The Charge of the 44 Division - 2,000 Killed Without Inflicting a Single Casualty

[wm]

The Mongolian 44th Cavalry charged the German lines near Musino during the Battle of Moscow; 2,000 cavalrymen were killed without inflicting a single casualty on the enemy.

The Soviets sent cavalry against German artillery. The battle was won after ten minutes. The Soviets say: meh, whatever.

In a somewhat similar battle, the 44th Rifle Division was destroyed during the Winter War (but its commander and his chief of staff were executed for that.)

The story is from Hitler Moves East 1941-1943 by Paul Carell.

True or false?

[GregSingh]

From Soviet sources.

This report mentions heavy losses on the 17th of November:
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=450938878

Summary losses (horses!) of the Division from Nov.16 to Dec.21: 1830 dead, 1471 missing. 3595 in total.
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=132635221

And soldiers in the same period: 282 dead, 1459 missing. 3299 in total.
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=132635220

[Art]

The story is from Hitler Moves East 1941-1943 by Paul Carell.

I suppose, the initial source is this brochure by the 4 Panzer Army
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/ru/ ... ect/zoom/4
This document bears a strong imprint of propaganda, the say the least.

[wm]

I was fully prepared to hear it was a fake story but really, so many dead horses?

Those guys weren't supposed to fight on horses, the cavalrymen might have been killed by thousands fighting on foot but not the horses.
The horses were expected to survive - well hidden at the back.
That indicates something horrible happened there.

It's like the awful scene from If War Comes Tomorrow (supposedly forced by Budionny) - masses of cavalry attacking enemy machines guns and tanks with impunity. Maybe their commander watched the movie too many times.

[Art]

After-action report of the III Battalion/107 Artillery Regiment (an appendix to the war diary of the 106 Infanterie Division)

Reproduced by Karasev, also some nice-looking situation maps in the same file:
http://zima1941.ru/articles/W_Teni_Legendy.pdf

[wm]

So probably the commander, honestly believing the enemy was retreating, made a mistake - ordered pursuit that ended in a massacre - but much smaller than the Wehrmacht propagandist Paul Carell claimed?

Nothing was wrong with a mounted pursuit, but a mounted attack was basically a crime according to Soviet regulations?

[Cult Icon]

Isn't this the combat action described by Raus (6th Panzer Division) in the books compiled with his reports?

[Art]

Isn't this the combat action described by Raus (6th Panzer Division) in the books compiled with his reports?

I don't think so, 6 Pz.Div was further to the north at that moment.

[Art]

So probably the commander, honestly believing the enemy was retreating, made a mistake - ordered pursuit that ended in a massacre - but much smaller than the Wehrmacht propagandist Paul Carell claimed?

The report posted above talks about an attack of several cavalry regiments. Situation report of the AG Center said that on 17.11.41
106 Inf.Div repulsed mounted attack of "3 Russian Cavalry Regiments" on a frontage of 3 km:
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/ru/ ... ect/zoom/6
So the primary source was not Carell.

Nothing was wrong with a mounted pursuit, but a mounted attack was basically a crime according to Soviet regulations?

Eh, why?
"Mounted attack is undertaken anytime when the enemy is not ready for organized resistance by fire and when his fire system is disorganized. Attacks of cavalry units should be in all cases supported by powerful fire of artillery and machine guns and by actions of tanks and aviation. However the strength of modern fire will frequently necessitate dismounted actions. Thus, cavalry should be ready for infantry combat."
From RKKA field manual of 1939. Here an emphasize on mounted actions is obvious.

[Art]

Situation maps of the German 35 Infanterie Division:
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/142592/ ... 722e7_orig
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/62627/8 ... c1cd2_orig
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/30086/8 ... c3d70_orig

Various documents of the 35 Inf.Div.:
https://gistory.livejournal.com/273241.html

The combat discussed here developed on the juncture between the 35 ID and its left neighbor (106 Infanterie Division) and a local penetration between these divisions occurred on 17 November.

[wm]

Eh, why?

That's not a mounted attack, it's a (barely opposed) combined arms attack with some guys riding horses.

[Art]

That's not a mounted attack, it's a (barely opposed) combined arms attack with some guys riding horses.

The manual called it "mounted attack", these were the words.

As far as can reconstruct the events they looked as follows: 44 Cavalry Division was a fresh unit that arrived from Central Asia. On 16 November it was supposed to enter the breakthrough made by the 58 Tank Division and had the 51 Cavalry Regiment on the right, 45 Cavalry Regiment on the left. Since the 58 TD failed to achieve much progress the cavalry wasn't strongly committed but stayed near the front line in readiness to resume advance. By 17 November (most probably during nighttime) 51 and 54 Cavalry Regiments crossed a marshy meadow and penetrated a forest north-east of Musino and this outflanked positions of the German 240 Infantry Regiment attacked by the 58 TD. From there they launched attacks to the north to Kuzyayevo and to the west and south-west to Musino and Parfenkovo. Apparently the mounted attack was made by the 54 Cavalry Regiment (not by several regiments as described in German accounts) or some parts of it and was supported by foot attack of elements of the 51 Cavalry Regiment and cadet battalion and also by action of horse artillery battery. Attacks on Musino and Pafenkovo failed, because they were pretty strongly occupied by the 239 Infantry Regiment and artillery, which apparently wasn't known to Soviet commanders. At the same time frontal attacks of the 58 Tank Division achieved some progress and the German 240 Infantry Regiment was driven back with heavy losses. On the evening of 17 November the Soviet offensive was called off due to progress of German offensive in other sectors. These actions visualized on the German situation map:

It's difficult to establish exact losses of the 44 Cavalry Division, because its casualty lists didn't survive, at least I can't locate them online. I can only find information about officers casualties. I've counted 26 officers killed or missing in the 44 CD in November 1941, of them 6 were lost on 17.11: 3 from the 54 Cavalry Regiment, 2 from the 51 Cavalry Regiment and 1 from the divisional chemical squadron. For comparison the authorized number of officers in one cavalry regiment was 95 and in the entire division - 528. So the casualties were considerable but hardly catastrophic.

[Art]

Another visualization of the movements of division on 16 and 17 November using a Soviet map:

44 CD 2.png (712.55 KiB) Viewed 2594 times

I hope this map makes obvious that the division leaped between forests and groves in the area which were used for cover from hostile fire and observation. Another important thing is that there was no direct contact between German and Soviet troops until 16.11 in that area. It seems that there was no exact idea about German positions before the Soviet offensive started. Probably the command though that elements of divisions already slipped behind the German lines on 17 November and further attacks on Musino and Parvenkovo wouldn't meat much opposition. It is hard to say for sure, since Soviet account of the events is extremely succinct.