14-160 Garand Picture of the Day - Hi-Yo Silver!
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505th PIR 82nd AB DIV, D-day+5, 1944 St Mere Eglise, Normandy.
From "Currahee!":
"Then came a real shock. Horse-mounted cavalry charged in, and after bitter fighting the town was again in enemy hands. We found out from a few prisoners taken in the withdrawal that the horse cavalry was made up of White Russians who had sided with the Germans." (p. 123)
When we finally had time to breath it was on the far side of town. The remnants of the White Russian horse cavalry had withdrawn to the surrounding fields and hedgerows and were regrouping with the shards of German infantry and once proud SS. Horses wandered aimlessly in the streets or grazed in the fields, for they no longer had masters to ride them." (p. 124)
"By this time some of the troopers were riding horses left behind by the Russian cavalry. Some of them wore their rifles strapped across their backs and carried pistols on each hip, cowboy fashion. They rode through the back streets and across fields searching for stray Krauts or snipers."(p. 144)
"One trooper wore a brace of Luger pistols, cowboy fashion, and rode a white horse commandeered from the late Russian cavalry. He was with a group of us that was out foraging for wine, when we ran into a German machine gun in a house on the right side of the road, just this side of the first bridge. The gun opened up on us with long bursts and we hit the ditches on either side of the road, but the trooper on horseback spurred his mount, and yelling, "Hi Ho Silver!" charged the machine gun with both pistols blazing.
He rode within a few yards of the machine gun while it ripped long bursts around him and his mount, then, wheeling around, he dashed back to us and the safety of a hedgerow. I guess the machine gunner was too busy dodging pistol bullets to get a well aimed burst at the trooper. We told him to cut it out or he was going to get it, but he said they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and made two more charges against the gun. "How lucky can a man be?" I thought, as he made yet another run through the hail of bullets. It was unbelievable, but we all witnessed it. He turned, yelled, "Hi Ho Silver!" again and started back for another try. But this time the gun zeroed in and almost chopped the trooper in half as they shot him out of the saddle. The white horse ran past us and the last we saw of him, he was still going at a full gallop." (p. 151)
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