APPENDIX D
The Basics of Cavalry Leadership1
5 November 1944
1. Be quick! Speed saves blood! Speed frequently substitutes for strength! Make decisions quickly. Hesitation and waiting is always bad. Even the best reconnaissance can't provide a completely clear situation in war. Your own action provides the most rapid clarification of the situation.
Give orders quickly. Short, clear, thorough orders to saddle up have always been the tools of a good commander of mounted troops. The quicker you give orders, the quicker they'll be executed, and that execution occurs most rapidly in the cavalry. Whoever wants to give orders quickly, however, has to “speak the same language” as his subordinates and be well acquainted with them. Therefore, practice (übt) giving orders.
Transmit orders quickly. If an old woman (Botefrau) can get to the objective first, I don't need a mounted courier. If the radio message takes too long, then a rider or motorcyclist can transmit the information quicker than over the airwaves. Therefore keep your command and control route in mind. Organize it. Accelerate it. Always choose the fastest route, and keep several options open for simultaneous use in difficult conditions.
Execute orders quickly. If a Volkssturm battalion can execute orders just as rapidly, then the cavalry has no reason to exist.2 An average march-tempo of five miles per hour (8 km/h) must be maintained in the mounted regiments. Rest periods and enforced halts due to aerial attack or artillery-fire have to be taken into consideration. Speed in assembly hinders, or at least shortens, enemy countermeasures. From the assembly point the mass of troops—not merely reconnaissance and attack elements—moves simultaneously; otherwise the troops are incorrectly assembled. Speed in the attack exposes troops to enemy fire for a shorter time and helps avoid losses.
Speed of execution is limited by the unavoidable fact that all arms must operate together in order to achieve success. But the cavalry commander must be able to organize this coordination with complete thoroughness. That's why his heavy weapons are mobile and move quickly. However, they also require the first orders since they take the longest to prepare to fire.
2. Be complete (Seiganz). Only complete men (Männer) make it through. Only complete men (Kerle) are equal to every situation. Only complete leaders make suitable mounted commanders.
Make complete decisions. Whoever tries to cover everything covers nothing. Whoever tries to do everything accomplishes nothing. Collect the strengths you have. Determine a center of gravity (Schwerpunkt). Determine it in space and in time. Determine it by combining the fires of all weapons and collecting your entire offensive capability (Stosskraft).3 The former is more important than the latter [in light of the defensive battles]. Don't be clumsy (klotzen) in approach marches, assembly, or dealing with personnel. That costs blood. Make the enemy your objective (Bilde Deinen Schwerpunkt im Feinde). The less you have, the more important the center of gravity becomes. Don't avoid the risk of making yourself weak where you have to in order to build a necessary center of gravity elsewhere. Accomplish one task after another rather than trying to do many things at once. You can do it because on the battlefield the cavalry is always quick and nimble.
Don't divide your heavy weapons. Instead, collect them in a “block” to maximize their effect (klotze damit). Since you control decision making, you can always move your center of gravity to the enemy's weak spot.
Be completely clear in your orders. Don't push your own responsibilities onto your subordinates.
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3. Be flexible. Your speed and your mobility give you the ability to do this. Use them! A cavalryman who can't should join another branch of the service.
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Only troops who reconnoiter and report properly make flexible command possible. In the cavalry “reconnaissance” is written in capital letters.
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4. Stay mobile. The strength of the cavalry is in its mobility over difficult terrain and on the battlefield.
Keep yourself mobile and lead from the front, so far forward that you can quickly and securely make use of your knowledge of the enemy and the terrain. Only then can you lead correctly and flexibly. If you don't do this, you'll be overtaken by events.
Keep your troops mobile. Rapid alteration between fire and maneuver is the essence of cavalry combat. Therefore, keep the led horses4 only as far away as the enemy's fire dictates. Even when you're displacing by truck-transport, bring all horses—or as many as possible—forward so as to keep the reserves and reconnaissance elements mobile.
Stay mobile on the defensive, too. If you have to send your led horses [further] to the rear, at least keep your reserves mobile. The reserves' led horses have to be kept as far forward as possible so that the reserves remain mobile even if the dismounted troops are dug in. If led horses can't be kept standing close by, then arrange truck-transport to take troopers to their horses so that they [horses and riders] can be made mobile as quickly as possible. Led horses should also march at five miles per hour. If they lag, drive vehicles through their columns if necessary (Fahre dazwischen, wenn sie bummeln).
5. Take care [of your men]. If you don't think ahead about caring for the men, your troopers will quickly lose their edge.
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Ensure that your men have rest whenever there's an opportunity. In addition to combat and marching, a cavalryman can easily be overloaded by the further, required horse-care. A basic rule is that in combat and on the march, every trooper up to and including the platoon leader sees to his own horse. This applies especially to the led horses in the rear.
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Take care of your horses. They must be watered and fed in a timely manner. Be rigorous about this. Never let them stand idle with tight girths. That causes compression in the gut. Saddles that are kept on but not tightly cinched don't cause problems, and they lend themselves to rapid use. Keep horses dispersed in assembly areas and provide dirt revetments or stone/block stalls for shrapnel protection. Otherwise you'll suffer avoidable losses. A horse can live without oats but not without fodder. It takes time for him to eat the amount he needs, so give him something at every rest-halt. Give him straw if nothing else is available. When green fodder is growing, scythes belong in every squadron, battery, and column so that fodder can be provided at every rest-halt.
6. If you're attached to other units, then:
Ensure that you carry the day (sich durchsetzen). Not just anyone can lead and employ cavalry. You're responsible for appropriate and effective operations. Let yourself take orders, but how you execute them is your concern.
Ensure that you don't let your forces be divided absent an emergency.
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Ensure that you lead. You have learned how to command cavalry. When combat groups (Kampfgruppen)5 are formed, strive to be appointed to overall command or at least make sure that your cavalryman's influence isn't ignored by the commander.
7. Train. Cavalry training is the most difficult of all arms. Training saves blood.
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Train for combat. The horse is your means of getting to the fight. Your troopers and horses don't need to know anything more than this fact demands. You fight on foot. The bulk of your training time belongs here.
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9. Don't just command and train your unit, educate it. Without a clear and tireless National Socialist leadership, you won't have your unit well in hand. Political instruction by the CO (der Chef) comes before every other instruction.
Signed,
Harteneck
1. Grundsätzliches über Kavallerieführung. NARA Microfilm Publication T-314, Roll 27, Frames 499–503. 5 November 1944. Translation by the author. The German familiar form of “you” was used throughout the original. Ellipses indicate omissions of generic statements not specific to the cavalry's ethos, training, or organization
2. The Volkssturm constituted largely useless, scratch formations of over-age civilians raised by the Nazi authorities in a desperate effort to fend off the Soviet invasion of Germany.
3. Nearly illegible in the original, but Stosskraft perfectly fits the context.
4. Handpferde were horses held slightly to the rear by a cavalryman (traditionally every fourth one) while his dismounted comrades were in action. Handpferd/e can also apply to the leading horse(s) in a team.
5. Kampfgruppen were composite formations of varying strength and usually operational for temporary periods.