German cavalry firing from the backs of horses, 1935

German cavalry firing from a standing saddle position during maneuvers at Carshorter Racecourse in Berlin. The cavalry was trained at the time to "fire from the saddle" in this way. Once action is initiated, it is highly doubtful whether this method has shown much.

This did little to reduce the vulnerability of cavalrymen to counter-firing from opposing infantry and machine-gunners; In fact, it increased such vulnerability. World War II was the end of the use of cavalry on a large scale.

Based on the Wehrmacht eagle on the uniform, it is clearly the Wehrmacht cavalry. The helmet looks like an M17 or it could be an M16. The horses were trained in the same way as Pavlov had trained his dogs: to bang them loudly and to use the sight of rifles and thus, repeating these things over and over, so that on the battlefield Don't panic when faced with them. The term for this type of training is "bomb proofing".

In World War II horses were used by warring nations to transport troops, artillery, materials and, to a lesser extent, mobile cavalry. The role of horses for each nation depended on the state of its military strategy and economy and was most pronounced in the German and Soviet ground forces. During the war, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union employed more than six million horses.

Throughout the war, infantry and mounted artillery constituted the bulk of the German army; Only a fifth of the army consisted of mobile panzer and mechanized divisions. Each German infantry division employed thousands of horses and thousands of men to look after them.

Despite the loss of horses due to enemy action, exposure and disease, Germany maintained a steady supply of work and saddle horses until 1945. The German army entered World War II with 514,000 horses, and during the war, in total, 2.75 million horses and mules; The average number of horses in the army reached 1.1 million.