First Team at Work on the Edge of the Storm
This week is the 105th anniversary of the establishment of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division.
To celebrate, how about this great photo essay of American horse cavalry in the field, Fort Bliss, Texas, summer of 1939? The twilight of such an organization. Note the M1903s and M1917A1 “Kelly” helmets. All caught in time.
(Photographer in all cases: J.J. Gregor, Ft. Bliss, Texas. From prints furnished by Mr. Sullivan, Remount Branch, Quartermaster Corps. 7/18/39. Signal Corps Collection via NARA)
Machine gun detachment. Note the M1917 Bolo knives on their gun belts, used for clearing brush from fields of fire. 111-SC-113986
Hell for leather, baby! Could you imagine what that Kelly tin helmet with almost no padding felt like rattling on your head while galloping across that ground? 111-SC-113995
Another shot of the MG detachment. You can see the tripod mounts for their M1917 Brownings. 111-SC-113989
Another of the MG detachments with Bolos. 111-SC-113992
111-SC-113991
Machine gun detachment. Note their M1917 Bolos. 111-SC-113985
Of gas masks and 1911s. My favorite, and also perhaps the scariest. 111-SC-113987
Field artillery on parade. At the time, the division had the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion and the 99th Field Artillery Battalion, both with 75mm pack howitzers, later towed by jeeps. 111-SC-113998
On parade with dress uniforms, including pennants
At the time, Fort Bliss was one of the final holdouts for horse cavalry in the U.S. Army. It was home to the active duty 1st Cavalry Division (activated there on 13 September 1921) with four regiments (5th, 7th, 8th, and 12th U.S. Cavalry). The base would also soon be home to the Army National Guard’s 56th Cavalry Brigade’s 112th (Texas) Cavalry Regiment, which had been called to federal service on 10 November 1940 by President Roosevelt and mustered at Bliss.
Tasked with guarding the Mexican border, that mission largely evaporated after Mexico formally entered WWII on the side of the Allies in June 1942.
After giving up their steeds on 28 February 1943, largely transferring them to the 2nd Cavalry Division, the 1st Cav deployed to Australia and later fought the Japanese on foot, seeing combat for the first time on 29 February 1944 on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty chain— which was ironically a horseshoe-shaped island.
It was in the Philippines when the unit inherited about 25 captured Japanese Army horses, found still harnessed to 75mm guns, then duly recycled into U.S. service by men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment.
On 3 February 1945, the 1st Cav became the first U.S. unit to re-enter Manila, racing 100 miles as part of the legendary “Flying Column” of jeeps and trucks to liberate more than 3,500 internees at Santo Tomas University and secure key objectives across the city, coining the name “First Team.”
By the end of the war, they had suffered 4,055 battle casualties in 521 days of combat.
Entering Tokyo with the occupation forces, they put on a rodeo for Armistice Day, 1945, at the Meiji Shrine Stadium, complete with horses liberated from a racetrack and purportedly late of the Imperial Guard.