Steel Cavalry by Lee Windsor

Author:Lee Windsor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Goose Lane Editions, Non-Fiction, Military, Military heritage, New Brunswick, The New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, The New Brunswick Military Heritage Series, Lee Windsor, Steel Cavalry: The 8th (New Brunswick) Hussars and the Italian Campaign, eBook, Canadian
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions and the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society
Published: 2011-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Two Hussars on leave after the liberation of Rome, summer 1944.

Vern Pearson Collection, PANB

By now, the New Brunswick Hussars were itching to join their infantry brothers in action on the west side and avenge their comrades. But they had to wait, for now the fighting was over. In the aftermath of its first mobile armoured battle, 5th Division and the 8th New Brunswick Hussars could feel proud of their actions. The Germans, shocked that the Hitler Line defenders had been destroyed so quickly, made desperate efforts to feed more men and heavy weapons into the grinding battle to hold the Melfa River, and in so doing played into the Allies’ hands. Intercepted German signal traffic revealed that their Melfa blocking force was “completely destroyed.” In total, the 8th Princess Louise’s (New Brunswick) Hussars destroyed or captured eleven German anti-tank guns, two self-propelled guns, a half-dozen gun tractors, a 105mm field artillery piece, innumerable machine guns, and Jimmy Jones’s Panther tank. They killed or captured over a hundred German soldiers. These measurable achievements mattered in the struggle to defeat Nazi Germany’s army much more than the rate of “advance.” In return, the regiment paid a heavy price: ten dead and twenty-four wounded. Six tanks had been totally destroyed, but thirteen others were recovered and repaired by unit fitters. In the context of this most destructive war in history, the 8th Hussars could take pride that, in their first true battle, they had made an important contribution to the mission of drawing German attention and forces to Italy and thereby guaranteeing victory in Normandy. The lessons and the experience the Hussars took away made them an even more efficient armoured force, and readied them for their greatest role, which awaited them three hundred kilometres north.

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