Despite the fact that the Second World War was called “the war of motors”, horses still played a major role in it. Both in the Red Army and in the Wehrmacht, horses were used for transportation, especially in artillery. Without complaining and arguing, teams of six horses pulled guns to change the positions of batteries all through the war.

The cavalry engaged the Nazis from the first minutes of the war. In the Western Military District, together with border guards, two squadrons of the 6th Chongar Cavalry Division, sent to help the 87th Border Guards, faced the enemy who had begun the offensive on June 19. Afterwards, all units of this division joined the battle and approached the border an hour before the start of hostilities — at 3 a.m. on June 22, 1941.

Activities of partisan detachments and formations would have been impossible without horses. The head of the partisan movement in Ukraine, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Sydir Artemovych Kovpak, wrote:

In addition to pulling guns and ammunition, horses were needed to feed the soldiers: they delivered the wagons with food and field kitchens. Interestingly, it was for these (and some other) purposes that even a rifle regiment was supposed to have three hundred and fifty horses according to the regulations. And how many wounded owe their lives to these humble laborers! After all, most of the infirmaries and medical and sanitary battalions were also “horse-drawn”.

Cavalry formations participated in all major operations of the Red Army in 1943. Starting in the summer of 1943, the cavalry operated in conjunction with tank and mechanized units, which became the main means of conducting the offensive. Cavalry-mechanized groups that included both cavalry and mechanized units were used in some operations.

It is believed that during the Great Patriotic War, more than one million horses were killed on the battlefields. The names of these humble workers of the front are practically unknown.