Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and the Lipizzaners

Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and the Lipizzaners

Jun 2006 by Glueckstein, Fred

On May 7, 1945, the day before Germany surrendered and the war in Europe ended, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and Robert Patterson, the Undersecretary of War, drove to Schloss Arco in nearby St. Martin im Innkreiss in Upper Austria to see the white Lipizzaner stallions of the famous Spanische Hofreitschule, or Spanish Riding School.

The Lipizzaners had been secretly evacuated to St. Martin from Vienna in March 1945 by the Spanish Riding School's director, Col. Alois Podhajsky, who was afraid the stallions would be killed by air raids or captured by the approaching Russian army and sent to the Soviet Union.

With lack of fodder for his horses and uncertainties facing the future of the school, Podhajsky thought the American Army could help him protect his magnificent stallions and the 200-year-old Spanish Riding School. To that end, Podhajsky enlisted the aid of XX Corps commander Walton Walker, who invited Gen. Patton to a demonstration of the haute école.

At Schloss Arco, Patton and Patterson watched a performance of the Lipizzaners. The white stallions were famous the world over for their splendid leaps, the graceful dance of Pas de Trois, and the quadrille ballet. Known for their classical beauty, intelligence and athleticism, the origin of the Lipizzaners goes back to the village of Lipizza in present day Slovenia, where the court stud was founded in 1580 with Spanish horses imported by Archduke Charles II.

Through the centuries, the descendants of the Lipizzaners were carefully bred from the foundation sires: Pluto (b.1765), Conversano (b.1767), Neapolitano (b.1790), Favory (b.1779), Maestoso (son of a Neapolitaner and Spanish horse) or Siglavy (b.1810). The Lipizzaner is known for its expressive head, a highly set neck, a long and powerful back, and a tail and mane that are thick and fine haired. The foals are born dark, either black or brown, and they acquire their white coloring between the ages of four and 10 years.

At the end of the performance at Schloss Arco, Podhajsky rode a white Lipizzaner stallion named Neapolitano Africa over to Patton, who was in uniform and wearing his trademark helmet with stars embossed on the front. Podhajsky saluted with a wave of his gold-cockaded hat. Patton rose from his seat.

Podhajsky, who held his hat in his right hand and the reins and a crop in his left, addressed Patton and the other visitors.

"I ask you, Gen. Patton," said Podhajsky, "and the representatives of the U.S. government to take under your protecting hand this old Austrian Academy, a cultural institution of the noble art of riding, unique in Europe and perhaps unique in the world. This school demonstrates the development of culture of the 16th century and it represents the era of the Baroque almost intact."

Patton nodded and replied, "Magnificent! These horses will be wards of the U.S. Army until they can be returned to the new Austria." In appreciation, Podhajsky, and the other riders slowly raised their hats in salute. The white Lipizzaner stallions stood at attention.

As one of the outstanding field commanders in the U.S. Army, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was flamboyant, temperamental and controversial. Closely associated with the development of tanks and the tactics of armored warfare, Patton was a former cavalryman and an accomplished horseman.

After graduation from West Point in 1909, Patton's second assignment was with the 15th Cavalry at Fort Myer, Va. There he found time to race horses, compete in steeplechases and play polo. His equestrian skills were evident. As a member of the American team in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympiad at Stockholm, Sweden, Patton, on a borrowed Swedish cavalry horse, registered a perfect score in the 5,000 meter steeplechase.

Patton distinguished himself during World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, where he commanded the 304th Tank Brigade. In the peacetime era before the outbreak of World War II, he rejoined the cavalry and owned a dozen horses. While pursuing his military career, Patton also played on the Army polo team and enjoyed foxhunting, steeplechasing and horse shows, where he won some 400 ribbons and 200 cups.

Patton's cavalry training and fondness for horses made his decision in 1945 to assume responsibility for the magnificent white Lipizzaner stallions understandable.

Patton wrote in his diary that day:

It struck me as rather strange that, in the midst of a world at war, some 20 young and middle-aged men in great physical condition, together with about 30 grooms, had spent their entire time teaching a group of horses to wriggle their butts and raise their feet in consonance with certain signals from the heels and reins. Much as I like horses, this seemed to me wasted energy. On the other hand, it is probably wrong to permit any highly developed art, no matter how fatuous, to perish from the earth-and which arts are fatuous depends on the point of view. To me the high-schooling of horses is certainly more interesting than either painting or music.

 

With his stallions now in the safe hands of Gen. Patton and the U.S. Third Army, Col. Podhajsky was faced with another concern. Two years earlier in 1943, the Lipizzaners' breeding mares, which were bred to supply the Spanish Riding School's stallions, were taken by the German High Command from the lush green pastures of the Austrian Federal Stud in Fiber. Podhajsky knew that without the mares, the Lipizzaner stallions and the Spanish Riding School faced extinction.

What Col. Podhajsky did not know at the time was that Gen. Patton was already involved in the Spanish Riding School's destiny.

Nine days before, Patton had given approval to one of his commanders, Col. Charles Hancock Reed of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group (Mechanized), to execute an operation to rescue from the German Army more than 1,000 horses that included the Fiber breeding mares.

The story of the dramatic rescue began on April 25,1945, when Capt. Ferdinand P. Sperl, who was attached as an interrogator to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group, received information that a German intelligence unit that lacked transportation to Berlin was bivouacked in an area on the Czechoslovakian border. After negotiating with the German commander, Capt. Sperl led an "attack" early on April 26, and after a prearranged exchange of harmless gun fire, the Germans surrendered.

Later that day Col. Reed and the German general in charge of the intelligence unit had breakfast together. The two men found that they had a mutual interest in horses. The general showed Reed some beautiful photographs of Lipizzaners and Arabs that had recently been taken at the German Remount Depot at Hostau, Czechoslovakia.

R eed was told that a large number of valuable horses taken in territories under German control had been moved to Hostau, where there were ample stables, paddocks and enLclosures. Reed also learned that several hundred Allied prisoners of war were held there. Both agreed that the prisoners and horses must not fall into the hands of the approaching Russian army.

Like Gen. Patton, Col. Reed was a former cavalry officer, who had excelled in all aspects of equestrian sport. A graduate of West Point in 1922, Reed had served with the 8th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the 2nd Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kan. He was also a member of the Army Horse Show Team 1930-31 and an instructor at the Cavalry School.

After assuming command in 1942 of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, later organized as the 2nd Cavalry Group, Reed led the unit throughout World War II. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his skillful command of the group and personal courage while under attack by German tanks at the battle for Luneville.

After his breakfast with the German general, Col. Reed acted quickly. He sent a prisoner by bicycle to Hostau to arrange for a German officer to come through the American lines that night to arrange terms for surrender. Reed also sent a radio message through XII Corps to Third Army Headquarters requesting permission from Gen. Patton for a military operation to rescue the prisoners of war and the horses.

 

Patton's reply was relayed to Reed: "Get them. Make it fast! You will have a new mission."

That night at about 8:00 P.M. Capt. Rudolph Lessing, German staff veterinarian at Hostau, arrived at one of Reed's border posts to arrange the surrender. He was riding a Lipizzaner and leading another. The German officer was taken to Col. Reed's headquarters, where the men had cocktails and dinner.

It was agreed that as an act of good faith, an American officer would ride back with Lessing and arrange the surrender of Hostau. Lessing warned Reed that between the American lines and Hostau there were elements of an SS Division that would fight. Reed was not concerned.

Capt. Thomas M. Stewart of the 42nd Squadron, a fine horseman from Tennessee and the son of a U.S. senator, volunteered to ride back with Lessing. The men were taken by jeep to the border post, climbed atop the Lipizzaners and rode off to Hostau.

After some harrowing experiences behind German lines, Stewart returned by motorcycle sidecar on the night of April 27. He reported that the German commanding officer, Lt. Col. Hubert Rudofsky, and his staff at Hostau, with the exception of a Czech-born lieutenant colonel, agreed to surrender when American forces arrived. Stewart told Reed that the Germans preferred to turn the horses over to the Americans rather than to the approaching Russians.

Col. Reed went ahead and gave the order to a small force he had already assembled to proceed with the mission to capture Hostau. Named Task Force Reed, the unit consisted of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group's 42nd Cavalry Squadron, which included a platoon of tanks and assault guns. Maj. Robert P. Andrews, with Capt. Stewart as his assistant, commanded the task force.

At daybreak on April 28,1945, American forces opened a firefight on the front line. After capturing two towns along the way, the task force broke through to Hostau. Col. Reed wrote that when his men reached Hostau, it "appeared as a fiesta rather than a battle. Townspeople and Allied prisoners lined the streets-the German soldiers presented arms-the German flag went down-ours went up, and after placing outposts, the officers, intelligence personnel and as many soldiers as could be spared went to look at the wonderful array of captured horses."

For Col. Reed and the men of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group, it was a special moment.

The unit's origins went back to May 1836 when President Andrew Jackson signed a bill forming their forebears-the second Regiment of Dragoons. Over the next hundred years, the soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment fought on horseback in the second Seminole War, the War with Mexico, the Civil War, on Frontier Service and in Indian Campaigns, in the War with Spain, the Philippine Insurrection, on Mexican Border Service and in World War I. It was only in recent times that the men and officers of that famed cavalry regiment traded their beloved horses for armored tanks.

With remnants of the former 2nd Cavalry Regiment at Hostau, Col. Reed recalled proudly: "Horses captured consisted of about 300 Lipizzaners, the Fiber breeding herd plus the Royal Lipizzaner stud from Yugoslavia-well mixed together. Over 100 of the best Arabs in Europe, about 200 thoroughbred and trotting bred horses collected from all of Europe-finally about 600 Cossack breeding horses."

The Headquarters 2nd Cavalry Group combat log for April 28, 1945, showed the 42nd Squadron also captured 416 prisoners and released 150 Allied prisoners of war. The next morning, a part of the task force rejoined the 2nd Cavalry Group. Capt. Stewart and one platoon of tanks were left to control Hostau and to protect its valuable horses.

Fearing an attack by the SS troops in the area, Stewart organized a defense force using some of the released Polish prisoners and Hostau's German troops and their anti-communist Cossack allies, who wanted to maintain the horse farm. The SS troops attacked Hostau late on April 30, 1945. A five-hour battle took place, which resulted in Stewart's forces defeating the attackers and capturing 100 prisoners; one soldier of the 42nd Squadron was killed and another wounded.

On or around May 14, 1945, Col. Podhajsky flew into Zinkovy on an American plane, where he spent the night and dined with Col. Reed and his staff. Plans were made for the breeding herd to be returned to Col. Podhajsky at St. Martin's as soon as practical. The next day Reed and Podhajsky drove to Schwarzenberg, where the Riding School's director pointed out the horses of the Fiber herd. Podhajsky was very pleased with their condition.