When World War II broke out in September 1939, the U.S. Cavalry was still mainly a proud, horse-mounted force as it had been since the nation’s founding; within a year, the branch had lost its horses and very nearly its mission. The cavalrymen took to new steeds of steel, carved out a place on the modern battlefield, and restored their role and pride.
In doing so, they served in more ways in one three-year period than any other cavalry force in human history. Mechanized cavalrymen scouted and fought in tanks, armored cars, and jeeps; battled on and from the sea in tracked amphibians; stormed beaches from landing craft; slipped ashore in rubber rafts from submarines; climbed mountains; battled hand-to-hand on foot like any GI; and even occasionally rode horses.
Steeds of Steel follows the mechanized cavalry from its earliest days—in 1942 U.S. Army cavalrymen landed in North Africa during Operation Torch and fought on the jungle-clad slopes of Guadalcanal—through the campaigns in the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Pacific. Although battalion-sized cavalry squadrons and armored reconnaissance units fought only against Hitler’s legions, wherever an American infantry division served, its mechanized cavalry troop joined the battle. The mechanized cavalry’s brilliant legacy has lived on in the armored cavalry ever since. Oddly, the U.S. Army today is revisiting a debate of the pre–World War II period: Should the cavalry be restricted to stealthy acquisition of information, or should it be ready and able to fight pitched battles?
Steeds of Steel draws heavily on official after-action reports, other contemporary combat records, and interviews conducted by the U.S. Army with soldiers shortly after the actions occurred. Personal recollections written by mechanized cavalrymen round out the information, putting the reader in the action, riding along with the U.S. Cavalry in World War II.
Harry Yeide is an international affairs analyst with the federal government. He has worked primarily with political and security/military issues, writing assessments for the President of the United States and other senior policymakers. He is the author of The Longest Battle, The Tank Killers, Steel Victory, and Weapons of the Tankers and the coauthor, with Mark Stout, of First to the Rhine. Yeide lives with his wife Nancy and three cats in Hyattsville, Maryland.
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