Steeds of Steel

From the book: "Two men in a jeep . . . spotted the [German] gun crew hightailing it into an olive grove about 175 yards away. The jeep stopped with its hood under the muzzle of the disabled gun, and one man jumped out with his carbine to fire on the gun crew. At that moment, a camouflaged 88mm in the olive grove opened up and destroyed the jeep. The recon troops replied with everything they had. A direct hit from an 81mm mortar round knocked out the second gun. "Under covering fire from some Sherman tanks, Troop B rolled into Ferryville with the loss of two soldiers killed. The overjoyed French citizenry mobbed the troops, shoving flowers and wine into the men's hands." The U.S. Army's mechanized cavalry force served in an astounding variety of ways in World War II-certainly a greater variety in one three-year period than any other cavalry force in human history. Mechanized cavalrymen drove tanks, armored cars, jeeps, and landing craft. This new cavalry even occasionally rode horses. The troopers learned to outwit the enemy in African desert, Italian peaks, European hedgerows, and Pacific jungles. They battled hand-to-hand like any GI, often working alone, miles ahead of the nearest friendly units.Steeds of Steelis their story.Yeide, Harry is the author of 'Steeds of Steel', published 2008 under ISBN 9780760333600 and ISBN 0760333602.