Patton's Iron Cavalry - The Impact of the Mechanized Cavalry on the U.S. Third Army Page: 133
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CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSIONS
On 19 May 1945, the 3rd MCG celebrated the 99th anniversary of the regiment. In a letter
addressed to the officers and men of the group, LTG Walton Walker praised the cavalrymen.
"The 'crossed sabers' you wear bear a new luster due to your deeds in the present
campaign. When the history of the present War in Europe is written, no narrative
could be complete, no account could be either adequate or accurate unless it told, and
told at some length, of your achievements."313
Although Walker specifically addressed only the 3rd MCG, the same could be said for all the
cavalry groups that had served with the U.S. Third Army. These six groups had served with
distinction in every theater of combat in which the army had fought, from Normandy to the
Czechoslovakian border. Designed and trained for a purely reconnaissance role, these
cavalrymen had conducted that mission in addition to offensive and defensive security
operations, economy of force missions, coordination and liaison duties, and full scale offensive
and defensive combat. Despite inadequate organization and equipment, the cavalry had
succeeded in almost every mission assigned.
During Third Army's baptism of fire in the Northern France and Brittany campaigns, the
cavalry proved invaluable to enabling the army to move rapidly and decisively. The 15th MCG
spearheaded Task Force "A" into Brittany, seizing key rail bridges, vital logistics nodes and
protecting the rear of the 6th AD as it invested the port of Brest. Additionally, the 15th MCG
participated in outright offensive operations on the periphery of Brest, assisting in the seizure of
the Daoulas Peninsula and seizing the Crozon Peninsula. Without the efforts of the 15th MCG,
VIII Corps would have had a much more difficult time in clearing the Brittany peninsula. The
313 Preston Utterback, The 150 Year Saga of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry (Phoenix: 3rd Cavalry Veterans
Association, 1996), 229.133
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Nance, William Stuart. Patton's Iron Cavalry - The Impact of the Mechanized Cavalry on the U.S. Third Army, thesis, May 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc68023/m1/139/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .