American soldiers and German troops fought Waffen-SS units together in Czechoslovakia on April 28, 1945. The mission was to rescue some of Europe's rarest horses before the Soviet Red Army arrived.
Operation Cowboy stands as one of only two documented occasions during World War II when U.S. and Wehrmacht forces fought alongside each other against a common enemy. The raid saved more than 1,200 horses, including 375 irreplaceable Lipizzaners whose bloodlines stretched back four centuries. Days later, the Czechs greeted their American liberators with flowers as U.S. armor rolled into Pilsen. But the Yalta Conference had assigned Czechoslovakia to the Soviet sphere of influence.
Three years after celebrating freedom from the Nazis, Soviet-backed communists seized control, beginning 40 years of repression that tried to erase both the horse rescue and the American liberation from the country’s history.
Nazi Breeding Program for 'Aryan Horses'
Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939. After this, they transferred the Spanish Riding School's Lipizzaner breeding mares from Vienna to a military stud farm in Hostau, Czechoslovakia.
During the war, the Third Reich pursued eugenics experiments on both human captives and animals alike, including these horses. Nazi veterinarians wanted to engineer what they called an "Aryan horse" through selective breeding. Lt. Col. Hubert Rudofsky commanded the Wehrmacht veterinary team assigned to the horses.
Meanwhile, Alois Podhajsky supervised the training operations. Podhajsky was an Austrian colonel who won bronze at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in dressage, an event that tests the partnership between horse and rider.
By the end of the war in 1945, Hostau housed over 1,200 animals. The collection included 375 Lipizzaners, 100 Arabian horses, 200 thoroughbreds, and 600 captured Russian horses. The Lipizzaner breed dated to the 16th century Habsburg Dynasty. These white horses performed haute école dressage at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The movements are called "airs above the ground" and require years of training for both horse and rider. They were not only extremely rare, but prized for their genetics and skills.
By April of 1945, the horses were in grave danger. The Red Army was advancing westward through Eastern Europe toward Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops, though they used cavalry extensively, hardly cared about rare European horses and instead viewed captured German horses as food.
Soviet forces had already killed Hungary's entire Royal Lipizzaner herd as the country fell. German veterinarians at Hostau knew their horses would likely meet the same fate. Meanwhile, starving refugees tried to raid the farm to kill the animals for meat. A few German soldiers and guards were posted there to protect the veterinarian team and the horses.
A German Officer Asks for Help
Lt. Col. Walter Holters was stranded at Hostau when his Luftwaffe intelligence unit ran out of fuel. His unit was moving toward American lines to hopefully surrender to them over the Soviets. Realizing the situation at Hostau, Holters made a plan to contact the nearest American unit for help. Rudofsky initially resisted, fearing he would be shot for treason if he surrendered.
Holters went ahead anyway, Rudofsky ultimately changed his mind as he realized the Soviets were getting closer. They contacted the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of Col. Charles Reed's 2nd Cavalry Group under Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army. They offered to surrender the farm and the horses to American forces if they would agree to evacuate the animals.
German troops called Reed's mechanized cavalry the "Ghosts of Patton's Army" because of their aggressive reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. Many of the unit's officers had served in mounted cavalry before the Army mechanized. They understood the value of the horses. Because the horses were located behind pre-arranged post-war boundaries and German units were still guarding the border, Reed needed approval from higher command.
Patton approved the operation immediately, saying, "Get them. Make it fast." The general was a former cavalryman himself and had previously competed in Olympic equestrian events. He assembled a task force of two cavalry reconnaissance troops armed with M8 scout cars, M8 howitzer motor carriages, two M24 Chaffee light tanks, and 325 infantry soldiers. Maj. Robert P. Andrews commanded the task force.
The men realized the uniqueness of American cavalrymen setting out to rescue horses from the enemy. It sounded like the plot to a Western movie. The men dubbed the mission Operation Cowboy.
The mission faced several major problems. Hostau sat 20 miles inside German-held territory. Many of the mares were either pregnant or nursing newborn foals. The Yalta Conference had assigned Czechoslovakia to the Soviet sphere of influence, meaning Moscow could oppose American operations there, especially as Red Army troops operated nearby. German units defending the Czech border also hadn't agreed to any of this and would likely fight.
XII Corps unleashed massive artillery barrages at multiple German defensive positions to clear a path to Hostau. Capt. Thomas Stewart rode into Hostau and met with German veterinarian Capt. Rudolph Lessing to negotiate surrender terms. Stewart was the 42nd Squadron's intelligence officer and spoke some German. Reed picked him partly because of his equestrian experience.
Americans and Germans Fight the SS Together
Stewart was a 29-year-old Tennessee native who landed at Normandy the previous June. He entered Hostau on April 28, 1945. Andrews put Stewart in tactical control and reduced the force to one cavalry troop, two tanks, two howitzer carriages, just 180 soldiers total.
Nevertheless, the German garrison surrendered, but Stewart faced another problem. His small force couldn't secure the farm, the town, the road back, and defend against attacks while evacuating over 1,200 horses at the same time.
Stewart turned to whoever could help. About 400 Allied prisoners of war worked at the farm as forced labor, including British, New Zealanders, French, Poles, and Serbs. All of them volunteered when offered captured German weapons. Stewart also got help from several anti-communist Russian Cossacks in the area who opposed the Soviets. Knowing the danger to the animals, the surrendered Wehrmacht soldiers asked to assist as well. The mixed force became known as "Stewart's Foreign Legion."
Waffen-SS units attacked the farm twice. SS infantry hit positions defended by American GIs, German Wehrmacht troops, Russian Cossacks, and Allied former POWs. The skirmishes were brief but brutal. The SS had no desire to see their fellow Germans or horses surrender to the Americans. Both attacks failed with several casualties on each side. The SS withdrew after taking heavier losses than expected.
Two American soldiers died during the operation. PFC Raymond Manz and T/5 Charles Sutton, both from Troop A of the 42nd Reconnaissance Squadron, were killed in fighting near Bela nad Radbozou.
Reed organized the evacuation of the horses between the attacks. American, German, and Cossack officers mounted many of the stallions and rode them out. Some mares were herded on foot like a Wild West cattle drive. Pregnant mares and newborn foals rode in both German and American trucks. The column left Hostau just as Soviet T-34 tanks reached the eastern edge of town.
There was a tense standoff as Soviet and American troops stared each other down, well behind the boundary lines agreed upon at Yalta. The Red Army commanders chose not to engage or interact with Reed's forces. The horses reached American lines safely.
Stewart received the Bronze Star for the mission. Austria awarded him its National Gold Award. Patton personally gave Stewart a German-made Drilling shotgun.
When later asked why the Americans agreed to the rescue, Reed said, "We were so tired of death and destruction, we wanted to do something beautiful."
The horse rescue was part of the Third Army's larger push into Czechoslovakia. While Stewart's task force fought alongside Germans to save the Lipizzaners, other American divisions were breaking through the Czech border. Within days, U.S. troops would liberate cities that had suffered six years under Nazi occupation.
Czechoslovakia's Moment of Freedom
Patton's Third Army crossed into Czechoslovakia on April 18, 1945, to protect his advancing flanks. American divisions freed Aš on April 20. Cheb fell six days later. U.S. forces fought through the forested border regions deeper into Czech territory.
Pilsen's population revolted against Nazi occupation on May 5, 1945. Citizens filled the streets to tear down German swastikas and other symbols. Wehrmacht troops counterattacked to suppress the uprising and put the city under siege.
American armor arrived early on May 6 when the 16th Armored Division's tanks entered Pilsen around 8 a.m. Col. Charles Noble's Combat Command B led the assault and faced scattered resistance. The 2nd Infantry Division and Belgium's 17th Fusilier Battalion reinforced the attack. The German defense started collapsing.
Czech civilians filled Republic Square, celebrating their liberation. Grateful residents gave American soldiers flowers and food while waving homemade flags.
First Lt. John Patterson wrote home, "I have never seen so many people happy at one time. It made us all feel it was worth it. Czechs are wonderful people."
Fighting continued even during the celebrations. After accepting flowers and greetings, American troops went back to clearing German defenders from the city.
Third Army units pushed to within 50 miles of Prague. Radio broadcasts from the capital asked for help as Czech resistance fighters launched a massive uprising against German forces on May 5. Unfortunately, Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ordered American forces to halt. The Yalta Conference agreements had assigned Prague and Czechoslovakia to the Soviets.
The Red Army entered Prague on May 9, 1945. The final shots of WWII in Europe happened near Příbram, southeast of the capital. American operations liberated more than 3,400 square miles across western Czechoslovakia, including Pilsen, České Budějovice, and Karlovy Vary.
U.S. forces suffered fewer than 1,000 casualties killed or wounded during the offensive. Soviet forces advancing from the east suffered about 50,000 casualties. German forces lost between 200,000 and 250,000 soldiers, with more than 860,000 surrendering to both Allied armies.
American forces remained in western Czechoslovakia through early December 1945. U.S. troops helped restore government services, rebuild infrastructure, and maintain public order until local Czech authorities could function on their own. The rescued Lipizzaner horses returned to Austria and the Spanish Riding School, where Podhajsky cared for them until 1965. Their descendants still perform there today.
The Czechs celebrated their American liberators and the horse rescue that became well known across the region. But Czechoslovakia's future was bleak, and it would not stay free for long.
From Liberation to Soviet Control
Czechoslovakia's brief moment of liberation lasted barely three years. The Communist Party won 38 percent of the votes in the 1946 elections, one of the strongest Communist showings in any competitive European election. The party formed a coalition government with non-Communist parties under President Edvard Beneš.
Popular support collapsed in the summer of 1947. Communist police activities angered citizens. Farm communities rejected collectivization plans. Industrial workers opposed productivity demands without wage increases. Public opinion polls in January 1948 showed Communist support had fallen to 25 percent. Moscow saw that the party would lose the scheduled May 1948 elections.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered Czechoslovakia's Communist Party to seize power immediately. Twelve non-Communist cabinet ministers resigned in February 1948 to protest Prime Minister Klement Gottwald's refusal to stop putting Communists throughout the police agencies. The ministers thought Gottwald would compromise rather than risk the government collapsing. They were wrong.
Armed Communist militia units took over Prague. Workers' demonstrations filled city streets. Gottwald threatened a general strike unless President Beneš accepted Communist demands. On Feb. 25, 1948, Beneš gave in, fearing civil war and possible Soviet military intervention. He accepted the resignations and appointed a new cabinet controlled by the Communists and their supporters.
Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk died on March 10, 1948. His body was found on the pavement below his office window at Czernin Palace. Authorities never determined if he jumped, fell, or was pushed. The circumstances remain unresolved.
The changes came quickly. The National Assembly approved a new constitution on May 9, 1948, declaring the nation a "people's democratic state." Elections on May 30 gave voters a single approved list of candidates. The Communist victory became official. Thousands lost their jobs. Hundreds were arrested. Thousands more left the country.
The new government moved to rewrite history. Communist authorities erased any signs of American participation in Czechoslovakia's liberation from official accounts. Stories of the Third Army's advance, the liberation of Pilsen, and missions like Operation Cowboy disappeared from textbooks and public discussion. The regime emphasized the “Soviet liberation” of Prague while suppressing Western Czechoslovakia's experience with the Americans.
Officials in Pilsen destroyed the city's "Thank You, America" memorial and banned tributes to U.S. forces. One Czech witness described trying to lay flowers at the demolished monument, "I had bought red and white carnations and went to lay them at the memorial. Suddenly, a lorry appeared and several uniformed National Security officers got out. Pointing their guns at us, they shouted at us to disperse. During the night, trucks came. They took all the bouquets, the flags, and even the monument and threw them in the rubbish."
The Memories Survived Behind the Iron Curtain
Residents of Pilsen kept their private memories alive despite the government’s official suppression efforts. Families taught children about the American soldiers who brought them freedom in May of 1945. They shared stories of the Third Army's battles, the liberation in Republic Square, and even tales of the horse rescue at Hostau. The regime could destroy monuments, but Czech civilians remembered what the Americans had done for them.
The Velvet Revolution finally ended Communist control in November 1989. Pilsen organized its first Liberation Festival in May 1990. Hundreds of thousands came to publicly honor what they had remembered privately for decades.
"It felt so right that our town was freed from the Nazis by a Western army," Frantisek Kotva told the Associated Press during that first festival. "We all loved the GIs, but then we had to forget about them for a long time."
The annual Liberation Festival occurs each May. The event commemorates the Third Army's advance into Czechoslovakia, the liberation of Pilsen, and missions like Operation Cowboy that happened during those final days of World War II.
Tens of thousands attend every year, including American veterans and their families as honored guests. Hundreds of restored U.S. military vehicles from World War II parade through the city streets in the "Convoy of Liberty." Re-enactors set up period military camps. Czech police officers give flowers at memorials.
American cavalrymen from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the successor to the American cavalry that participated in Operation Cowboy, also participates in events in the country each year.
A rebuilt "Thank You, America" monument receives visits from the Czech President and international officials each anniversary. The ceremony falls on May 6, the date when Combat Command B rolled into Pilsen over 80 years ago, shortly after American cavalrymen and German troops fought together to save a group of horses from the SS and the Soviets.
