A writer, and ‘recovering ranch girl’, named Tamara Linse wrote a nice bit of history about the 115th Cavalry Horse Mechanized, which was a National Guard unit from Wyoming that served in WWII.

She notes that early resources were scare.  She writes, “The 115th Cavalry was activated nine months before war was officially declared. The entire 115th Cavalry Regiment, all 1,086 men, was inducted into federal service on February 24, 1941, the day they boarded a train for Fort Lewis, Washington.

Like all wartime training facilities, Fort Lewis was unprepared for the influx of soldiers. The men trained with stove pipes for cannons, sticks and brooms for rifles, and jeeps marked “TANK” for enemy armored vehicles. Aircraft used sacks of flour for bombs.”

She also mentions that while some soliders were excited to see the new jeeps, motorcyles, and other mechanized vehicles, other soliders would only give up their horses when you pulled their reins from their (I hesitate to say cold, dead) hands.

In the article, she includes an image, courtesy of the Wyoming State Archives, which shows a horse jumping a jeep.  You can check out the entire article here. You might also like to read why/how Men are Like Plants.