On the eve of the First World War, the armies of the German Empire maintained a hundred and ten cavalry regiments. While they varied greatly in uniform and designation, each of these regiments – whether of body guards (Gardes du Corps), dragoons (Dragoner), cuirassiers (Kürassiere), lancers (Uhlanen), hussars (Hussaren), heavy riders (Schwere Reiter), light horse (Chevaulegers) or hunters on horseback (Jäger zu Pferde) – qualified as a unit of ‘all-purpose cavalry’ (Einheitskavallerie). That is, each was organized, armed, trained, and employed in the same way.
In time of peace, each of the cavalry regiments of the German Empire rated five (or four) squadrons, each of which rated four (or five) officers and one hundred and forty-seven enlisted men. (One hundred and seven of the regiments possessed five squadrons apiece. Three regiments, however – all of which belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria – made do with four.)
Upon mobilization, most of the peacetime cavalry regiments organized themselves into two echelons – a four-squadron field unit and home-based ‘replacement squadron’ (Ersatz-Eskadron). Six regiments, however, departed from this pattern. Rather than splitting into two wartime organizations, each formed three: a replacement depot and two three-squadron ‘half-regiments’ (Halbregimenter).
A majority of the field units formed by the splitting of peacetime regiments - sixty-six out of a total of a hundred and sixteen - ended up in cavalry divisions. At the same time, each of the fifty remaining field units - thirty-eight four-squadron field regiments and twelve three-squadron half-regiments - found a home in one of the fifty active infantry divisions assembled at that time.
To put things more plainly, in order to resolve the mismatch between the number of available field regiments and the number of active infantry divisions in need of a cavalry component, German mobilization mavens invented the curious institution of the ‘half-regiment’. (They may have got the idea from the cavalry of the French Army of the day, which often deployed as demi-régiments.)
That said, the authors of the initial orders of battle for the forces assembled in August of 1914 enjoyed alternatives to the creation of half regiments. They could, for example, have reduced, by six, the number of cavalry regiments assigned to cavalry divisions. They could also have provided active infantry divisions with reserve cavalry regiments of the sort provided to reserve divisions. (One of these, the Guard Reserve Uhlan Regiment, served as the cavalry component of the 3rd Guard Infantry Division, a formation that was otherwise composed of active units.)
The mobilization of half-regiments may have been related to the location of their parent organizations, all six of which occupied garrisons in the most densely populated part of the Kingdom of Prussia – the area that lay between Berlin and the border with the Netherlands. Thus, reservists mobilized by the six soon-to-be-split regiments were less likely to have moved to another part of Germany in the years since completing their three-year terms of service ‘with the colors’. Likewise, many men who had trained with regiments based in other parts of Prussia would have moved to places within a short train ride of a Kaserne where half-regiments would be formed.
Another clue to the thinking behind the creation of half-regiments comes from the assignments of the infantry divisions that they joined. All twelve of the half-regiments joined infantry divisions that were deployed to armies of the right wing of the grand array sent west at the start of the war. Indeed, all of the divisions making do with half-regiments found themselves in what, faute de mieux, might be called the ‘right wing of the right wing’.
This pattern of assignment reduced the amount of traveling a half-regiment would have to do before crossing the border into Belgium. At the same time, it put infantry divisions with the greatest need for organic cavalry in positions where they would have to cover wide frontages, deal with open flanks, and operate in places that were poorly supplied with friendly cavalry divisions.
Sources
H.V.S. Charrington ‘German Cavalry in the Opening Stages of the Great War’ The Cavalry Journal (London) (April 1925) pages 113-122 (Hathi)
‘Evolution de l’Organisation de la Cavalerie Allemande au Cours de la Guerre’ (‘Evolution of the Organization of German Cavalry during the War’) Revue de Cavalerie (September-October 1921, November-December 1921, January-February 1922) (Gallica)
Die Grenzschlachten im Westen (The Frontier Battles in the West), Band 1: Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918 (Volume 1 of The World War 1914-1918) (Berlin: Reichsarchiv, 1925) pages 667-683 (Digital State Library of Upper Austria)
Hermann Cron (C.F. Colton, translator) Imperial German Army: Organization, Structure, Orders-of-Battle (Solihull: Helion, 2002)
Löbell’s Jahresberichte über das Heer-und Kriegswesen [Löbell’s Military Matters and Warfare Annual] (1913) pages 3-6 (Hathi)
For Further Reading
If they were the right wing why not ride around the crammed train lines in Belgium ZweiBee? (B2)?
Obviously we need a decision forcing case.
And about Lil Wily and his straight lines… at Von Klucks entirely necessary turn…
Merry Tannenbaum !