WW2 Memorials To Fallen Soldiers In The Lipizzan Rescue
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They Saved Horses
The casualties of Operation Cowboy finally get their due
By Brandon Swanson Staff Writer, The Prague Post, May 10, 2006
Disney was clearly more interested in tugging heartstrings than in recounting history when it released the 1963 action movie Miracle of the White Stallions, about the Allied effort to save hundreds of famed Lipizzaner horses from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia during the last days of World War II.
Now, 61 years after the event, the mayor of a small west Bohemian town and a handful of war veterans want to reframe the conventional version of the mission to honor the soldiers who lost their lives to save a piece of European culture. "It's a very nice movie," says Gaylord Jerry Toole, a Plzen resident, Vietnam veteran and member of the Military Car Club. "But they don't say anything about the people that died. They Disney-fied the bad parts.
" Belá nad Radbuzou Mayor Libor Picka and a delegation of U.S. military veterans laid the foundation stone April 28 for a monument to the two U.S. soldiers - Sgt. Owen Sutton and Pvt. Raymond Manz - who were killed outside of the town while trying to save the horses in the mild cusp of April and May, 1945. Their memorial will be officially dedicated Sept. 16. Picka says it is important to set the record straight and give credit to those who've been neglected by popular culture. "People forgot about the war and about how everything really was," he says. "So we put the information together, found out the names and did something."
Operation Cowboy
In late April 1945 U.S. General George Patton's 2nd Cavalry was holed up in west Bohemia near the dividing line agreed upon earlier that year by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet leader Josef Stalin at the Yalta conference. Meanwhile, a few miles away, on the Soviet side of the Yalta line, some 300 Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna had been moved to a farm in Hostoun, Czechoslovakia, in 1942. As the famished and fatigued Soviet Army approached from the east, the Germans worried that the horses were in danger. A Wermacht veterinarian, Capt. Rudolph Lessing, thought the Lipizzaners "would have been horse burgers for the Russian soldiers," as he put it at a 2nd Cavalry reunion years later.
Knowing that the Americans were near, Lessing sneaked behind enemy lines to the U.S. side with two Lipizzaners to convince the Army to rescue them from what he feared was certain death. U.S. Col. Charles Reed, an equestrian aficionado, immediately recognized the significance of the horses. Austrian rulers began breeding Spanish horses in the mid-16th century. Within a few decades, they established a royal stud farm in Lipica, in present-day Slovenia, from which the breed gets its name. In that mountainous region, the white horse gained its reputation as a sturdy and highly trainable animal. The breed became the exclusive stock of the nobility, and was used for battle and transportation by the Habsburg elite for centuries. Reed realized that if the horses died, the famous breed would go with it.
Lessing convinced Reed to launch Operation Cowboy in response. Reed sent Alpha Troop, 42nd Cavalry Squadron, to Hostoun to gather the horses and herd them to Bavaria. Soldiers put foals, which would not have been able to walk that distance, in trucks. Only later did Col. Alois Podhajsky, the head of the Spanish Riding School, officially ask for protection by Patton's army, which was granted. The Army returned the horses to the stables a few months later. Sutton and Manz Records of just how Sutton and Manz died during Operation Cowboy are muddled - the memoirs of Patton himself make no reference to casualties during the operation. According to the 2nd Cavalry Association Historical Archive, Sutton, 28, was wounded during a German attack on the farm while the soldiers were trying to take the horses. He died a few days later at an Army field hospital in Nuremberg. Archive records show Manz was killed while attempting to destroy a German roadblock. He died two weeks short of his 20th birthday.
Toole and several others here have created and cared for memorials throughout the country similar to the one being built for Sutton and Manz, with the help of organizations such as the Military Car Club in Plzen. "It's my baby, so I'm going to spank it," he says. "We need to make sure the memories of the dead people always continue on." Toole says he has helped establish about 22 such monuments in west Bohemia to commemorate Allied heroism that was erased from history books by the pre-1989 regime.
Patton Pending
Last year, Plzen dedicated a museum to Patton in recognition for his army liberating the city May 6, 1945. The grandson of "Old Blood and Guts," George Patton Waters, returned this year to donate some family artifacts to the museum. Waters saw the Spanish Riding School's Lipizzaner horses when they were toured through the U.S. recently. He was reminded of a book that Podhajsky´ dedicated to Patton's wife, Beatrice, in honor of Operation Cowboy. Later this month, Waters will embark on a mission of his own: to return the book to the Spanish Riding School. "It really belongs in their archives," he says. - Sylvie Dejmková contributed to this report. Brandon Swanson can be reached at bswanson@praguepost.com
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
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 Memorial to Pfc Raymond Manz and T/5 Charles Sutton, Trp A, 42nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Group (Mecz)
It was arguably one of the darkest periods in recent world history. For the second time in barely as many decades, huge armies from around the world had amassed to rend and tear at each other to the point of brushing entire civilizations and cultures to the brink of destruction in the struggle. Europe had been laid to waste, and the life span of Hitler’s thousand-year Reiche had been reduced to a matter of days. Dulled to the sights, sounds and smells of death and devastation, battle weary troopers longed for home as they continued swapping their lives for plots of pounded earth.
With scarcely a week till the end of the fighting in this theater, two troopers of the Second Cavalry added their names to the growing list of tens of millions of lives lost during WW II. Countless are the stories of sacrifice, yet these troopers are set apart. Their mission so unique, years later Walt Disney would base a movie on it, however with the typical Hollywood disregard for accuracy and a need to omit the horrors of war, their part of the story went untold. Now, over sixty years since the selfless act that earned these two troopers a place in eternity, an unexpected someone wants to say thank you.
At the now wooded site of the former village of Rosendorf, Czechoslovakia, on the 28th of April, 2006, sixty-one years to the day since the mission started that cost these two young troopers their lives, the foot-stone for a monument will be laid by Mayor Picka of Bela nad Radbuzou, Gaylord Jerry Toole of the Pilsen Military Car Club and also representing the Society of the 5th Infantry Division, and by other visiting government officials, each in turn tapping the foot-stone with a golden hammer. Flowers will be placed on the foot-stone and the path marked by children and people from the village of Bela nad Radbuzou, where another foot-stone will also be placed this day.
Cavdoc in Czech Republic, April 28, 2006.
Left: Gaylord Jerry Toole, Pilsen Military Car Club and 5th Infantry Association. A Vietnam vet living in the Czech Republic and teaching school.
Center: Our very own Patrick Biddy, who was kind enough to provide Stetson's for several of the dignitaries, hand carried all the way from North Carolina, and a US flag for the ceremony, as one could not be found. How about a big salute!
Right: Rudolf Bayer, President of the Pilsen Military Car Club.
On Sept. 15th, 2006, during the traditional local festival, monuments will be unveiled at these sites to honor the memory of troopers Pfc. Raymond E. Manz and T/5 Owen W. Sutton, both with Troop A, 42nd Rcn Sqdn, 2nd Cav Grp (Mecz).
As part of Task Force Stewart, a hastily assembled task force consisting of Troop A, 42nd Rcn Sqdn, elements of Troop C, and a platoon each of tanks from F Troop and assault guns from E Troop, all under the command of Maj. Robert. P. Andrews and with Capt. Thomas M. Stewart as his assistant, on the 28th of April were given a top-secret mission to break through enemy lines held by German SS troops, fight their way into the restricted Russian zone, and capture and hold the horse breeding farms at Hostau, Czechoslovakia, where among the over 1200 horses gathered there by the German Army were 3oo from the Piber breeding herd of Lipizzan’s, the lifeblood of one of the purest breeds of horse in the world and the foundation of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, dating back hundreds of years. The horses were to be protected not only from the German SS troops, but also from the advancing Russian Army.
Among some of the other amazing acts that made this mission so unique, is the fact that Capt. Lessing, the German staff veterinarian at the horse farm, had snuck through the lines with two of the white horses to convince the Americans to come rescue them, and he and Capt. Stewart, in a show of faith from the US troops, rode the two white horses secretly back through the SS lines and arranged for the surrender of the town if Capt. Stewart could return with a task force, which he did. After the task force fought it’s way through the SS troops, it was welcomed by the German garrison at Hostau with music and salutes.
Also among the “captured” bootey were several hundred Allied P.O.W.’s from England, America, France and Poland. In return, a couple thousand German’s, Russian’s fighting for the German’s, and Czech’s fighting for the German’s, were all taken prisoner. The released British and French troops were sent on their way back towards their armies, while the Pole’s had no where to go so remained with the task force guarding the area around the horse farm. The German’s, Russian’s, Czech’s and Pole’s were later re-armed with captured weapons and helped the task force repel a counter-attack by the SS troops trying to recapture the area on the 30th of April. Pfc. Manz was later posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest award for valor presented by the United States, for his actions this day.
T/5 Owen W. Sutton, service number 346 647 02, was from Kinston, N.C. He was born Dec. 8th, 1916, and was undoubtedly called “Pops” or “Old Man” or the like by his troop-mates during the fight across Europe, before he died in an Army field hospital in Nurnberg, Germany, on May 1st, 1945, at the ripe old age of 28, from wounds received the previous day in defense of the Hostau horse farms.
Pfc. Raymond E. Manz, service number 368 705 34, was born May 16, 1925 in Toledo, Ohio, and later moved with his family to Detroit, Michigan, where he attended Southeastern High School. After graduation, he entered the Army in July 1943 and a year later found himself landing on Utah Beach, Normandy, France. Having survived the hedgerows of Northern France, the sweep across France once the hedgerows had been broken through, racing to join the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, and fighting across the width and much of the depth of Germany with Owen Sutton and his other troop-mates, Raymond lost his life in Czechoslovakia after already being wounded while destroying a Nazi SS roadblock and while trying to reposition himself for a better field of fire to continue the fight. Ever a teenager, he was just sixteen days shy of his twentieth birthday and seven days short of the end of fighting in Europe. As with almost all Soldiers who die in combat, they do so never knowing the reason or importance of their mission, only that it must be accomplished. Thanks to brave men like Pfc. Manz and T/5 Sutton, that mission was accomplished, and a very beautiful breed of horse was saved from sure destruction. There reward was a temporary plot of ground in Nurenberg, Germany, then another one in St. Avold, France, and finally when their families could afford it and make arrangements, the troopers were laid to rest in their home towns, Owen Sutton by his wife Beulah at Westview Cemetery in Kinston, N.C., and on Jan. 9th, 1949, Raymond Manz was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Ohio, by his father.
Through the finance and efforts of Mayor Picka and Mr. Toole, the sacrifices of these two 2nd Cavalry troopers have been brought to light and steps are being taken that they will not be forgotten. In the 170 year history of the 2nd Cavalry, it’s longest mission by far has been to guard the Cold War border of West Germany from East Germany and Czechoslovakia, a mission that spanned five decades and helped to check the further spread of Communism in Europe. Now the iron curtain is gone and there is only one Germany. 2nd Cavalry troopers no longer fear the hordes of Russian tanks streaming through the Eisenstein Pass across the Czechoslovakian border. How ironic that one of the 2nd Cavalry’s greatest threats from the past would wish to bestow such honors on two of it’s lost troopers all but forgotten by the rest of the world. | |
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Bela Municipality Unveils Monument to Fallen WW2 U.S. Soldiers
Bela nad Radbuzou, West Bohemia, Sept 16, 2006 (CTK)
The local officials today unveiled a monument to two U.S. soldiers who fell while liberating the area during World War Two, which also commemorates the town´s foundation in 1121 and the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918.
The unveiling ceremony was attended by 65 U.S. soldiers from a base in Germany and an honorary unit of the Czech military.
Relatives of one of the fallen soldiers, Manz, were present as well.
The monument features a marble statue of an ancient Greek man wearing a helmet and lying on the ground, with a group of running horses passing by.
The names of the fallen soldiers, Raymond Manz and Owen Sutton, remind of the operation codenamed Cowboy, that took place near Bela at the end of the war, the aim to save rare horses, mainly Lipizzans, from local stables.
Hundreds of rare horses, including the stallion of Yugoslav King Peter, the horse of Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, and the whole of the imperial riding academy of Hofburg near Vienna, famous for its Lipizzan dressage, were kept in the former military stables in Bela´s vicinity.
In an effort to save the horses, the Americans liberated the stables. On their way back, however, they went through an intense shoot-out in which the SS troops killed two of them.
Apart from the U.S. soldiers´ names on its front part, the monument also features the Czech emblem, along with the date 1918, and the date 1121 on its sides. A commemorative plaque was unveiled this May in the Ruzov village (former Rosenberg) on the spot where the soldiers fell.
Cavdoc in Czech Republic, April 28, 2006.
Left: Gaylord Jerry Toole, Pilsen Military Car Club and 5th Infantry Association. A Vietnam vet living in the Czech Republic and teaching school.
Center: Our very own Patrick Biddy, who was kind enough to provide Stetson's for several of the dignitaries, hand carried all the way from North Carolina, and a US flag for the ceremony, as one could not be found. How about a big salute!
Right: Rudolf Bayer, President of the Pilsen Military Car Club. | | |
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