4th Cavalry Group

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   [Cavalry Groups] [4th Cavalry D Day]

	"Paratus et Fidelis" Prepared and Loyal
	Regular Army

Normandy (with Arrowhead) //  Northern France // Ardennes - Alsace // Rhineland // Central Europe

Commander: Joseph M. Tully, COL, CAV, John C. McDonald, COL, CAV

Presidential Unit Citation  4th CRS  "Bogheim"

French Croix de Guerrere with Silver Star 4th and 24th CRS "Normandy"

Cited in Belgian Army Order of the Day for action in the Ardennes

The 4th Cavalry Group (Mecz) under the command of Colonel Joseph M. Tully, Cavalry, and later Colonel John C. McDonald, Cavalry, consisted of the 4th and 24th Cavalry squadron, and entered combat on 24 June 1944, as a task force consisting of Troops A of the 4th and B of the 24th Squadrons.  The task force landed on Ille-du-Large and Ill-du-Terre just off the Normandy coast of France and near the Utah Beach in the English Channel .  The mission war to seize and secure the Marcouf Island group.  One troop was dispatched to perform reconnaissance for the 82d Airborne Division and to maintain liaison between the 82d and the 101st Airborne Divisions.  The group headquarters landed on D plus 6 days.  Both squadron of the 4th Group participated in the battle for Cherbourg alongside the 4th and 9th Infantry Divisions.  The mission for this operation was the protection of the flanks of the respective division to which they were attached.  The group was then attached to the 2d Armored Division for the break through at St. Lo with the mission of screening the flank of that unit.  After the breakthrough, the group was attached to the 1st Infantry Division with the mission of protecting the flanks and performing reconnaissance to Mortain. A task force  was then organized that went all the way to Scissions on the Rhine , operating on the south flank of the VII Corps.  The group then moved to Lammersdorf-Monschau where both squadrons were engaged in defensive missions facing the enemy in a sector of the Seigfried Line.

 The 4th Croup was later relieved by the 102d Cavalry Group (Mecz) in the Lammersdorf area and ordered into the Hertgen Forest .  In the Hertgen Forest the mission was changed to that of an offensive nature as well as closing the gaps between the regimental combat teams of the 1st and 4th Infantry Divisions.  The 4th Group reached the Roe River about the same time that the Ardennes offensive got under way.  During the Battle of the Bulge, the group had the mission of maintaining contact between the 2d Armored Division and the 84th Infantry Division.  This was also an offensive operation to stem the tide of the German offensive.  Aachen was the next step after the Ardennes offensive had expended itself and after the group had been given about a week’s rest during the latter part of the January.

 The next mission was a sector in the attack on the Reoer River in the Hammock Forest area during the month of February 1945.  The group then crossed the Rhine at Bonn and went on the Brilon to participate in the closing of the Ruhr pocket.  It was then organized into a task force with additional attachments of artillery, engineers, and infantry, to mop up the remaining enemy forces which might be holding out in the Hartz Mountains .  the group then performed occupational duties in Austria until US forces were withdrawn.  The group operated under VII Corps throughout the war.

This article is extracted from a supplemental student text (undated) written for the US Army Armor School by LTC (Ret) James W. Cooke