Steeds of Steel

the long version

When World War II broke out, the U.S. Cavalry was still mainly the horse-mounted force it had been since the nation's founding; within a year, the branch had lost its horses and very nearly its mission. This book follows the mechanized cavalry from its earliest days - in 1942 U.S. Army cavalrymen landed in North Africa - through the campaigns in the Mediterranean, Europe and the Pacific. The mechanized cavalry scouted and fought in tanks, armoured cars, and jeeps; battled on and from the sea in tracked amphibians; stormed beaches from landing craft; slipped ashore in rubber rafts from submarines; climbed mountains; battled hand-to-hand on foot like any GI; and even occasionally rode horses.