"Operation Cowboy"

The Saving the Lipizzaner Horses
by Troop A, 42nd Reconnaissance Squadron (MECZ)
2nd Cavalry Group (The Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army)

Bělá Nad Radbůzou ,Czech Republic

It is an innate nature in us, our love of humanity, an element found in people of every country and culture that has finally determined the achievement of an ultimate peacefulness that brings warring peoples and countries together, no matter the extent of political indifferences, misunderstandings and evil deeds that war arises from. In the aftermath of war, it is this element of humaneness that compels us to record and remember those events of war, so horrible and unspeakable, to warn future generations. Innate in this history then is the story of the human spirit, of selfless sacrifice, unbounded determination and dedication, of heroism and of courage and braveness.

In World War Two, a regiment of German soldiers left their trenches to seek out a brass band that they had heard from a far off distance and crossing through "no-man's land" to join British soldiers. Singing Christmas carols, they presented gifts to one another there in the trenches of the British and spent an afternoon playing soccer together. When evening came, they returned to their trenches to resume the war and fighting against one another.

These events, where soldier enemies are compelled to share a humane moment during bitter fighting, and a struggle for life, go even beyond our ties to our fellow man, but extend to all sentient life, as demonstrated in the saving the Lipizzaner horses. It was the appreciation of culture built around these horses that compelled one German officer to venture between enemy lines to ask for assistance from his American adversary, Colonel Charles H. Reed, Commander of the 2nd Cavalry Group, to prevent the destruction of these horses.

The rescue of the horses and the preservation of the culture around them occurred during the remaining last days of World War II by an assemblage of soldiers named Task Force Stewart. Task Force Stewart was manned by Troop A, 42nd Reconnaissance Squadron, (MECZ), of the 2^nd CAV Group, who were also known as the "Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army." The mission was named Operation Cowboy.

Most elements of the 2nd Cavalry Group had landed at Normandy in July of 1944 to immediately distinguished themselves in General George Patton’s Third Army by their daring reconnaissance missions. It was infamous in the German High Command who called it the "Ghosts of Patton’s Third Army." For the German's, this unit seemed to just materialize from nowhere at various points behind their lines.

General Patton gave Colonel Reed the green light and he enlisted a Captain Stewart to initiate action in a top secret mission into Czechoslovakia, in communist Russian controlled territory, to keep the Lipizzaner horses from falling into the hands of the Russians and what would probably be their total destruction. The operation commenced 28 April 1945, near Hostau, at a village called Rosendorf, no longer standing today, but is in the area of what is Bělá Nad Radbůzou of the Czech Republic today. Two soldiers would be wounded there and then die within hours from their wounds.

Private First Class Raymond E. Manz (19) Troop A, 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mecz) Born 16 May 1925, died of wounds 30 April 1945.

PFC Manz attended Newbury School in Toledo and later transferred to Southeastern High School in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated and entered into military service in July 1943 to serve with a reconnaissance unit, Troop A, 42nd Squadron (MECZ) of the 2nd Cavalry Group. On 30 April 1945, while eliminating a Nazi SS roadblock at Hostau in the rescue of the Lipizzaner horses, PFC Manz was slightly wounded. He was seriously wounded during a counter attack by the Germans that followed while trying to establish a more effective field of fire that resulted in a barrage eliminating German resistance there on 30 April 1945 he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism. His body was interred temporarily at the US Quartermaster cemetery in Nuremberg, Germany, until burial space was available for burial in the American Cemetery at St. Avold, France. During December of 1948 his father requested that his remains be returned to the United States to his home of record. On 9 January 1949, Raymond Manz was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Ohio.

Technician 5th Grade Owen W. Sutton (29) Troop A, 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mecz) Born 8 December 1916 and died of wounds 01 May 1945

Owen W. Sutton was born at 02:50 hours, 8 December 1916 in the township of Mosley Hall to George H. Sutton and Rachal (Hodges) Sutton of Lagrange, North Carolina in Lenoir County. George Sutton was a farmer and he and Rachal had three children. Owen Sutton married Beulah Dare West October 1935in Lagrange

TEC/5 Sutton died of wounds he received 30 April of 1945 in an army field hospital in Nuremberg Germany on 1 May 1945. He had been wounded in a counter attack by German SS troops during Operation Cowboy to rescue the Lipizzaner horses. He was temporarily interred at the US Quartermaster Cemetery in Nuremberg, Germany, and later, when space was available, buried at the American Cemetery at St. Avold, France. His body was finally returned to America to be buried at Westview Cemetery in Kinston, North Carolina, where his wife Beulah is now also buried.