CAVALRY IN THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26, 1 February 1915, Page 4

CAVALRY IN THE WAR

I■■ ■ » A remarkable feature of the war in the western campaign is the extent to which both sides have employed cavalry in the trenches like infantry (writes a London correspondent). Ca.valry are trained and armed for dismounted action on occasions, but their legitimate role is scouting, in order to compel an enemy to disclose his position, and charging a fleeing enemy in order to drive a victory home. Cavalry can be legitimately em« ployed to hold positions while the infantry are coming up, but never before in the history of warfare have whole cavalry divisions been called upon to defend entrenchments and to charge the enemy with the bayonet, as has been the case in the battles of Flanders. It io only in the preliminary stages of these prolonged battles that there is scope for the action of cavalry in its legitimate role. xAfter the enemy have dug themselves in, cavalry charges are out of the question. General Sir John French, who is a cavalry officer, has the utmost faith in cavalry as a necessary arm even in modern warfare, but in the battler of Flanders he employed the British cavalry divisions in trenches because they were needed there. At one time seven miles of British trenches were held solely by cavalry But the Germans seem, to have jumped to the hasty conclusion that the day of cavalry is over, in spite of the way in which the Cossack cavalry have been operating on theip eastern frontier. The German Minister of War in a. memorandum on the training of new levies for the German armies now in the field says; "Cavalry charges no longer play any part in warfare. There is no question now of training cavalry horses for dashing work. It is infinitely more important, to tr«fn -them to make long marches at an easy pace ; and for the men it is most important that they should be trained to use their carbines."