bhaskar saikia

On a summer morning in August 1942, the wide steppes of the Don lay still under a red dawn. Horses snorted and pawed the earth, their riders waiting in silence. Across the fields, a Soviet regiment had dug in — 2,500 men, rifles, mortars, and machine guns. Facing them were 700 horsemen of the Italian cavalry unit, Savoia Cavalleria.

Their commander, Colonel Alessandro Bettoni Cazzago, knew retreat meant death. To wait was worse. He gave the order in a single cry that tore across the plain: Charge!

The ground shook as hooves broke into a gallop. Sabers flashed from their scabbards, glinting like fire in the rising sun. Then came the storm of bullets — machine-gun bursts ripping through the morning, horses collapsing mid-stride. Yet the line held. From horseback, grenades arced into trenches, exploding in sprays of dirt and flame.

Moments later, steel met flesh. Cavalrymen slashed down with sabers as their mounts leapt the earthworks. Dust, smoke, and blood mingled in the chaos. To the Soviets, it was as though ghosts of another century had come galloping through — an echo of Waterloo or Balaclava, charging straight out of the past into the age of the machine gun.

Against all reason, the charge broke them. The Soviet line splintered; men scattered across the steppe, some killed, some captured, the rest fleeing into the haze. When the dust settled, thirty Italians lay dead, fifty wounded, and a hundred horses lost. But the field was theirs.

Izbushensky is remembered not only as a victory, but as a farewell. It was the last great cavalry charge of modern warfare — the final thunder of hooves before tanks and engines silenced the horse forever.

For one morning on the Don, in the shadow of Stalingrad, the old world rode again.

FOOT NOTE: The Battle of Izbushensky began in the early hours of 24 August 1942, around 3:30 a.m. and ended by 9:30 a.m. That morning witnessed what is remembered as the last great cavalry charge in history. In a remarkable twist of fate, the Italian Savoia Cavalleria regiment charged against a Soviet rifle regiment that was not only numerically superior but also equipped with artillery support. Against all expectations, the cavalry prevailed — a final triumph of horse and saber in an age already ruled by machines and steel.