Cavalry of Active Infantry Divisions
The Mobilization of German Cavalry in 1914
On the eve of the First World War, the armies of the German Empire possessed one hundred and ten regiments of cavalry. Though variously styled as dragoons, cuirassiers, light horse, heavy riders, uhlans, hussars, and mounted rifles, each of these regiments was, in terms of organization, equipment, and training, interchangeable with any other cavalry regiment in the German armies.
Upon mobilization, sixty-six cavalry regiments reported for duty with cavalry divisions. Forty-four found homes as the organic reconnaissance units of infantry divisions. Six underwent a process of rapid expansion before being split into matched pairs of “half regiments.”
Each peacetime cavalry regiment consisted of five squadrons. Upon mobilization, one hundred and four regiments designated one of these squadrons (which one varied from one regiment to another) as its Ersatz squadron and went to war with the other four. Six regiments, however, received a sufficient number of additional officers and men to form a total seven squadrons.1
The 3rd Hussar Regiment, for example, received a draft of 500 officers and men. Of these, 458 came from Berlin - which lay seventy or so kilometers (forty-one miles) to the east of the regiment’s garrison - and the rest boarded the train at intermediate stations.
Of these, three would be assembled into one half-regiment [Halbregiment], three would join a second half-regiment, and one would stay behind as the training and replacement unit for both half-regiments.
The half-regiments were distributed, at a rate of one half-regiment per division, among the six active infantry divisions that lacked division reconnaissance units. This was done in a way that gave each of the two infantry divisions of an army corps with one of the half-regiments mobilized by a single peacetime regiment. Thus, for example, each of the half-regiments of the 3rd Hussar Regiment was assigned to one of the infantry divisions of the III Army Corps.
Sources
This post is based on data gleaned from the organizational appendix to the first volume of the German official history; Hermann Cron (C.F. Colton, translator) Imperial German Army: Organization, Structure, Orders-of-Battle (Solihull: Helion, 2002); and Löbell's Jahresberichte über das Heer-und Kriegswesen [Löbell’s Military Matters and Warfare Annual], 1913, pages 12 and 13.
The painting at the top of this post comes from Ottoman Freiherr von der Osten-Sacken und von Rhein Deutschlands Armee in feldgrauer Kriegs- und Friedens-Uniform (Berlin: P.M. Weber, 1916) table 20.
The figures for the ‘augmentees’ incorporated into the 3rd Hussars comes from Graf Christian zu Rantzau, Geschichte des Husaren Regiments von Zeiten (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 3 (Berlin: Gerhard Stalling, 1930) page 41.
The 3rd Hussar Regiment, for example, incorporated 500 additional men in the course of mobilization. Of these, 458 came from Berlin - seventy or so kilometers to the east of the regiment’s garrison in Rathenow - and the rest boarded the train at stations between Berlin and Rathenow. Graf Christian zu Rantzau, Geschichte des Husaren Regiments von Zeiten (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 3 (Berlin: Gerhard Stalling, 1930) page 41