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They were then reinforced and participated in Operation Barbarossa, but were dismounted, retrained, and redesignated the 24th Armored Cavalry in 1941. The 1st Kavallerie Brigade performed greatly in the Holland campaign but saw some setbacks during the invasion of France (most noticeably, the defeat at the hands of the cadets at the cavalry school at Saumur on the Loire River). Their tasks included reconnaissance behind enemy lines, reconnaissance attacks against enemy recon units or advancing troops, screen the front and flanks, conduct delaying actions against the enemy, close gaps in the lines, quickly occupy important sectors and objectives, and pursuing retreating enemy forces.
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The cavalry was a sort of multi-purpose unit. Although they lacked the heavy 150mm guns of the infantry, the cavalry had more light cannon and more heavy weapons and were extremely agile in open terrain. Their firepower, however, was greater than that of the infantry. The combat strength of the 1st Kavallerie Brigade dismounted was roughly that of an infantry regiment. The two regiments retained the old system of five squadrons per regiment. It consisted of two mounted regiments, Reiter Regiment 1, Reiter Regiment 2, and Reitende Artillery-Abteilung1.
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Out of these, left as an experimental unit, the 1.Kavallerie Brigade (East Prussia), survived to form the single remaining unit of the Army Horse Cavalry. Also, some detachments were formed as infantry horse platoons for the infantry regiments. During the mobilization for war in 1939 seventeen of these regiments were used to form thirty-eight reconnaissance battalions for the initial wave of divisions and sixteen for the second wave. In 1939, before the outbreak of the war, the Wehrmacht had 18 Cavalry Regiments. This area of German military history is, by far, the most overlooked aspect of the war. Yet very little has been written about these units. It is estimated that the Germans took almost 2.75 million horses into battle, nearly twice what they used in World War I. Horse-drawn Artillery, supply wagons, and Cavalry were widely used. In the first mechanized war, the German Army found itself relying heavily on the horse.