In this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., author Harvey Ferguson tells the story of how Truscott—despite his hardscrabble beginnings, patchy education, and questionable luck— not only made the rank of army lieutenant general, earning a reputation as one of World War II’s most effective officers along the way, but was also given an honorary promotion to four-star general seven years after his retirement.

“Truscott was one of the really tough generals,” soldier-cartoonist Bill Mauldin of the 45th Infantry Division once wrote. “He could have eaten a ham like Patton for breakfast any morning and picked his teeth with the man’s pearl-handled pistols.” Not one merely to act the part of commander, Mauldin remembered, “Truscott spent half his time at the front—the real front—with nobody in attendance but a nervous Jeep driver and a worried aide.” In this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., author Harvey Ferguson tells the story of how Truscott—despite his hardscrabble beginnings, patchy education, and questionable luck—not only made the rank of army lieutenant general, earning a reputation as one of World War II’s most effective officers along the way, but was also given an honorary promotion to four-star general seven years after his retirement. For all his accomplishments and celebrated heroic action, Truscott was not one for self-aggrandizement, which may explain in part why historians have neglected him until now. The Last Cavalryman, drawing on personal papers only recently made available, gives the first full picture of this singular man’s extraordinary life and career. Ferguson describes Truscott’s near-accidental entry into the U.S. Cavalry (propelled by Pancho Villa’s 1916 raids) and his somewhat halting rise through the ranks—aided by fellow cavalryman George S. Patton, Jr., who steered him into the nascent armored force at the right time. The author takes us through Truscott’s service in the Second World War, from creating the U.S. Army Rangers to engineering the breakout from Anzio and leading the “masterpiece” invasion of southern France. Ferguson finishes his narrative by detailing the general’s postwar work with the CIA, where he acted as President Dwight Eisenhower’s eyes and ears within the agency. A compelling story in itself, this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.—a cavalryman to the last—fills out an important chapter in American military history.

Dick McCreery was commissioned into the 12th Royal Lancers in 1915 and served on The Western Front, winning the MC and surviving wounds.In 1938 he joined the staff of 1st Division under Alexander before being given command of 2 Armored Brigade. He won the DSO for his leadership during the retreat to Dunkirk Man/June 1940.In North Africa McCreery was sacked by Auchinleck, with whom he had major differences, but, while waiting for a plane home, he was spotted by Alexander who made him his Chief of Staff. He is credited by many (but not Montgomery the two did not get on) for the solution to the El Alamein victory.He was promoted to command X Corps at Salerno which he commanded during the advance to the Gothic Line. He relieved Leese as Commander 8th Army in September 1944 and it was his brilliant plan that seized the Argenta Gap and drove the Germans back across the River Po into Austria.He became British High Commissioner in Austria, C in C British Army of the Rhine and British Military Representative at the UN, retiring in 1949.Although not a public figure, McCreery was key figure in the development of armored warfare, a brilliant tactician and among the most important British fighting generals of the Second World War. This is an overdue acknowledgment of his contribution to victory.

This book tells the story of the last sword ever designed by a major power for its army to use as a weapon, not as an article of a dress uniform. The sword was the U.S. Model 1913 Cavalry Saber; the designer was George S. Patton, then a lieutenant on the staff of the Army chief of staff. Patton participated in the modern pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912, which included fencing, coming fifth overall. No one in the U.S. Army could be better suited, therefore, to design its last major edged weapon. The Last Sword provides an illustrated overview of the history of cavalry swords and their employment on the battlefield from the end of the Renaissance, through the Napoleonic Era, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, culminating with the Patton cavalry saber, and includes descriptions of a number of the more famous cavalry charges. Patton’s unswerving belief in the value of horse-mounted cavalry, and in the value of those troopers and officers being equipped with the sword he designed, is described using his own words. He continued to advocate horse-mounted cavalry right up to the start of the Second World War. Though mechanized squadrons replaced the conventional cavalry, it was not quite the end of Patton’s sword as some Model 1913 Cavalry Sabers were converted to fighting knives carried by GIs during the war. The book is fully illustrated with images from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Museum of American History, the Library of Congress, the General George S. Patton Museum, the National Museum of the U.S. Army, the Connecticut Historical Society, and from private collections, most of which have never been published before.

The Battle of the Silver Helmets was an engagement orchestrated according to the previous successes of the cavalry of Frederick the Great. It was staged so that the magnificently equipped and trained German Fourth Cavalry Division would charge into glory, sabres rattling; instead, 24 German officers, 468 men, and 843 horses were lost during the eight separate charges conducted that day. The entire right wing of the Imperial German Army consisted of only nine cavalry brigades in the Schlieffen Plan, and in the battle of 12 August 1914, two of these brigades were catastrophically beaten. This battle has not yet been explored in the English language because it took place before the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in the Channel ports and well before any American involvement. British historians have also generally focused on Germany s efforts to enter Belgium through the forts at Liège, which are east of Halen. However, the Battle of the Silver Helmets so impacted century-old cavalry tradition that large-scale charges would never again be attempted on the Western Front. Thoroughly researched and hugely revelatory, The Last Great Cavalry Charge is a blow-by-blow account of the moment that the cavalry went from a prestigious, pivotal role in German Army tactics to obsolescence in the face of newly mechanised infantry. It provides essential and moving insight into the wider socio-cultural repercussions of technical military innovations in the First World War.

Following the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, the US Cavalry were called into action again with the declaration of war against Spain in 1898. In the years that followed, cavalrymen saw action in a wide variety of theaters. This title takes a close look at the formation and experiences of the average cavalryman in this fascinating period of change and development, and also considers the cavalry officer corps. Numerous developments in dress, training, equipment, weaponry and tactics are all covered here.