[Cavalry
Groups]
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Regular Army |
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Normandy // Northern France
// Rhineland //
Central Europe
Commander: John
Reybold, COL, CAV // Robert Quinn, LTC, CAV
The
15th Cavalry Group (Mecz) under the command of Colonel John Reybold,
Cavalry, later Lt Colonel Robert Quinn, Cavalry, consisting of the 15th and 17th
Cavalry Squadrons (mecz), entered
Normandy
in the middle of July 1944 and took patrol work on the rear areas and the coast
line. A task force consisting of
both squadrons (plus attached tank destroyers and engineers) started from
Avranches on
3 August, 1944
, objective
Brest
.
The 15th Group proceeded to St. Nazaire and
Lorient
where it remained until
22
September 1944
. The
17th Cavalry Squadron then moved to
Rennes
with Ninth Army Headquarters as a security force.
The 15th Cavalry Squadron remained at St. Nazaire until relieved by the
66th Infantry Division. The 15th
Cavalry Group then established a security screen along the
Loire
River
from
Nantes
to Auxerre. The 15th Cavalry
continued the screening mission for the Ninth Army until
13
February 1945
, when it was attached to the XIV Corps and was
given a sector on the
Ruhr
River
at Oersbeck on
1 March 1945
.
It then attacked through the Siegfried Line toward Vento on the left
flank of the 35th Infantry Division. The
Rhine
crossing was accomplished at Sevelin in the British zone.
On 29 March, the group crossed the
Lippe
River
at
Dorsten
and continued to
Hamm
and Hergern, with XIX
Corps, where it reverted to XVI Corps control.
The campaign ended with an occupation mission near Deliwig.
This
article is extracted from a supplemental student text (undated) written for the
US Army Armor School by LTC (Ret) James W. Cooke
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