The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-08-17
General Foch Used French Horse
men to Advantage in
Big Drive.
PROVE GOOD FIGHTERS AFOOT
Rides 80 Miles in Day and Relieves
Hard-Pressed British in Flanders
Makes New Place for
Self in Warfare.

tactics ever sine he took over control
of the allied armies as supreme COM
mander, according to information
reaching military circles here. The
horsemen have played an important
role in the whole battle of 1918, as
the struggle which began March 81
with the first German drive has come
to be known.
The employment of swift-moving
columns in the present counter-stroke
from the Aisne-Marne line has been
noted in the dispatches. Again Gen
eral Foch took advantage of the great
mobility of the mounted arm to throw
1t in wherever his advancing infantry
units threatened to lose touch with
each other in the heat and confusion
of the contest. Nc gaps have been left
where the enemy might strike back,
for always the horsemen came up to
fill the hole until the infantry line
could be rectified and connected in a
solid front.
The same tactics marked the first
use of French cavalry in the battle of
Picardy, when the French took over
So miles of front from the British
to permit the latter to mass reserves
at seriously threatened points of the
line farther north.
Cavalry Fights Afoot.
A French cavalry corps complete
with light artillery, armored cars and
cyclists arrived first on the scene in
Picardy and relieved the British. They
fought it out afoot until the heavy
French infantry arrived and took over
the task.
Three days later the horsemen were
on the move again, this time hurrying
to the front, where the enemy was
hitting hard at the Lys line. The cav
airy rode hard as the advance guard
of the French infantry columns march
ed toward st. Omar. In the first
"a hours, despite the long strain
Of fighting in Picardy, they covered
30 miles without losing a man or a
horse on the way. In 66 hours they
had transferred their whole corps over
125 miles and arrived east of Mont
Cassel.
SIT was a wonderful sight" writes
the chief of staff of a division. 1.-THE
horses were in fine condition; the men
were cheerful and went singing, ins spite
of the sufferings and privations they
had to endure.
SIN truth, our boys looked a little
tired, but they were all very proud
that such an effort had been asked
Of them and all were bearing it cheer
fully"
The cavalry corps stood in support
of the British for ten days in April
after the enemy had forced the line
held by the Portuguese division. 1t
maintained communication between
two British armies and organized the
ground from Mont Cassel to Mont
KENNEL, while the French army
moved up behind it. AS the French
infantry came into line the cavalry was
drawn off to the left in the
Mont KENNEL region, and for five days
the horsemen, fighting afoot with two
! Infantry divisions, withstood the ter
rife assaults of the Germans who
sought to hammer a way through be-
hind Ypres at any cost.
They stood steady b~ombardment for
days, and when the infantry was hem
med in on top of Mont KENNEL,
the cavalry drove forward in counter
attack and held off the shock divisions
of the enemy while the French gun
ners got their pieces away.
Later, at the battle of Locre, the
cavalry also shared fully with the in
fantry, blocking gaps in the line, and
the final definite occupation of the
town for the allies was accomplished
by a cavalry battalion. A sergeant
and a handful of dragons drove 40
Germans out of the town, and at IN
other point a cavalry officer and 20
men backed up the infantry at a
critical moment, the officer waving a
pistol in one hand and a shovel in
the other as he led the dash which re-
stored the situation.
Defend %compeiene.
A few days later the same cavalry,
after another long ride, met the en-
envy advance against Villers-C otterets
woods in the Aisne sector, where the
fighting today is waging fercely, and
where the horsemen again are en-
gagged. When the Germans drove for
ward in their effort to get around the
forest to Compeigne, the horsemen
blocked the road between the wooded
region and the River Ourcq.
In view of this record for swift and
dashing attack afoot, the cavalry APP
pears to have established a new place
for itself in modern warfare. They
are the light reserves; the men who
are. always hurled first into the point
of danger to hold until the slow-mov-
ing infantry arrives. They have
learned trench warfare completely,
and General Foch is making s OF
them in any move that insures them
a glorious chance when the day m