FEATS OF THE CAVALRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16892, 3 July 1918, Page 8

FEATS OF THE CAVALRY

STOPPING THE GERMAN RUSH

RACE FOR A RIDGE. PEN warfare has given the cavalry an equalled opportunity of- fighting wording to tradition-riding down Ger. Lans in breathless charges across fields nd clearing wooded country at the allop, Their experiences • during ■ the first 10 ays of the new campaign could not have e'en more varied or thrilling, arid allough the casualties f were not light, very horseman will tell you unhesitatiglv that he never had such a satisfac>ry chance before to meet the enemy in is own way. They fought mounted and dismounted, ley held bridgeheads and miniature lountains, improvised flanks out of tern ir, heartened tired infantry, mado long ight marches between battles without might of (Sleeping, and held the Gerlans so skilfully at certain danger points lat the latter, completely baffled, found is set scheme of victory repeatedly (lisrganised and broken. The cavalry first took a hand in the efensivo fighting on March 81, going irward to mee' an emergency as infantry, nd making a three-hour journey to the■out of the moment in omnibuses—a cirjmstance recalled with some reluctance y the troopers who had not time to take leir horses forward. They are inclined ) apologise {or cavalry going to battle i charge of chauffeurs, but it was a teasure necessitated by the urgency of 10 call for troops, and not, as one young ibaltern said earnestly, "to bo regarded -, a, precedent." Fought in Detachments. At first the cavalry fought in detachlents, split according to the requirements : the • hard-pressed infantry. They took /er the line Ollezy-Hum on March 22, hen the former were falling back to anher position, and had very heavy fightig with the German advanced guard. A irty of dragoons were cut' off by tho vinging movement of the enemy, and ere "out in the blue" all night, but rove through the thickening cordon of ermans across the bridge at Jussy next orning, and rejoined tho squadron, I iving killed a great number of the enemy. The next morning a composite force of | .valry, since known in the records of the jilting by a distinctive nr.me, was sent to uiscard, and fell immediately into ft /ely little encounter with the enemy. bey had, as one officer said afterwards, a jolly good scrap " that day. Meanhilo the horses were still behind, and the valry had rather a difficult time getting

while tho horses were still behind, and the cavalry had rathfer a difficult time getting them up. With the assistance of a Labour battalion they werß brought forward tied [ in groups of 15, and "by the evening of ( ! March 23 the various' detachments of disI mounted men •operating over the area I I south of Ham had received their horses. 1 j They had very little rest, for the Ger- !, mans were pressing vigorously, and the I general retirement of the infantry was '~ proceeding under great difficulties. Noyon ' ' was threatened, and the cavalry went up j to hold the line of the Oise west of tho I town. They crossed at Chiry, and moved i north to the foot of the hill known as . Mon'. Renaud, overlooking Noyon, where j thuy took up a position at Pont i'Eveque. About one o'clock on the morning of I March 26 word came that the infantry was retiring on Pontoise. The cavalry then ; received orders to retire without delay ' and occupy the dominant wooded ridge ' behind the village of Porqiiericourt, bearing the samo name. Occupied Just in Time. Tin cavalry were in the saddle and riding hard for the ridge in a very few | minutes, but they found that the Germans, I working round by Genvry, north of Noyoii, i were already in possession of the greater part iif it, from the heel of the boot nearly to tha toe. The latter, however,' the high- ■ est //round, was still No Man's Land, and our troopers, galloping furiously up tho steep southern slope, reached it first. , formed a line, arid held the. enemy, cutting, them off from the Bois des Essarts. ' There lias been no more splendid sight i! in the war than this wild rush of cavalry . across fields and through villages to gain the coveted ground. Canadian squadrons I on the left were holding the road through ~ the wood from Suzoy to Sceaucourt, and .prepared with others to push forward to i clear the enemy <sff the ridge in front of thorn when it became necessary to retiro again. On March 28, the cavalry started for St. Just to help to check the German drive on the Paris-Amiens railway line, but they were not needed. At eight o'clock on tho morning of March 50 wo find them again in action, riding full tilt across the River Luce towards Moreuil. The Germans had taken the large wood immediately north of.the town, and the etate of our line elsewhere made it imperative that it should be cleared without delay. The fighting in Moreuil Wood on this and the following day was the most satisfactory of the entire ten days. The wood is nearly a mile wide at tho broadest part, tapering gradually towards the town, and it was full of German infantry. Machine cunners nested among the trees. ' Reinforcements were marching up from Meziores to tighten their grip on the wo».d and capture the remaining bit of ground at the junction of tho Rivers Luce and Avre. Germans in Flight. The cavalry did not lose a moment in piving battle, The majority rode up near 'tho wood, dismounted, and went in on foot, but a squadron of Canadians charged mounted, The Germans fled from the western edge of the wood in disorder, and a number of prisoners and machine-guns were collected among the trees. The cavalry reformed our line Moreuil-Demuin, and held it the remainder of the day, That night the cavalry turned tho Moreuil-Demuin line over to the infantry, leaving some lancers to help them. They were not disturbed until the next afternoon, when the Germans made another and heavier attack to take back Moreuil Wood, and the call for help was heard again. Our infantry was thrust west of the weed by the German impact, and the enemy poured in men, determined not to be ousted as ho was before. The cavalry did oust him, however, from the greater I part of the wood during attacks of the late. afternoon. At nightfall, the Germans still clung to tho highest wooded ground, and kept dribbling in supports. The cavalry decided to shatter them the next morning in a fine old-fashioned charge. They went up just before dawn. They formed up just before nine, and charged in three solid waves, riding like the wind. The first wave got a footing in the wood, the second was carried through it well on towards the middle, the third went clean through it and out on the eastern side, sweeping tho dazed fugitives of a crack German infantry regiment before it. . Officers who came back are talking yet of that splendid charge and the utter confusion of the Germans. Their losses were not light, for the machine-guns could not be silenced by the first wave, and a number of gunners stuck to their posts in sheer desperation, pumping bullets into the rippling line of horsemen. I*. is satisfying to know that the wood was fuii of German corpses and all the. fields beyond covered with dead.