Thoroughbred: “The Story of Alchimist,” www.horsyme.com/Alchimist.html.
Just a week previously, he had: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
“You must make contact”: Ibid.
Rudofsky had sensed: JD correspondence with the author.
After instructing Rudofsky: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
His loyalties lay close to home: UR interview.
The safest thing for the horses: Sperl, “IPW Team 10,” p. 3.
A German Luftwaffe intelligence group: Sperl, “IPW Team 10,” p. 2.
When they ran out of gas: Ibid.
They were calling: Ibid.
Reed’s commander at XII Corps: Ibid.
Reed summoned Captain Ferdinand Sperl: Ibid. Sperl was a naturalized Swiss-American, but his grandparents came from Bohemia, and he had visited the area as a child.
Sperl was known as a wit: Burkhard, “Ferdinand Sperl, 1918–2006,” p. 21.
Among them, the six men: Ibid., p. 20.
When they set up camp: Ibid.
He showed Sperl a location: Ibid., p. 2.
“There are about twenty men hiding up there”: “A small Luftwaffe Intelligence Group had been evacuated from Berlin, about twenty officers and men, and was now installed in a Hunting Lodge just across the border in Bohemia, called Dianahof.”
Because these were high-value captures: Burkhard, “Ferdinand Sperl, 1918–2006,” p. 2. (Sperl said they would be taken to London, but in fact the men were transported to Revin, France: JD correspondence.)
Sperl named the mission: Ibid., p. 1.
The next day, April 26, around noon: Ibid., p. 2.
He looked to be about fifty: Dolibois, Pattern of Circles, loc. 1569.
He particularly noted: Ibid.
A hotelier by trade: Burkhard, “Ferdinand Sperl, 1918–2006.”
His “field office” was a lot more humble: Ibid., p. 20.
“What brings you here?”: “I.P.W. Intelligence Team 10,” pp. 2–3.
“I come here on urgent business”: Ibid., p. 3. “He had come under a White Flag as a parliamentarian with ‘Urgent Information.’ ”
“Oberst Walter H.”: On p. 2, Sperl refers to him as Colonel Walter O. X. (no last name). Hölters’s signature is visible on a note reproduced in Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
But the wallet was not entirely empty: Ibid., p 3.
Instead of family members: Ibid.
“I took these photographs”: Ibid.
“Did you come here from Hostau?”: Ibid.
“I’m a lover of horses”: Ibid.
“I’m a meteorologist” Ibid.
This Colonel H.: Ibid.
“These are no ordinary horses”: Ibid.
Hank Reed had arrived: Dyer, George, XII Corps, Spearhead of Patton’s Third Army, XII Corps History Association, 1947.
He scrutinized a photo: Peter, “Hostau 1945,” photo of Rudofsky with Colonel Hölters and Lotnik.
With Sperl acting as interpreter: Ibid., p. 3.
If they met Reed’s demands: Ibid.
There, they would not be treated: Ibid.
If the plan went off as promised: Ibid.
He would bring Sperl to Dianahof: Ibid.
There were only a few checkpoints: Ibid.
He did not know if: Ibid.
The German colonel explained: Ibid.
Reed and Sperl exchanged: Ibid.
Waiting until dusk: Ibid., p. 4.
The forest was spooky: Ibid.
When they arrived: Photo in author’s personal collection.
Saying that he wanted to speak: “IPW Team 10: Account of His Negotiations at Dianahof,” p. 4.
Between the work of preparing the convoy: Ibid., pp. 4–5.
The German colonel was nattily attired: Dolibois, Pattern of Circles, loc. 1558.
As soon as Sperl rounded a bend: Ibid.
He radioed ahead: “IPW Team 10,” p. 5.
Back at headquarters, Reed invited Hölters: Charles Hancock Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses: A Personal Account.” Virginia Historical Society, 1970.
First, on two sheets of lined paper: “IPW Team 10,” p. 5. See also Peter, “Hostau 1945” for an image of this letter.
Hölters sent his personal valet off: “IPW Team 10.”
Lessing listened thoughtfully: Peter, “Hostau 1945.” See also Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 9.
Lessing was to ride horseback: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Lessing should take along a groom: Ibid.
In the close quarters: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 63.
As they got closer to the edge of the forest: Ibid., p. 10.
Lessing inquired: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
The forester offered the use: Ibid.
Lessing decided: Ibid.
“Hands up!”: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 10.
He wasn’t sure what it might mean for him: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Even though he had not been expecting: Ibid. In Peters, Lessing is quoted as saying that he decided “to use the hour in the American station to find out as much as he could and to explain the situation openly.”
“The horses are in danger”: Sperl, p. 5, reports that Lessing explained, “Many of the horses might be killed in such an undertaking.”
“Regardless of what you decide”: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 9.
Reed gave no sign: “IPW Team 10,” p. 3.
American troops were forbidden from advancing: Dyer, George, “XII Corps, Spearhead of Patton’s Third Army, 14 March—9 May, 1945,” p. 103.
The continuing cold, the muddy roads: Ibid.
“You must be: a horse master”: Patton, George, “The Cavalryman.” The Patton Society Research Library.
The veterinarian said: Stewart, Thomas, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry Taking the Remount Depot in Hostau, Czechoslovakia, and the Return of a Breeding Band Held There to Austria,” unpublished manuscript, 1990, AS papers.
Tom Stewart had been planning: EAD interview.
One harrowing day, while the 2nd: Ibid.
Instead, he was ordered: Ibid.
“Colonel Reed wants to borrow”: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
Stewart arrived just in time: Ibid.
Stewart didn’t know at the time: Ibid.
When Stewart arrived: Ibid.
Far from being flattered: Ibid.
Before Stewart had much chance: Ibid.
At the same time, he set Sperl: Ibid.
“Be careful,” Reed cautioned: Ibid.
“The note says ‘emissary’ ”: Ibid.
In addition to the three pass notes: Ibid.
“Captain Stewart must be returned”: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
“If he fails to return by the deadline”: Ibid.
The moment the preparations were completed: Ibid.
By the time Stewart and Lessing arrived: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
His buddies pitched in: Ibid.
“You don’t have to go”: Ibid.
“Don’t worry, that’s one of ours”: Ibid.
But once Stewart put his weight in the stirrup: Ibid.
A ribbon of moonlight snaking: Ibid.
Before they had gone far, Stewart’s horse: Peter, “Hostau 1945.” (Stewart’s personal account omits any mention of a fall.)
Eventually, they reached a barricade of brush: Ibid.
“That horse doesn’t jump,” Lessing called out: Ibid.
No Americans!: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
Colonel Rudofsky had been in favor: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
His fellow veterinarian: Brandts, Pferde zwischen den Fronten, p. 117.
“My hands are tied,” Rudofsky said: Peter, “Hostau 1945.” See also “IPW Team 10,” p. 5.
“Our misfortune has made us mature”: “Our Hitler. Goebbel’s 1945 Speech on Hitler’s 56th Birthday. German Propaganda Archive,” research.calvin.edu.
“How is it that you are negotiating with”: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
According to historian Ian Kershaw: Kershaw, Ian, The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany (New York: Penguin), 2012, p. 310.
“Sir, discipline, obedience”: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
“I will not let the American leave again”: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann.
Soon, they arrived at a company command: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
“like the cat had gotten into the cream”: Ibid.
He told Lessing that: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 13.
They had no chance: “IPW Team 10,” p. 6.
To solve this problem: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Stewart, hastily disguised: Ibid.
Seated at a bare table: Ibid.
“The Americans wish to assist you”: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
After his perusal was completed: Ibid.
“The Americans’ goal is to safeguard”: Ibid.
“You never should have acted independently”: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
“Oh, really?”: Ibid.
“I fell for beautiful phrases”: Ibid.
“Okay, fine. Do whatever you want”: Ibid.
Herr General Schulze: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Once at Hostau, Lessing: Ibid. Weisenberger called ahead to let Schulze know that he had given his approval. Arriving in Hostau, General Schulze provided a pass note that Lessing and Stewart were able to use to cross the border.
At first, the house appeared deserted: Ibid.
When he arrived, he found: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.”
When Stewart had not appeared: “IPW Team 10,” p. 6.
When Kroll arrived: Ibid.
He had received Patton’s terse reply: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses.”
On April 28: Blumenson, Martin, The Patton Papers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 694.
Lessing waited for Kroll for several hours: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Reed had divided the task force into three parts: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses.”
Stewart had a funny feeling: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 8.
General Schulze, whose arrival: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
It was then that Rudofsky saw General Schulze: Ibid.
In the past few days, the Hitler Youth: UR interview.
Just last week, Rudofsky had: Ibid.
Hastily, Rudofsky: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Grasping another white sheet: Ibid.
In command of one platoon: MNQ, DQ, MQ interviews.
Quinlivan had a soft core: Ibid.
He had grown up in a devout Catholic family: Ibid.
Forced to double back: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses.”
Between them, they held: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 3.
He headed out in his jeep: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 13.
Now the pair from Hostau confronted: Ibid.
“Give back the watches”: Ibid.
Along the narrow thoroughfare: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses.”
Reed could not help but notice: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 10.
Reed offered Rudofsky a seat in his jeep: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
One young private, as he stood gazing: “Vito’s Story: Letter from Sergeant Vito Spadafino, Troop A, 42nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment,” history.dragoons.org.
An early-morning American patrol: “Charles Reed, Sworn Testimony, June 17, 1945,” NARA RG 165, Entry 418, Box 921.
Meanwhile, out in the field near Rosendorf: “Raymond Manz, Tribute,” Army: Together We Served, army.togetherweserved.com, accessed October 6, 2015.
Raymond Manz was still a few days: Ibid.
Around the same time: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 9. See also “Charles H. Reed Sworn Testimony.”
Colonel Reed and three other officers of the XII Corps: “XII Corps, Spearhead,” p. 107.
The day before, General Patton: Ibid., p. 109.
Reed stood at attention, eyes forward: Ibid., p. 107.
Shortly after Podhajsky had received: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 112. My description of the American occupation of St. Martin is drawn from pp. 107–26.
Thinking quickly, he devised a scheme: Ibid., p. 113.
Podhajsky was startled that the men: Ibid.
“But I have orders to close them”: Ibid.
Podhajsky unbuttoned his German uniform jacket: Ibid.
Half an hour later, Podhajsky’s phone rang: Ibid.
When Podhajsky entered their office: Ibid.
Podhajsky felt the cool stock of his pistol: Ibid.
In the calmest voice he could summon: Ibid., p. 114.
But the Kreisleiter: Ibid.
At Podhajsky’s signal, his riders: Ibid., p. 115.
Knowing that he needed the Americans’ protection: Ibid., p. 116.
For months before the evacuation: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 110.
Later the same day: Ibid., p. 116.
Just then, the same Brigadier General Collier: Ibid.
The next morning, Podhajsky realized: Ibid., p. 117.
It was a tremendous relief: Ibid., p. 118.
Podhajsky saw that General Walker: Ibid.
First came the regimental colors: Ibid.
It was only upon arriving: Blumenson, The Patton Papers., p. 696.
From his position near the gate: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 119.
The general’s expression was hard to read: Ibid.
While the horses were being prepared: Ibid.
Patton himself was once in charge: Totten and Totten, The Button Box, pp. 133–34.
What surprised the general most: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, p. 697.
Podhajsky made a split-second decision: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 119.
As Podhajsky later wrote: Ibid.
“Honorable Mr. Secretary and General”: Ibid. See also Blumenson, The Patton Papers, p. 697.
“The great American nation”: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 119.
Turning back to Podhajsky, he said: Ibid., p 120.
Not until after May 5: UR interview.
With the guns pointed straight: Ibid.
“You are naive,” Lessing said: “Recording of conversation between W. D. Quinlivan and Rudolf Lessing during Second Cavalry Association Reunion, 1995,” QF papers.
As the rest of the crew prepared: “Sworn Testimony of Hubert Rudofsky, June 17th, 1945,” NARA RG 165, Entry 418, Box 921.
To top it all off, Reed had agreed: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
Gifted with a sharp mind for technical tasks: MQN interview.
He and his men built the ramps: “Quinlivan Account.”
The rest of the horses would be safer: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
The local stables and cowsheds: “Charles H. Reed, Sworn Testimony.”
That same night: “IPW Team 10,” p. 9.
As Reed later recounted: “Charles H. Reed, Sworn Testimony.”
A Czech representative: “Sworn Testimony of Jindrich Basta,” NARA RG 165, Entry 418, Box 921.
a claim that Rudofsky: “Sworn Testimony of Hubert Rudofsky,” NARA RG 165, Entry 418, Box 921. In his 1970 account of the rescue, Reed describes Basta’s visit as “stealthy,” and “apparently to connive with Czech born Lt Colonel who was second in command when we arrived,” seeming to refer to Rudofsky; however, Rudofsky was first in command at Hostau, and in his sworn testimony, he clearly stated that none of the horses were Czech property. The Czech interest in the stud farm was natural, and because Czechoslovakia was treated as an ally, the Americans did not have the right to remove Czech property from Germany; however, the stud farm at Hostau had been seized by the Germans, and all of the horses on the farm had been brought there from other countries.
When all was ready: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 11.
On his back, one of the cavalry: Ibid.
Quinlivan was mounted: Ibid.
Yet the group had barely gotten started: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 16.
Tom Stewart stayed up front in his jeep: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry.” Per Tom Stewart’s account, he rode King Peter’s Lipizzaner some, but made most of the trip riding in a jeep.
As the first group of horses and riders: Peter, “Hostau 1945.” See also Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, pp. 16–17.
“Open that gate, or I’ll open it for you”: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 17.
At the border, Hubert Rudofsky stood: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 11. Some sources state that upon returning to the stud farm at Hostau, Rudofsky was immediately arrested; however, Rudofsky was left in charge of the horses, and the Americans returned to the farm to bring out additional horses on May 17. After the American departure, the farm was commanded by Czech national Jindrich Basta. Rudofsky continued his duties until June 1, 1945.
The 111th Panzer Division: “IPW Team 10,” pp. 22–24.
He had taken over the castle: Ibid., pp. 8–9. See also “Letter,” CH Reed Collection, VHA.
For the first time in his life: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 127.
The Austrian was on his way: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses.”
As he looked out the airplane window: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 127–28.
Awaiting Podhajsky’s arrival was an American major: Ibid., p. 128.
Podhajsky was surprised and flattered: Ibid.
Upon returning to Fort Riley: “Cole Heads Army Riders. Team in Training at Fort Riley for Three Horse Shows,” The New York Times, September 25, 1938. In his memoirs, Podhajsky states that the horse named Podhorski was ridden by Reed’s brother, but Reed did not have a brother. Reed himself may well have had an opportunity to ride the horse named Podhorski.
Fearing that the Americans: “Charles H. Reed, Sworn Testimony.”
Not all of the Lipizzaner in Hostau: “Quinlivan Account.” Podhajsky did not want any Yugoslavian Lipizzaner.
The next morning, Reed and Podhajsky: Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses,” p. 4.
“The inhabitants of this country”: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 129.
Their relationship had been cordial: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 17.
Podhajsky reflected on the situation: “Quinlivan Account.”
On the night of May 22: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 131–32. See also Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, for Lessing’s account.
The only illumination: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 131.
While waiting for the trucks: Ibid.
Then one of the broodmares: Ibid. See also Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 17, for Lessing’s account.
PART FOUR: HOMECOMING
In Kötzting, Reed had an urgent situation on his hands: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 11. See also Reed, “The Rescue of the Lipizzaner Horses,” and Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 11.
Eager to get them safely: Stewart, “An Account of the 2nd Cavalry,” p. 11. Stewart was flown ahead to inspect the facility.
As Lessing later explained: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 17.
On June 16 and 17: “Rudofsky, Stewart, Reed, Sworn Testimony.”
He explained that when he returned: “Rudofsky, Sworn Testimony.”
Cook concluded that the horses’ capture was lawful: NARA.
As soon as Hamilton took up his new position: Waller, “Horses and Mules.”
As Hamilton wrote in a later report: “Request for Information re Horses Taken from Germany, 27 Feb 1947,” NARA NND 785095.
With the support of Patton: Waller, “Horses and Mules.”
Hamilton’s first stop: “Request for Information.”
He was impressed by the magnificent: Ibid. Hamilton specified that at the time of his first visit, the horses were actually in the hands of the troops, and that the situation was confusing, as the Allied Reparations Commission had not yet been established.
But Hamilton knew only: Ibid. Hamilton’s chief informant for the status of the Polish horses, including Witez and Lotnik, was Gustav Rau; Hamilton referred to him as a “world-famous horse expert” whom he “had not reason to doubt.” Rau claimed that the Arabians from Janów had been purchased legally by Germany after being looted by Polish farmers during the Russian invasion of Janów.
Added to this misinformation: Ibid. Hamilton also stated that he never spoke to Count Stefan Adam Zamoyski, a member of Poland’s government in exile who had been appointed to handle Poland’s affairs in horse breeding. Hamilton stated that the count’s intentions were viewed with suspicion and that he was denied entry into the American zone. Zemoyski is credited with saving the lives of Witez’s half brothers, Wielki Szlam (Grand Slam) and Witrzaj (Stained Glass), and helping to repatriate them to Poland.
In his official report, he wrote: “Report of Official Travel, 16 May, 1946,” NARA NND 785095.
Cargo space in ships returning from Europe: “The Super Horses Are Ours,” Mannix, Daniel P., Collier’s, August 17, 1946.
Quinlivan and Lessing had developed a close friendship: “Quinlivan and Lessing, Conversation” (audio recording), QF papers.
Throughout the summer of 1945: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, p. 27.
For this reason, he supported passing control: Ibid., p 17. See also Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 130. Podhajsky reported that Lessing wanted all of the Lipizzaner to go to America, as he felt they had a better chance of survival there.
Even Gustav Rau: Arnold, Gespräche mit einem Pferdemann, photograph of Rau in Mansbach, with horses.
Sadly, in later years, as the Polish government: “Request for Information.”
The end of the war: “Reed Service Record,” CHR Collection, VMA.
Hank wrote a letter to the young man’s mother: “Letter from CHR,” KO papers.
But he did not consider himself: EAD interview.
On September 19, 1945, he received top-secret: “Special Orders, #187,” Quinlivan family papers.
The group—rounded out by another cavalry: Mannix, “The Super Horses.” After Stewart’s departure, the command of the Mansbach Stud Farm was under Major Weldon Slishar.
For the next three weeks, these horse experts: “Request for Information.”
At each stop, the team evaluated the horses’ conformation: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
Any horse whose private ownership or unlawful seizure: “Request for Information.”
At each stop, the horse detectives: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
By his own account, Hamilton: Ibid. See also Waller, “Horses and Mules.”
Pleased with the Germans’ loyalty: Peter, “Hostau 1945.”
In honor of his efforts, Hank Reed: Ibid.
For Reed, Lessing and Kroll had prepared: “One Horsepicturebook of Arab-Lipizzan-Thoroughbred horses, presented to Colonel Charles Reed, CO Second Cavalry Group,” RJ papers.
A majestic photograph: Ibid. Neapolitano Slavonia was one of two Lipizzaner stallions transferred to Mansbach. He died of a heart attack shortly after his transfer.
Across the top: Ibid.
The Liberty ship Stephen F. Austin: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
A few days earlier, the horses had boarded: Ibid.
The men had opened her boxcar: Ibid.
Sailing along the coast of Holland: “Quinlivan Shipboard Diary,” QF papers.
The veterinarians had been worried: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
As Quinlivan described it: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 6.
One moment, the ship would plunge downward: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
Only Witez, as balanced as a cat: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 7, states, “the Arabians were the best behaved.”
The weather grew worse: Ibid., p. 6.
the captain’s compass wasn’t working: Ibid., p. 7.
As the ship rolled into a wave’s trough: Ibid., p. 6.
In the cargo hold, the lights: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.” First into the hold after the horses piled up was the commanding officer, Major Weldon Slisher.
The force of the storm had knocked the horses clear: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 7.
Quinlivan set about looking for Gospa’s foal: “Quinlivan Shipboard Diary.” Quinlivan reports, “little foal is doing better.”
By the time the men got the horses separated: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.” See also “Quinlivan Account,” p. 7.
The ocean had turned to a tranquil: “Quinlivan Shipboard Diary.”
Safely on the other side of the tempest: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 7.
Trying to make their fodder last: Ibid.
Horses are unable to vomit: Smith, And Miles to Go, p. 190.
“How many were lost?” he asked: “Quinlivan Account,” p. 7.
At first nobody could quite believe: See, for example, “Patton Continues to Gain.” The New York Times, December 19, 1945.
But at his bedside in a military hospital: For an account of Patton’s injury and death, see Blumenson, The Patton Papers, pp. 817–35.
With only a few exceptions: Waller, “Horses and Mules.”
In July, Colonel Thomas J. Johnson: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, p. 728.
“Otherwise, we will have nobody”: Ibid.
Thirteen days after his automobile accident: Ibid., p. 832.
On December 22, he received orders: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army, pp. 327–29.
Reed had been stationed: RJ interview.
The day of Patton’s funeral was dark: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, p. 835.
Reed and his men did not sleep all night: Lambert and Layton, The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army.
Tweedy-looking horse experts: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
For months since their arrival: Ibid.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo: “American Gets ‘Emperor’s Horse’ ” The New York Times, December 13, 1945.
“While we were trying”: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
Drew Pearson, muckraking columnist: “Drew Pearson on the Washington Merry-Go-Round,” The Washington Post, November 2, 1945.
Some argued that the German horses’ blood: “The Thoroughbreds from Germany. Not a Shadow of a Doubt,” The Blood Horse, November 9, 1946, clipping from the collection of the International Museum of the Horse.
Colonel Fred Hamilton, who had painstakingly: “Response to a Request for Further Information.”
in the large outdoor arena: “A Parade of Horses,” clipping from a collection of documents related to the cavalry, National Sporting Museum, Middleburg, VA.
The final event of the parade: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
One soldier who had traveled: Ibid., quoting Major Weldon Slisher.
It was here: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 151.
The once well-appointed edifice: Ibid.
By April 1946, the move was complete: Ibid.
The Pomona Remount Depot: Parkinson, Mary Jane, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch: A Celebration of the Kellogg/Cal Poly Pomona Arabian Horses, 1925–2000 (Pomona: W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center, California State Polytechnic University, 2001). The most complete source for the history of the Kellogg Ranch.
One day, a neighbor scolded: The Original Has This Signature: W. K. Kellogg (Battle Creek, MI: W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 1989), p. 21.
In 1925, he spent: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, September 25, 2004.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch; Chavez, Stephanie, “Horse Lovers Head for the Shrine,” Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2001.
In 1932, with great fanfare: “State May Get Kellogg Ranch,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1932. See also Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, pp. 200–207.
In 1942, Kellogg was deeply moved: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, pp. 280–83.
By 1947, out of a crop of thirty-two foals: Ibid., p. 349.
One local rancher: Ryan, Dixie, “Witez II and Earle,” Horse Magazine (Summer 1977).
He had managed to convince: Mannix, “The Super Horses Are Ours.”
In 1946 and 1947, Koester fought: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, pp. 336–37.
As the one soldier: Ibid.
Throughout 1947, the Pomona Remount Depot: Ibid., pp. 344–47.
To make matters worse: NARA RG 260 USACA, Box 102.
In response, the Senate Armed Services Committee: Ibid. See also Hevenor, Phillip. “Senators Hold Hearings on Ownership of Blooded Horses Taken in Europe,” The Washington Post, November 30, 1947.
A delegation (including Tom Stewart’s): “War Booty Horses Viewed by Eight Officials,” The Washington Post, December 7, 1947.
In 1947, a reporter: “Fine European Horses Captured by Army Pose Problems,” The Christian Science Monitor, December 7, 1947.
Although none of the transported horses: “Request for Information.”
A syndicate headed by: “How Did a German Derby Winner End up in Louisiana?” Bloodstock in the Bluegrass, fmitchell07.wordpress.com, March 10, 2010.
On July 1, 1948, the Defense Department: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, p. 349.
The number of horses: “ ‘Ghostly’ Stables Show Army’s Shift,” The New York Times, November 4, 1949.
As soon as the Department of Agriculture assumed control: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, pp. 356–65.
In a letter to W. K. Kellogg: Ibid., p. 362.
Other aged horses were not so lucky: “Jadaan, the Sheik, and the Cereal Baron,” Cal Poly Pomona Special Collections, cpp.edu/~library/specialcollections/history/jadaan.html.
Kellogg, by then: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, p. 356.
Lotnik, once the pearl of Hostau: Kowalcyzk, Tennessee’s Arabian Racing Horse Heritage (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia, 2007), p. 54.
By the fall of 1948, only the most valuable: Parkinson, The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, pp. 356–64.
On December 1, 1948, the Pomona ranch: “New Removals Slash Kellogg Herd. Nineteen Horses and Colts Depart by Rail. President May Be Urged to Check Exodus,” Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1948.
The next day, the papers ran: Ibid.
Privately, he had taken to: “This Is Your Life: Witez,” undated unpublished manuscript, Arabian Horse Collection, International Museum of the Horse. See also “Even Atom Age Can’t Displace Old War Horse. Animals Are Still Needed, Retired Officer Warns,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 23, 1948.
In the spring of 1949, Witez: “Agriculture Remount Service: Catalogue of Horses to Be Sold at Public Auction,” Pamphlet, National Sporting Library Collection.
A movie company, a circus: “Royal Horses Will Be Sold,” The Washington Post, November 20, 1947.
However, it turned out that one of the veterans: “Quinlivan Account.”
the deep, full-throated whinny: Ibid.
Still haunted by the friends: Ibid.
A few months after returning home: Ibid.
As Witez circled the ring: “Witez II and Earle.”
“You bought yourself a horse”: Calarabia: The Story of the Hurlbutts and Witez II, video, Arabian Horse Trust, 1989.
On October 3, 1950, eight men: “Horses Arriving from Europe for the Garden Show,” The New York Times, October 10, 1950.
The friendly and intelligent stallions: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 210.
Dressed in a dark business suit: “Horses Arriving from Europe.”
Soon, the horses were loaded into vans: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 210.
By the end of the week: Ibid., p. 211.
Since moving the horses to Wels: Ibid., pp. 170–205.
Four weeks after arriving: “Horse Show Ball Has Gala Throng,” The New York Times, November 6, 1950. See also Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, p. 217.
The colonel, solemn and courtly: Ibid., pp. 217–18.
One stallion, Africa, was missing: Ibid., p. 214.
During the previous night’s rehearsal: Ibid., p. 217.
At the end of the program: Ibid., p. 221.
The ring crew rolled: Ibid.
“I am very happy”: Ibid.
“I would give anything”: Ibid.
The Hurlbutts were calling the party “This Is Your Life: Witez”: “This Is Your Life: Witez,” unpublished manuscript.
In spite of these difficulties: Trimborn, Harry, “Polish Breeders of Prize Arabians Fear National Turmoil,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1982.
On his twenty-seventh birthday: “This Is Your Life: Witez,” IMH.
On April 7, 1980, thirty-four years: “Second Cavalry Association Newsletter, Thoroughbred #59, Summer, 1980,” RJ papers.
There was “something a little funny”: RJ interview.
But in his library: “untitled photo album,” RJ papers.
When he returned home from service: Ibid.
In addition, Reed had adopted: “Fred Hamilton, Description of Horses Shipped from Europe, 1945,” “Memorandum for Major Geldart, May 1947,” NARA NND 785095 RG 92, Entry 1890.
Reed’s hand may not have been: RJ interview.
Around the time the movie came out: Klein, Jerry, “Second Cavalry Reunion,” CH Reed Collection, VMA.
While Reed had returned: Podhajsky, My Dancing White Horses, pp. 229–55.
On the first night of the horses’ grand tour: RJ interview.
In 1972, twenty-seven years after: “Thoroughbred #59.”
“Is something wrong?”: Ibid.
Twenty men from his regiment: Ibid.
To the sergeant from Chicago: Ibid.
At the graveside, one of the men: Ibid.
One of his men described him: Ibid.
“We were so tired of death and destruction”: Foster, Renita F., “Saving the Lipizzaner: American Cowboys Ride to the Rescue.” Armor, May—June 1998, p. 22.
“Tonight, the horses dance for you”: Performance of the SRS, Vienna, 1986, video, UR papers.