Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-12-21
BRITISH cavalry STUDY ALT kinds
OF FIGHTING ON SALISBURY PLAINS
"e're Not Orse Soldiers" Said One Tommy "Ve're
Bloody Professors" the New Tactics Learned out
of Experience in this War Require Many Changes.

my Of the Horse will do most Of his
fighting hereafter. The cavalryman
will carry bayonet. as we'll as sword
and pistol.
He knows all about infantry tactics.
He Is drilled in footwork until he can
take his part in any infantry move
inent without embarrassment. When
he has been made into a very fair sort
of Il footman he is then given instruc-
ton along his own line. Mounted men
are used In the present war chiefly as
scouts. Their fighting value in the
saddle has mostly disappeared. So
tlat he is taught how to scout, what
to look for and how to find his way
across an unknown country.
The Plains are Il very excellent
background for this work. They are
wide, rolling ruffles, which look oddly
alike in the daytime. At night each
swelling hill looks like each other
swelling hill. About midnight Tom
my OF the Horse is apt to be pulled
out of his desirable blanket and strad-
died upon a disgusted steed. Then he
is directed to take open order upon
u front Of two miles, and reach q
guide. Each Tommy has to find
the place for himself. Tommies may
not flock together for mutual encour-
agement and reviling. To keep him
interested i'll his work Tommy is often
sent out quite alone to do such a ride
across an unknown country in The
dark. If he doesn't get to the right
place at the right time he must eX-
plain.
When He learns to Ride.
Between times he is exercised in
mounted tactics. He is taught to ride
and .eap fences and bitches and to
save his mount on long march. Clad
In q padded coat, his head and his
horses head protected by Walden he'll
NETS, he is directed to whack at other
Tornmies with his sabre. Because all
Tommies like to swing sword-and
because that often results in sudden
in the use OF the point. He gallops
past stuffed figures hour after hour,
prodding them with his sabre. When
he has learned his lesson he can so
carry his sword that the momentum
Of the galloping horse will bury it
to the hilt in the artificial enemy. He
Is not armed with the lance, but he
is drilled in its use.
Most Tommies have never been near
enough horse to pat the beast when
they join the cavalry. So they are
first put on a wooden rocking horse
Scores Of Tommies solemnly rock to
and fro under the direction of nom
CONS In this stage Of the drill. Later
they get another sort of mechanical
horse-a device that, as one Tommy
said. ''can do everything a real horse
can do except bite" Eventually he
Is graduated to a real nag. Now he
must charge his poor brain with more
knowledge
He must know all about that horses
whims and ills. He must know how
to feed the brute, and how to save
him, and how to doctor him If he falls
ILL., He must be able to tack on a
shoe. and bandage a wound and do
his toilet, and restrict his passion
Tor drink after q hot ride. Il He must
be able to make that horse lie down
and hide itself behind barrel. IL
need be, and get the last ounce Of
speed out Of it until it falls dead.
When Tommy of the Horse gets
through with his course Of training
he knows more about more different
branches Of war making than any
other private soldier of the army.
Here on the Plains Tommy by the
thousand is going through this work
Flo rises at 5 o'clock and is often out
all night. Twenty-four hours with
out a rest is nothing unusual to him.
When he has nothing else to do he
learns the flags and lanterns, that he
may take his place with the signallers
II required. AS side issue he--with
every other soldier-learns first aid
and camp cooking.
1--WE amt 'orse soldiers" said
Tommy the other day. We're bloody
professors"