Operation Cowboy

Operation Cowboy
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Date 5 May 1945 (1945-05-05) Standort Hostau, Czech Republic Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Vereinigte Staaten Wehrmacht british and polish POWs anti-communist Russian Cossacks	Deutschland SS-Regiment GrossDeutschland
Commanders and leaders
captain Thomas M. Stewart Major Andrews Colonel Holtersl colonel Rudofsky
Units involved
42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Group, XII Corps USA	Waffen-SS
Strength
unknown

Operation Cowboy was fought in Czech Republic village of Hostau, now Hostouň, on 28 April 1945, in the last days of the European Theater of World War II.

Background

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, the Spanish Riding School in Vienna was deprived of its breeding. It was transferred to an experimental farm in the village of Hostau, then in the occupied Chekoslovakia; the goal was to create an "Aryan horse" race. In the final phases of WWII this village was on the advancing path of soviet Red Army, and german soldiers in the farm were not happy to surrender to russians. On the other side, to the west, there was the advancing XII Corps of USA Third Army, commanded by general George Patton, racing with russians for the liberation of Prague.

Prelude

German veterinarians in the farm commanded by colonel Rudofsky were scared about what russians could do to their horses, because they during liberation of Hungary had already killed the whole Royal Hungarian Lipizzaner collection. Then the Luftwaffe intelligence officer colonel Holters, not part of the military personnel at the farm but being forced there with his unit because their vehicles were out of fuel, tried to arrange an agreement with advancing US troops. Holters was senior to Rudofsky but they agreed about the goal of saving the precious horses, and a contact was made with the nearest US unit in the area, the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of 2nd Cavalry Group. In spite of being a mechanized unit, many of the officers of the Group were horsemen and served in horsed cavalry before the mechanization, so they immediately planned a rescue operation.

The operation was not simple for a series of factors. First, german troops at czech frontier was not part of the agreement and will likely oppose to the american troops entering the area. Second, many of the hundreds of horses were pregnant and almost the whole rest had just given birth. Finally, the Chekoslovakia had been posed during Yalta Conference in soviet area of influence and the advancing Red Army would not have likely agree with the operation, having they reached in time the farm.

Battle

General Patton, who was happy about the operation, gave orders for quickly create a task group, but resources were scarce. Two small cavalry reconnaissance troops with M8 scout cars, some Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 and two M24 Chaffe light tanks and a screening infantry force of 325 men guided by major Andrews. The path was 20-mile long, but into still German-occupied territory with thousands of German troops, including two understrength yet still combat able armoured divisions, notably the 11th Panzer Division that will a few days later surrender at Passau and another panzer division.

External links

• "Operation Cowboy". Militaryhistorynow. Retrieved 8 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Bell, Bethany (7 May 2015). "The Austrian castle where Nazis lost to German-US force". BBC News. Retrieved 8 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)