On This Day in History: April 28

WWII Horse Rescue

Listen to the audio version of today’s post.

Hitler was two days away from blowing his brains out as the Soviets crushed Berlin’s defenses. Meanwhile, in the small town of Hostau in West Czechoslovakia, there were hundreds of prize horses held by German forces. The Americans learned that Soviets were closing in and feared they’d be all, “Oh, horse meat! Yum!” and launched a quadruped rescue raid.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: April 28, 1945–

It didn’t hurt that there were also a few hundred Allied prisoners held there in need of rescue. But among the horses were 400 Lipizzans, representing the entire breeding stock of a famous equine of the Hapsburg Empire. If they got turned into kolbasa, that would be it for the breed.

The Lipizzan is prized for being both powerful and agile, with history as a war horse. Born dark colored, their coats turn grey as they age. According to the Disney version, General Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army and an avid horseman, ordered the raid to rescue the horses. But that’s not true. He didn’t know shit about it. A Third Army tank unit commanded by Colonel Charles Reed took the initiative to fight its way through enemy lines to effect the rescue. Patton didn’t get involved until later, providing support to help with the escape. 

How did the Americans learn of the endangered equines? The German officer in charge of the horses sent a message saying he and all his men would surrender if the Americans promised to save the horses. The mission was called Operation Cowboy. The Americans entered Hostau on April 28, 1945, rescued the Allied soldiers, took the Germans prisoner, and got the horses. Not just Lipizzan, but several hundred others, over a thousand in all. 

Now they needed to escape, and the fucking Nazis weren’t having it. See, the Germans who surrendered were regular army, called the Wehrmacht. Definitely on the same side as Nazis, but not actual Nazis. Nazi soldiers were called Waffen-SS, and they were made of douche. And, being douches, they wanted to wipe out the Americans and the horses too. So some of the Wehrmacht soldiers who had just surrendered to Americans turned coats and joined forces with their American vanquishers to fight alongside them against Nazi attacks. 

There were two battles during the escape, leading to a number of American deaths, but they killed a lot of fucking Nazis in the engagements. But it wasn’t just Nazis they had to protect the horses from. Despite the Soviets being American allies, they wouldn’t take kindly to seeing the ass end of all that “food” riding out of Hostau. The herd rode west out of town just as the first Soviet tanks rolled into the east end of Hostau. 

The Lipizzans were returned to the riding school in Austria where their descendants perform to this day. 

Thanks, Barb, for the suggestion of today’s post. 

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