I believe, and I will have to check, it was ride 2 hours, walk one hour.   I will need to check.  You coul deven see thsi portrayed properly in "She Wore A Yellow RIbbon".

 

Nice use of 40 Miles A Day.....of course that could also describe some of the Infantry regiments in the west! 

Can an infantry unit have the same endurance that a cavalry unit has?

Longrifle,

This is
very interesting info, thanks. I do have a question about endurance.
How long could the average Horse sustain the load of a rider before
getting tired and how long did they rest the animals?


Thanks
DA

Oh the drums would roll, upon my soul,
This is the style we’d go,
Forty miles a day, on beans and hay,
In the Regular Army, O.

Probably 20 - 40 miles per day, and hopefully not 40 too often.

I really can't answer for how long they would rest the horses.  If the tactical situation required pushing both men and horses past exhaustion then that's what happened.  I know that the troopers would get off and walk a little every hour but I don't know what the standard was.

When I was working for outfitters and dude ranches we figured 20 miles a day was a good distance to go with a pack string.  If you intended to pack your stock regularly from spring to fall, with a day or two off per week, they could sustain that workload pretty well.

Horses that win 100 mile endurance races in one day don't go 100 miles day after day.

I think the Mongols killed quite a few ponies between the Gobi and the Danube.

"It seems that these guys were very dedicated, obedient and durable infantry."-Grey Jackal



Well, given the fact that they had a cause to believe in (unification
of their homeland, eviction of the American invaders, etc.), I wouldn't
expect anything less from the VC. Had they been simply thrust into the
conflict the way American GIs were, I doubt they would have performed
in the same manner. For the VC, there was a lot at stake and they were
willing to do a lot to achieve their goals. While the extent to which
they apparently pushed themselves is extreme, I would hardly think that
their fortitude was unique for people in their situation.



-HoH

Thats funny I thought most of them died in 1968 during the Tet ofensive. 

 

On the other hand the NVA also fit to a large degree the description that you gave however their leadership was ruthless.  During the Battle of Con Tien the Marines had to retreat back  into their bunkers because the fighting was so fierce because the NVA sappers had gotten thru the wire and the trench system was threatened.  So the Marines retreated back into the bunkers for the most part and called in alternate Air Strikes and Artillary, almost in a super gaggle fashion, on their own positions in preperation for a counter attack I guess.  To get away the press ganged NVA just continued running all the way thru the camp past (in charge of the light brigade fashion) other defensive positions.  It turned out the NVA were big users of Discipline battalions which if the attackers of Con Tien attempted to retreat the way they came into the camp they would have been gunned down by there own people.  Both the Chinese and Russians were also big users of Discipline battalions, I believe. 

 

Someone in that NVA force was smart enough to know not to try to leave the same way he came in.  Thats keeping your head in more ways then one!

The leadership of the Viet Cong were a bunch of NVA terrorists and local radicals who intimidated the peasants into joining their war. Even then, there were never enough VC to be militarily effective so they were always supplimented by NVA regulars. The brutality of the Viet Cong leadership turned the peasants against them and by the time if the Tet offensive, genuine VC insurgent units were largely a thing of the past. What remained of the VC came out into the open during the Tet Offensive and wiped out. The myth was kept alive for political reasons by having NVA don black pajamas. This was aided by the US and South Vietnamese government habit of calling any civilian killed "Viet Cong" to hide the extent of the war's collateral damage.

I believe people are geting off track, comparing comanche, apache, cavalry, modern infantry, and all the like. The true question is, given what they were, were the VC the best infantry ever in relation to their circumstances.

 

The US military may be able to fire large weapons, and the appaches may have fought well on foot, but compared to the VC, nothing even comes close to endurance and effectiveness outside the battlefield. The Viet Cong were, prior to the Tet Offensive, South Vietnamese citizens, armed, trained, and led by northern commisars, attempting to expell one of the worlds superpowers with no near end in sight. Seeing as the general plan of the north vietnamese was to fight an extended confict, bleeding the US for anywhere from 10 to 30 years, any volunteer (all of the VC were highly motivated volunteers) had to have serious motivation. Any soldier willing to fight for up to thirty years in humid, sweaty mountains in the mud against the US war machine with minimal material earns my admiration completely, but anybody able to suceed in that task after some of the horrors they had to go through for their homeland is definatly outstanding.

 

I must say, the Viet Cong, in digging their tunnels, climbing those Vietnamese hillsides, and fighting those American "imperialists" most definatly secured their position in my heart as the most compairativly excelent infantry ever.

1968-69 ECHO 2/4 3RD MARDIV HILL 691 VIETNAM ANYONE OUT THERE?

MY E-MAIL IS CENTK9@AOL.COM