Operation Cowboy

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Operation Cowboy
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Date 28 April 1945 (1945-04-28) Location Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Result Allied success Many POWs freed
Belligerents
United States Wehrmacht POWs Allied POWs 1st SS Cossack Cavalry Division deserters	Nazi Germany Waffen-SS
Commanders and leaders
Captain Thomas M. Stewart Major Robert P. Andrews Lt.Col. Walter Holters Lt.Col. Hubert Rudofsky	Unknown
Units involved
42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Group, XII Corps	Waffen-SS Infantry
Strength
325
Casualties and losses
none	Many taken POWs

Operation Cowboy was fought in the town of Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Hostouň in the Czech Republic), on 28 April 1945, in the last days of fighting in the European theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS^{[citation needed]}, the other being the Battle of Castle Itter.