THE DAWN OF MECHANIZED CAVALRY
4th CAVALRY REGIMENT (HORSE & MECHANIZED) COLORS & GUIDONS
1941 Regulations
On the eve of America's entry into the Second World War, some of the US Army's cavalry regiments had been partly mechanized and were organized with two squadrons, one horse and one mechanized. The horse squadron had three mounted rifle troops; the mechanized squadron had two troops equipped with the M3A1 armored scout car and one troop equipped with motorcycles. This was a transitional organization; plans called for the horse squadrons to be mechanized in the course of 1942. There was no regimental machinegun troop or regimental special weapons troop. Instead, each rifle troop of the horse squadron had a machinegun platoon with 30-caliber machineguns and the squadron headquarters troop included a special weapons platoon with 50-caliber machineguns. Since its scout cars each mounted three machineguns (one 50-caliber and two 30-caliber), the mechanized squadron required no separate machinegun troop or platoons.
At the beginning of the war, the 4th Cavalry Regiment (Horse & Mechanized) was stationed at Fort Meade, South Dakota. In April 1942 the 1st Squadron was mechanized and the regiment was redesignated 4th Cavalry Regiment (Mechanized) on 16 April 1942. In January 1943 the regiment was shipped to the United Kingdom, where it was assigned to VII Corps, First Army.
As a mounted unit, the 4th Cavalry had a National Standard and Regimental Standard, both made of silk, three feet at the hoist by four feet on the fly plus 2 1/2-inch yellow silk fringe. Troops of the regiment had red-over-white guidons made of wool bunting, 20 inches at the hoist by 27 3/4 inches on the fly with a 10-inch fork. Centered in the upper half of the guidon was the regimental number; centered in the lower half was the troop designation. For the regimental HHT this was HQ, for the squadron HHTs it was the squadron number and for the regimental service troop it was S. The other troops were lettered A through F.
