How the Last Major Cavalry Charge Ended

Horseback units were made obsolete by the end of World War I but that didn't stop an Italian Cavalry unit from charging a Soviet position in World War II. With swords, pistols and grenades held high they rush at the surprised Soviet army soldiers who had machine guns and mortars. The Italians made an attempt to route the enemy on horseback.

Historians have come to call this the last major cavalry charge in history. It always fascinates me when the old world clashes with the new world. This is one of the best examples of that. If you like the video please remember to like, comment and subscribe to our channel we post a new video (pretty much) every week!
#militaryhistory #cavalry #worldwar2 #army #sovietunion
Edited by: Rebecca Rosen

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[amang]

Fun fact Lawrence of Arabia also shot his camel in head by accident during a charge...

[Padwann]

It's actually pronounced "Izbushensky Charge"

[Avocado]

It’s crazy that the same war that had the last cavalry charge and the first fighter jets

[NoobPTFO]

Say what you will about Italians being Team Switchers during the World Wars, but man are their offensives spectacular

[huntclanhunt]

Moral of the story: If you can surprise the enemy, pretty much anything works. I think Cavalry could still be useful as a means of transportation and quick movement to flank and dismount to engage.

[friendlyinsurgentpassinthr]

12 Strong Cavalry charges: *"Am I a joke to you?"*

[Mjak-ydog]

The last cavalry charge during World War II was the charge of the 1st Warsaw Cavalry Brigade on March 1, 1945 at the Battle of Schoenfeld (polish: Battle of Borujsk).
During the attack on German defense, tanks and infantry advanced very slowly, suffering heavy losses. The attack broke down. Then the army commander decided to throw a horse group to attack. It was commanded by lieutenant Zbigniew Starak. A group of about 220 people consisted of two squadrons of the 3rd Uhlans Regiment of the 1st Warsaw Independent Cavalry Brigade and two batteries from the 4th Horse Artillery Squadron. Cavalry got to the area in which Polish tanks operated, which passed and hit the surprised Germans in the outposts. Most Germans fell. Then, along with tanks and infantry, they attacked the village. After a fierce battle on horseback and bayonets, Borujsko was captured with very low losses. 7 lancers died, 10 were wounded. The Germans lost over 500 killed, and 50 were taken prisoner.

[MDWolfe]

Route and retreat are not the same thing my dude, a route is a out right breaking panic, a retreat is "organized"

[youroverlord]

Cavalry: NOOO, you can’t fire more than twenty rounds a minute, it’s impossible!
Hiram Maxim: haha machine gun go
Red army: Horses are completely obsolee- wait why do I hear galloping?

[marcinwkurw]

The last cavalry charge during World War II was the charge of the 1st Warsaw Cavalry Brigade on March 1, 1945 at the Battle of Schoenfeld (polish: Battle of Borujsk).

[piotrd.]

4:16 - that's what made possible rumor that Polish Winged Hussars had immortal horses. Horse, when not shot in the head or joint, will still run along other horses for few tens of hundreds of meteres - enough to close in with XVIIth century infranty line but not before showing no discernable effect of sure hit. The same, to smaller extend applied to humans as well. Adrenaline makes strange things possible, and that's why stopping power of ammo is usually more important than penetration in close quarters battle.

[mgjam]

I served thirty years in the United States Army almost twenty in the Ranger Regiment.I retired in 2010. Animals were used by many armies in WW2. But for supply and in some cases troop transport to a lesser extent. Like you said it must have been frightening to see two or three hundred horses charging at you. Until you realize you have machine guns. So just start shooting the horse's and game over

[broadwellstudios]

The last successful cavalry charge in history was in March 1945 at the battle of Shoenfeld, in which the Polish cavalry gained tactical surprise and overran the German anti tank guns that had held up the armor and infantry. The Germans retreated from Shoenfeld.

[johannesvalterdivizzini]

I had the honor of being a neighbor and friend of a veteran of the Savoia charge at Ibushenkij--he was part of the Second Squadron, which executed the broad sweep, effectively hitting the Soviets in the rear as the main body hit them from the other side. He told me he used only his saber in action, only drawing his Beretta afterwards when he was ordered by the Captain to put down his heavily wounded (but still refusing to give up) horse named "Il Luce" (the light). He cried as he related the memory, all those years later, adding, with disgust, "fanteria" (he was forced to be a foot soldier--a cavalryman's nightmare)

[danm]

The last british cavalry charge was at the battle of omdurman in 1898, Sudan. Winston churchills regiment. that regiment had never even been in a battle before and were renown for having never spilled blood. a joke motto for them was: thou shall not kill. Winston had injured his shoulder so had to use a mauser c96 pistol instead of a saber. he said it actually saved his life. they charged the sudanese who were entrenched ina ravine but when they got there there were twice as many soldiers hidden in the ravine that swiftly popped up. They still won the battle anyways as many of the sudanese were armed with swords and pikes.

[JacekJankowskiExOriente]

The last regular cavalry charge (before Toyota's charges) was the battle of Schoenfeld, March the 1st, 1945.

[josefhelbling-yypm]

Hey Chris, your Italian is a bit rusty. lol. luckily the names were included. Otherwise great post and very interesting presentation.

[SupernautYT]

Great video! You should check out the Battle of Beersheeba in WW1 where Australian mounted infantry initiated a full scale cavalry charge with bayonets in hand because that was the only mounted weapons they could bring to bear (their rifles were slung over their backs and couldn't easily be fired while charging). Incredible stuff born out of desperation and something the Australian military, particularly armoured cav units still hold dear. Cav units commemorate Beersheeba every year I believe. At least the 2/14th Light Horse Regiment which was the unit involved do.

[jeffreywall]

A fair amount of information that is not supportive of the main theme that “cavalry is obsolete” was omitted. During WWI, the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s Desert Mounted Corps (led by MGN Harry Chauvel) conducted about a dozen mounted charges - all of which were successful. Indeed, British AARs stated that “Machineguns alone are insuficient to stop a mounted assault, it takes barbed wire.” I refer the reader to the best short book on the subject: "Australia’s Palestine Campaign" by Jean Bou, #7 in the Australian Army Series, avalaible on Amazon. The Megiddo campaign saw 2 British infantry corps punch holes in the Turkish German defensive line and two columns of the Desert Mounted Corps poured through. Between the 2 mounted columns, totaling some 12, 000 men, the Desert Mounted Corps defeated 3 Turkish Armies totaling 1.5 million men during the Septmeber/October 1918 campaign - and effectively forced Turkey from the war. The action of the DMC in this campaign was called by one British officer “A cavalryman’s dream". The 3rd and 5th Brigades of Australian Lighthorse and French cavarly caught Turks retreating from Damascus on 30 September 1918 in the Barada Gorge and tore them to bloody rags. In another instance a regiment of Indian Lancers [yup, lancers] caught a Turkish infantry battalion reinforced with a machine gun company that had been sent to stop them. In 5 minutes - yup, 5 minutes - the lancers deployed from march column to the assault; they killed 74 Turks and captured over 470, along with all of the machineguns - which were manned and firing until the Lancers over ran them. The Lancers suffered one man lightly wounded in return.

During WWII 29% of the Soviet strategic reserve was horse mounted (100, 000+ mounted men) on the correct assumption that they could match the cross country speed of the Soviet tanks. A Soviet cavalry corps of some 50, 000 men was active around Stalingrad - indeed they conducted a cavalry division raid that destroyed the Wehrmacht’s supply depot. This forced the Germans to rely on supply by air, which the Luftwaffe couldn’t do. This means that the outcome of one of the world’s decisive battles in the 20th century was turned by 10, 000 men on horseback. No bullets, no beans, no bandaids - no can fight. Just say’in. Soviet horsemen were so effective in the German rear [one raid lasted 135 days] that the Germans had to reconstitute their own cavalry to deal with the Russian horsemen, a number that eventually totaled 60, 000 mouinted Germans. While it is true that the Soviet horsemen acted most often as mounted infantry - dismounting to fight on foot once contact was made - both Soviet and Cossack horsemen conducted mounted assaults throughout the war. And in the interest of historical accuracy, Soviet horsemen were uniformly successful around Stalingrad until they ran into the 6th Panzer Division led by Hermann Balck - the German Patton and a genuine military genius.

During the Soviet advance in to Germany and Austria, Soviet Cossacks led the way - plundering, raping and burning. Their mission was spreading terror, which was their stock in trade.

During the Rhodesian War the Greys Scouts, a horse mounted counterinsurgency force was the most effective unit the Rhodesians had at detecting and defeating communist terrorists. The Selous Scouts get the publicity but the Grey’s Scouts did the bulk of the work. In an interview with a squadron commander from the Greys Scouts, he noted that they were never ambushed, the horses always let them know the bad guys were around, and in 7 plus years of operations they lost one horse [his] to mortar shrapnel.

The Portuguese used horse mounted counterinsurgency units in Angola with equal success.  

The South Africans also had cavalry that patrolled their borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. My interview with one of those guys likewise confirmed that they were never ambushed - for the same reason and that in the 2 years he rode with them they lost one horse - to a lion when the horse got out of the corral at night. They also carried Australian Kelpies [5 of them] on the pommels of their saddles to use as sent trackers. Once spoor was located, a dog was put on it and they followed the dog until the dog’s nose “burned out”. That dog was picked up and a fresh dog put down. The process was repeated until they caught up with the terrorists. If the CT's were a small group, the mounted squad took them. If a large group, helo mounted forces were called in. The patrols were a week long and they lived our of their saddle bags - no pack animals.

Virtually every military in the world that has to deal with massive mountains has either horse mounted forces and or animal pack units. Both the Mongolians and the Chinese have cavalry to patrol their common border. The free grass of the steppes makes horse mounted patrolling far more cost effective than using gas or diesel fuel - both for vehicles on site and getting it there - the border is that long and remote.


Thus the use of horse mounted forces is situationally dependent. And that’s the history of mounted forces in the 20th century that wasn’t mentioned in the video all in a nut shell (omitting only cavalry actions in the Russo Japanese War). In the 21st century the video gave scant notice to the SF guys assisting the Northern Alliance. There is more to the story than those few seonds. Specifically, there were General Dostum’s movements from NW Afghanistan to Mazar-e-Sharif and then to Kabul in late 2001 and early 2002. Virtually all of his attacks were mounted assaults - and all but one were successful on the first go. One had to be repeated - but only after the SF guided USAF bombs onto a ZSU 23-4.

[elee]

Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) during the encirclement the soviets used three cavalry corps, the 8th (including the 21st, 55th and 112th cavalry divisions), the 3rd Guards (including the 5th and 6th Guards and 32nd cavalry divisions) and the 4th Cavalry Corps (61st and 81st cavalry divisions). A Soviet cavalry division even changed sides and fought on the German side. 1st Cossack Cavalry Division (German: 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division) part of the the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps created from captured Russian Cossacks.. Lots and lots of cavalry action in WW2.