The mission of the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron

Unidentified men of Reconnaissance Troop B greeted by locals in the village of Valcanville, in the Val de Saire on the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy. Believed to have been taken on June 21 1944. (Photo source currently unknown)

“What makes the mechanized cavalry groups so special is that their impact on the battlefield proved consistently larger than that of any other equivalently sized unit”

— William Stuart Nance - 'Sabers Through The Reich'

Background

What was the mission of the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron? How did mechanized cavalry operate in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) in WW2? How did the role of cavalry differ from infantry and other units?

The 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, was part of the 4th Cavalry Group - one of 13 American mechanized cavalry groups (MCGs) serving in the European campaign. Each MCG consisted of two squadrons. In the case of the 4th Cavalry Regiment these were the 4th and 24th squadrons.

This project is dedicated to the 24th squadron.

Like all mechanized cavalry groups the 4th Cavalry Group was attached to one of the corps that formed the various allied army groups in Europe between June 6 1944 and May 8 1945, when the unconditional surrender of Germany came into effect.

A corps was a large military structure typically comprising infantry, artillery, armour, engineers, medical, logistical and other specialised units.

The 4th Cavalry Group served VII Corps, which arrived in France via Utah Beach, during and after D Day.

The VII Corps was commanded by General 'Lightning' Joe Lawton Collins (‘lightning’ derived from his radio call sign during service in the Pacific theatre) and was part of the US First Army, in turn part of the allied 21st Army Group, led by British General Bernard Montgomery.

The job of cavalry reconnaissance

Cavalry reconnaissance squadron doctrine (essentially the field manual describing their formation, equipment and activities) emphasised ‘sneak and peak’ stealth with emphasis on information-gathering. But the mechanized cavalry groups in WW2 were immediately used by Corps commanders as fighting units. Doctrine was ignored and MCGs were immediately thrown into combat, tasked with missions to take new territory from the enemy, protecting friendly forces and forming specialised multi-faceted ‘task forces’ in combination with other units.

The 4th MCG’s job (and so the squadron’s mission) was therefore:

Reconnaissance. To gain intelligence on enemy deployment, combat strength and movements.
Security. To protect the flanks, or rear areas, of VII Corps forces during advances so that maximum corps combat strength could be concentrated on forward engagement.
Offence. To provide an 'economy of force' service. This typically involved drawing out an often stronger enemy force and inflicting as much damage as possible before leaving better-suited friendly units to engage and destroy the enemy.
Communications. Maintaining contact between friendly units, for example by providing a separate radio network for inter-unit coordination when forces were spread apart.
Taking and holding territory, typically to protect friendly supply lines.

The job necessarily kept them in harm’s way at almost all times, outside of resting or refitting periods.

Cavalry was highly mobile - 'mounted' on jeeps, armoured cars, howitzer vehicles and light tanks. It was potent as a combat force, but its lightly armoured nature made cavalry vulnerable under sustained assault and more suited to rapid engagements or fluid situations than remaining dug in for extended attritional or 'positional' warfare.

The way the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, operated in reality minimised overall friendly unit losses and empowered main assault forces to prevail more quickly by concentrating all of their strength as a hard 'spear tip'. The squadron also inflicted serious losses on the enemy and took many prisoners in their own right.

After intensive training and preparation in southern Britain the 24th Cav Recon Squadron’s job proper began in the early hours of D Day, when elements of the squadron from Reconnaissance Troop B occupied the Île du Large, just off Utah Beach, before the main amphibious assault began; a classic reconnaissance and security operation ensuring that no enemy were there to direct airborne ground attack or call in artillery against the VII Corps northern flank during the initial landings.

Those men came onto mainland France 48 hours later to provide security for the first headquarters of General J Lawton Collins a little way inland at Le Buisson farm, until being re-attached to the main squadron, which arrived in France on June 15 1944.

The squadron would fight through five campaigns and find themselves in the thick of many famous moments over the coming year. They fought through the infamous Hürtgen Forest and elements of Troop A were among the first men to cross the Rhine via the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.

Eventually the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron would close the war in Germany, redesignated as the 24th Constabulary Regiment, helping to stabilise and police the chaos of a defeated country filled with displaced people.

To understand in greater depth the difference between mechanized cavalry reconnaissance doctrine and ‘real life’ practice visit this page for a deeper explanation and links to academic sources.

Follow the journey of the squadron month by month.