Operation Cowboy - How American GIs & German Soldiers Joined Forces to Save the Legendary Lipizzaner

[Stonepounder]

Operation Cowboy – How American GIs & German Soldiers Joined Forces to Save the Legendary Lipizzaner Horses in the Final Hours of WW2

IT WAS APRIL 28, 1945. The war in Europe was just days away from ending when one of the strangest episodes of the entire conflict played out along the German-Czechoslovakian border. More than 350 American GIs had just fought their way through enemy lines to reach the town of Hostau. The settlement, which was still in the hands of a detachment of Wehrmacht soldiers, was home to some remarkably valuable treasure: several hundred prized Lipizzaner horses. The famous and extremely rare animals, which had been seized by the Third Reich as part of a bizarre wartime livestock breeding program, were now in the path of the advancing Red Army where they faced almost certain destruction. Fearing for the horses’ lives, the German officer in charge of the stud farm sent word to the Americans that he and his men would surrender en masse if the U.S. Army promised to get the beasts out of harm’s way. A cavalry unit in Patton’s Third Army leapt at the chance to save the legendary Lipizzaners. The mission, which was dubbed Operation Cowboy, would see U.S. troops, along with a motley collection of liberated Allied POWs, a bona fide Cossack aristocrat and a platoon of turn-coat German soldiers race the clock to drive a herd of priceless horses to safety, all the while fighting off attacks by a legion of crack troops from the Waffen-SS bent on their destruction. This unbelievable true-story was the inspiration for Ghost Riders, a new non-fiction book by author and historian Mark Felton. Here, Felton himself takes us through the story.

More at:

https://militaryhistorynow.com/2018/11/25/operation-cowboy-how-american-gis-german-soldiers-joined-forces-to-save-the-legendary-lipizzaner-horses-in-the-final-hours-of-ww2/

[lapfog_1]

1. someone needs to option this book for a movie

Saving the Horses...

As a child one of my first favorite books was the Reader's Digest "Airs above the Ground".

[Karadeniz]

2. Read the link...exciting!!!!

[cilla4progress]

3. There's at least one movie about the rescue,

that I know of!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_White_Stallions

[Stonepounder]

4. Thanks! I did a little searching and

the DVD is available from Amazon for about $10.00.

[silverweb]

6. Free on YouTube!

[Historic NY]

5. They could correct a few inaccuracies in the timeline...

https://dragoonshistory.com/2008/01/05/the-rescue-of-the-lipizzans-a-personal-account/]

Patton never saw the horses perform, which made him decide to go after them.

[OnDoutside]

7. Mark Felton has a fantastic Youtube channel, with many "I never knew that" type stories.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCKvREB11-fxyotS1ONgww

[Sherman A1]

8. K&R

Thanks for posting!

[TomVilmer]

9. The WWII German Army was 80% Horse Drawn

Not many people know that the greatest use of horses in any military conflict in history was by the Germans in WWII: 80% of their entire transport was equestrian. Despite all the propaganda about Blitzkreig, formidable German R&D, industrial design and production, the day to day mechanics of that fighting force involved an average of 1.1 million horses throughout the war. Of the 322 German divisions in the middle of the war - 1943 - only 52 were armored or motorized.

The great bulk of the German combat strength—the old-type infantry divisions—marched into battle on foot, with their weapons and supply trains propelled almost entirely by four-legged horsepower. The light and mountain divisions had an even greater proportion of animals, and the cavalry divisions were naturally mainly dependent on the horse.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-wwii-german-army-was-80-horse-drawn-business-lessons-from-history/