Major General Walter Krueger, Second Division Commander, observed the exercise. He would eventually command troops on New Guinea and Leyte Islands, one of whom was Homer's father.
It is interesting to compare this article with the latest version of Plan Yellow, released by the Germans today. I guess they plan on having horse-drawn artillery along on the expedition, but it looks like their cavalry will all be of the motorized variety.
I think the Germans used horses throughout the war, but not as a replacement for mechanized cavalry. I think it probably made a lot of sense to use horses to get things from place to place. For the US, we would have had to ship the horses themselves over, and I don’t think that would have made economic sense. But, there is a scene toward the end of Band of Brothers where Nixon is disparaging the Germans for using horses, but I don’t see it as a desperation move — people had just not gotten away from using draft horses as much as they have today.