This is a story about Harry “The Horse” Lambert
To all of you “OLD” Horse Artillerymen, I thought you might enjoy the attached story.
For those of you that aren’t aware, I also write a column for the 82nd FA in the 1st Cav “SABER” News Letter in addition to the Hard Charger News every two months.
I served with the 1st Cav in Korea in 1960-61 with B-5-82nd FA. Just a side note,
We had a 1LT by the name of Carl Vuono who was a fitness expert. He would lead a consolidated PT formation comprised of HHB and B Battery every morning. He retired as a four star General.
This is a story about Harry “The Horse” Lambert
This is a story about Harry “The Horse” Lambert on the day Harry captured Gen Patton, written by 1LT Jim Farquharson, B Btry, 82nd FA, WW-II. While we were sitting in the airport at Killeen, TX in Aug 1993, waiting for our flight to Dallas/Ft Worth, Harry “The Horse” Lambert turned to me and asked, “Did I ever tell you about the time I captured Gen Patton?” Now any question like that, even from a character like Harry, my old 82nd FA Bn CO during WW-II, is bound to perk up the ears of any soldier who delights in tales of the “Old Army.” His claim was about as far-fetched as I could imagine, because nobody ever captured that greatest all Forceful, American Combat Leader, old “Blood and Guts.” And I told Harry that. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “The hell I didn’t!” Of course, I had to ask, “How’d you do that?” And since our plane was late I sat back and let Harry fill in the details of the momentous, unsung event. “It was during the ’41 Louisiana Maneuvers. The 1st Cav Div had been loaded on cattle cars and rode the rails to western Louisiana and dropped off near “No Where.” The Army never let us get near a town, because civilians objected to the smell we brought with us, plus the what the horses left behind. Any new recruit who hadn’t been in the Army more than 2 months could agree with that complaint. But after that you got so use to those earthy odors that came with 15,000 horses and men that you believed that EVERYBODY smelled like that.
That was the way the WORLD smelled!” “The ’41 Maneuvers were the biggest the Army put on since WW-1. As Harry recalled, it was Gen Hugh Drum’s Red Army vs. Gen Walter Krueger’s Blue Army. Thousands of troops were involved. Hundreds of Umpires ran around deciding who was dead and who wasn’t. And there were some “Donny brooks” between opposing commanders over some of those decisions.” It was during these maneuvers the word “SNAFU” came into our lexicon. Some of them, created by inexperience of handling so many men at one time, are still in the record book of Great SNAFU’s. Several came about because nobody seemed to know how to handle complaints of irate citizens who didn’t like the way we smelled. And Generals really didn’t know what mounted troops could do against newly developed Armored Divisions, like the 2nd, with their new show-offy Gen Patton.
It was into this arena; amongst the piney-wood flats of Louisiana that 1LT Harry Lambert, then CO of C Btry, 82nd Horse Artillery Regiment, went on a Btry CO’s Recon. He had just learned about that part of his job description from having attended the FA Officer’s Advance Course at Ft Sill. He wanted to find a suitable OP. So, he placed his Btry in position and along with his orderly, rode out in the direction where he thought the enemy was supposed to be. Btry CO’s had orderlies in those days that acted as horse handlers, etc. They kept off of the road and were as quiet as two horsemen could be. They’d ridden perhaps 2 miles and hadn’t seen a thing. But he started to get a funny feeling and he couldn’t really describe why or how. He just had this funny feeling that somewhere there were some Red Army soldiers. He told his orderly to stay where he was and not make a sound while he went deeper into the piney woods on foot. He’d gone about a quarter mile, maybe half, when he picked up the sound of human voices, very faintly in the distance ahead of him. He claimed to be sacred to death that he’d be killed or captured at any moment as he quietly tippy-toed toward the sounds.
It took about 10 minutes to creep up to where he could see the enemy. He was amazed to see a bunch of light Tanks laagered around what seemed to be an HQ tent. But even more amazing to him was that there wasn’t a sentry in sight. Nobody had been posted as outpost security! How else could an Army Reserve Officer of a Horse Artillery outfit, of all people, get so close to what might be a Division CP? Dominating the noisy discussion was a squeaky-voiced, two-star General. Harry indeed had himself some very important intelligence to work on. Creeping back to where he’d left his orderly, they took off for their Btry as fast as they could.
But, he said, he really didn’t know what to do. Or how to work out something really destructive on the Red Army with the very small number of assets he had. At this point I must add that, knowing Harry, having served 3 years overseas under him in WW-II, I think he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do. But he just didn’t know how he was going to do it. So, he looked up SGT Horine, a Chief of Section who’d been in WW-1 and asked him how they could capture that squeaky-voiced General he’d seen. SGT Horine allowed as how he thought they could raise a proper fuss if they could get a gun section within range of the HQ.
At this point I want to explain to the younger soldiers that in the Horse Artillery, each Limber and Piece in a four-gun Firing Btry of rubber-tired, 75mm Howitzers was drawn by 3 teams of horse, called LEAD, SWING, and WHEEL. 3 teams of horses also drew each Limber and Caisson holding the Ammo. A rider handled each Team. In back of these sections rode the Gunner and Cannoneers on horses. SGT Horine went on to suggest that if they took just the Wheel Horse Team of the Howitzer Section plus the Cannoneers and wrapped the traces with gunny-sacks so they wouldn’t make any noise, they just might be able to sneak up to the spot where Harry had seen the Red Army Division HQ and blast the hell out of them. That suited Harry to a “T.” So, gathering up an Umpire and telling him of his plan, but telling no one else except 1SG Miracle, Harry and SGT Horine’s Half-section rode off. With Harry leading, the section soon came to the spot where he had taken off on foot.
Then, very quietly and slowly they rode toward the sound of the voices that were still in animated discussion. At a range of about 200 yards they quietly dismounted, unlimbered the piece, and pushed it ahead a bit to a clearer field of fire. Then quietly and gently shoved a blank round into the breach of their howitzer. Everything was quiet as they had not been seen. Harry said that when they round went off, and the Umpire started shouting “You’re all dead”, Patton jumped high enough to make Michael Jordan look like a second stringer. Talk about confusion! Patton, good leader that he was, screamed that NONE of his tanks were destroyed because 75mm Howitzer rounds couldn’t penetrate his armor because the fuzes weren’t armor piercing.
When the Umpire came back to Harry with that bit of information, Harry, no great respecter of Regular Army rank, and equally nimble-witted, told the Umpire to tell the General that he was aware of the fact, and to tell the General that the fuzes had been removed, and that without them they would penetrate the General’s armor. It was at this point that the maneuvers stopped and Gen Patton took center stage for the “greatest mule barbeque of an ass-chewing” that had ever been given up to that time. Harry said that besides having a high voice, the General used very vulgar language. He spared no one. Every living soul within the sound of his voice knew exactly what he thought of each member of his staff, their assistants, tank commanders and their people, Umpires, and that silly-assed Reserve FA Lieutenant who had been on a Recon he had no right to be on in the first place! But the Umpire, being a fair man, and drawing on some inner-strength, held his ground. The HQ had indeed been destroyed and was out of action, incommunicado, for the rest of the morning for some six hours, I think Harry said.
Those 6 hours was probably the longest 6 hours that any staff officer in the Red Army ever went through. In all fairness, it was probably the same for ‘Ol Blood & Guts. But it was a lesson never forgotten. Harry’s boss, the 1st Cav DIVARTY Commander, COL Joe Swing, was less than pleased when Harry received a commendation for putting Gen Patton out of action. COL Swing thought Harry had used the Field Artillery in a poor manner, more like anti-tank guns. As Harry said “they couldn’t Fire all of the stupid Reserve Officers as the country didn’t have enough people, or time to breed more. And I’ve no doubt there are a lot of old soldiers today who fought with Gen Patton in the ETO who owe their lives to what Harry “The Horse” Lambert taught ‘ol Georgie that day. Bless them both!
Daniel P. Gillotti
Daniel P. Gillotti, MA, MS, 1SG US Army Retired
1st Vice-President & Historian, 30th Field Artillery Regiment Association
Auxiliary Deputy Sheriff, Lorain County, Ohio