THE USE OF CAVALRY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 4927, 22 January 1902, Page 4

THE USE OF CAV ALRY.

General von Pelet-Narbonne, writing in a French Military journal, emphasises the increased importance of cavalry scouting for the protection of communications, or for cutting tbe enemy's rear communications. He combats the opinion that tbe role of cavalry on the battlefield is at an end, amd attributes the promulgation of sach an idea to the fact that in recent warfaie cavalry has rarely been able to interfere efficaciously, as owing to the.. great improvement in small arms ft*nasi>ecome exceedingly difficult for a mounted force to come into close contact with the enemy. The General ftfgues, with some degree of force, that the manner in whi6h infantry are

scattered into long lines of skirmishers, growing more and more attenuated during action, and weakening the flanks and rear, affords an admirable opportunity for the effective use of cavalry. To attack infantry successfully he says, cavalry must form many echelons and deliver successive charges, if possible from many directions. A frontal charge by cavalry on artillery can only be carried out as a surprise or in conjunction with a flank attack. Instead, he advises that cavalry should endeavor to charge batteries obliquely, as when attacked in this way artillery finds itself in a most precarious condition, as it can only execute changes of front with difficulty and with great loss of time ; and, further, oblique fire by artillery gives only mediocre results. The General quotes many examples from the Fraaco-German War to bear out bis contentions, and, summing up, regards cavalry as still the most dangerous enemy to field artillery. He regards it as more useful at the present time than it ever was for scouting duty, and holds that it can still, under certain condition?, act successfully against infantry, either by stopping the advance of the latter or by obliging it to take up such a formation as destroys the proper efficacy of its fire. Cavalry should, therefore, by no means abandon tbe useful and decisive role that it is still » in his opinion, in a position to play on the field of battle in the presence of the other two arms.