Well... the poles and soviets thought it could work

[Kome]

How can we get cavalry to still be effective in WW2 with any POD. And i mean horse cavalry. Come on help please? Its needed for a story.

[mowque]

Originally Posted by hiiamthief

How can we get cavalry to still be effective in WW2 with any POD. And i mean horse cavalry. Come on help please? Its needed for a story.

err....Effective on what scale?

[Jay]

Have a pod that made tank designers more apt to make heavier, slower tanks. This would allow for sappers on horse back to flank tanks and attach explosives, etc.

Maybe more use of artillery in WW1 so designers try to make tanks impervious to falling shells. The become more of the idea of 'land cruisers' rather than infantry support thought up by Westerns like GB and France.

[Zimmerwald1915]

Define "effective". If you mean that cavalry should be able to break up massed infantry or mechanized infantry formations in a frontal assault, that's not going to happen. However, cavalry was very effective in missions that it was suited for: supply raiding, stealthy, speedy reconnaissance, and turning the flanks of incautious enemies to allow for later encirclement. I don't think it can get more effective in this sort of mission, particularly in light of the Red Army's cavalry performance in 1941.

Either way, if by your question you meant "have cavalry effective in more missions than IOTL" or if you meant "have cavalry more effective in its OTL role", it's not really going to happen.

[RGB]

Cavalry was fairly effective in the missions it was suited for - including the infamous Polish Lancers. They actually did defeat German infantry on one occasion. The Tanks vs. Uhlans is a total myth.

Other than that, I don't know how much more you could ask?

[Kome]

Well my storyline focuses on a few odd things that a couple of players have noticed in hoi2 (i got the permission from the original author of ride of the red horse). The fact that the game is so abstract an army of only cavalry could defeat tanks.

So it got me thinking about things and how a army that used infantry (motorized, mechanized, dragooned and foot) and cavalry as their main fighting component with tanks only lightly used could work. The soviets seemed the best for this but i all the ideas i thought of, which included machine guns mounted on horses, more portable AT weapons and even a steroid program for horses that made them immune to fear (or just blinded out the fear of gunfire some how) didnt seems so good.

So i decided to think of a different approach instead of just focusing on making the cavalry troops stronger i also needed to find ways to make the german and allied armies weaker. So i went here.

Basically im trying to get there to be less focus on tanks and more on infantry supported by cavalry. For the soviets of course.

Edit: I know im insane.

[RGB]

Um, hah!

I don't know what to say?

Tanks pwn horses, that's an unfortunate fact. But cavalry was useful in the Far East and even in reconnaissance in Moldavia, even in WW2.

Maybe shift WW2 earlier?

[Kome]

Oh and i found the link of his game.

Ride of the Red Horse Its quite entertaining.

It belongs to Capellan btw and no one else.

[Cockroach]

Originally Posted by hiiamthief

How can we get cavalry to still be effective in WW2 with any POD. And i mean horse cavalry. Come on help please? Its needed for a story.

So, by 'horse cavalry' do you include mounted infantry, light horse etc. or only the old dedicated mounted combat forms of cavalry (lancers, hussars, etc.)?
Next, which front and what time period? I mean, in OTL a few regiments of cavalry or light horse may have been bloody useful to either the Italians or the Allies in the brief campaign in East Africa... but I doubt you could find a PoD to keep 'true' cavalry effective in roles other than recon on the Eastern or Western front in '44 & '45.

I suspect the issue is less improving the effectiveness of cavalry as getting 'em to be more heavily used (after all, if the Light Horse could overrun well entrentched turkish forces at Beersheba in WW1 there's no reason why cavalry couldn't have similar luck sometime in WW2). Perhaps start with slowing the motorization of the British army?

Originally Posted by RGB

The Tanks vs. Uhlans is a total myth.

Certainly the usual varient of it (lancers bravely/stupidly charging oncoming armoured columns) is. While I'm not 100% sure I think I may have heard of other permutations (cavalry attacks supply column but Panzers show up unexpectedly; cavalry acting as mounted infantry engage tanks; etc) of the situation actually happening.

[Kome]

Originally Posted by Cockroach

So, by 'horse cavalry' do you include mounted infantry, light horse etc. or only the old dedicated mounted combat forms of cavalry (lancers, hussars, etc.)?
Next, which front and what time period?

Oh i meant dragoons. Mounted infantry i guess. But no lancers and stuff like that.

Im planning this for the Soviet army, so the Eastern Front.

Or new question is it possible to that mass cavalry in the traditional role of raiders and recon could be a turning edge in the war?

[jkay]

The problem's more fundamental. Since ACWish, rates of fire have been fast enough to make ANY kind of unarmored attack futile in industrialized countries. All your soldiers, horsies, whatever, all got shot up for good before they got far enough to make a difference in enough numbers.

The tank was a winner because it carried armor thick enough to make the difference. But it could do that because car engines are more powerful - there're reasons you never saw the knight come back. NOW you could do it, with Kevlar, but not back then. And tanks and combat vehicles are faster and lower-maintenance, so why bother now?

Sorry!

[CanadianGoose]

Originally Posted by hiiamthief

How can we get cavalry to still be effective in WW2 with any POD. And i mean horse cavalry. Come on help please? Its needed for a story.

Any cavalry but dragoons (riding infantry) is dead by 1900. That much is given. As fond as Russians were of cavalry, their 1908 (AFAIK) reform produced uniform dragoon field manuals for all types of cavalry, traditional names (like Hussars etc.) being kept for the sake of prestige only. However, Dragoons have their use as long as infantry isn't totally motorized and battlefield isn't saturated with fast tanks (more on that later).

What are pre-conditions for more active use of dragoons during WWII. 1st, war should be waged on large and relatively sparsely populated territory. This would prevent rigid and heavy protected frontlines and allow cavalry to forage as they move during raids and flanking maneuvers. 2nd, said territory should have some transportation network (to supply mountains of horsefeed, necessary for big cavalry units), but said network should be less than adequate to move large numbers of infantry along frontlines (thus preserving dragoons' value as mobile reserve). 3rd, territory should be relativwely flat and suitable for cavalry operations.

There were two WWII TO to fit the description: Northern China and Eastern Europe. IOTL both Japanese and Soviets actively emplyed cavalry on former, but, as OP put it, latter didn't see as widespread use of cavalry as it was possible. So, what killed cavalry here? Answer is simple: fast tank. It is perfectly capable of doing as much menace as cavalry raid and more, is faster, needs less fuel and projects more firepower. So, quick answer to OP's question is "kill the BT".

Now, this noble goal could be achieved using numerous PODs. Technology-based one is rigid control over Soviets not getting western know-hows. More political one is slower Soviet industrialization

[Kome]

Wow i think of wierd things when i was bored.

[yourworstnightmare]

Acctually cavalry still is used in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

[Kome]

Camel Cavalry is also used by some UN peace keepers. Or that photo im thinking of was just propaganda.

[Grimm Reaper]

The concept of hobilars, adding range and increased carrying capacity to a unit, was by no means unreasonable in nations lacking a modern road network.

Also the famed 'panzers versus the Polish cavalry' was a work of fiction.

In a rare case of German and Polish forces evenly matched, a contingent of reinforcing hobilars(and some tankettes) managed to circle around and hit the German infantry from behind. While mopping up the German reinforcements, a contingent of tanks, arrived and the 'battle' consisted of the Polish mounted infantry sensibly withdrawing as fast as they could.

[CanadianGoose]

Originally Posted by yourworstnightmare

Acctually cavalry still is used in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Not by regular or semi-regular forces. Horses (and more often donkeys) are used as beasts of burden by long-range mountain patrols, but soldiers still walk (although Soviet border guards did use mounted patrols and Russian border guards still do).

[manga_fanatic]

Have you ever considered that Ride of the Red Horse was meant as a tongue-in-cheek speculation on if the Soviet Union had a Calvalry only army? Especially since the Capellan claims the Spanish Civil War being a product of a squabble over siestas and the Sino-Japanese War as a result of someone selling a bridge he didn't own.

[Kome]

Yes thats why i wanted to do it in real life.
People arnt that stupid...

[Provencal]

For political, economic, geographical, or geological reasons, oil becomes MUCH more expensive in the 1930's and 1940's than OTL. Either not many sources have been discovered yet, oil-producing nations refuse to sell to warring parties or charge and exorbitant amount knowing they can get away with it, or oil was discovered much earlier and world reserves are lower, forcing governments to reserve Oil for only the most vital functions of war.

Or, iron becomes much more rare/expensive and so armor is more rare, leaving cavalry to replace it.

It's all a huge stretch, but possible with an early enough POD. Or the POD can include changes in Earth's geology.