The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1919-12-23
Work ~ kanssune eoard Must Receive
rssuohtnGl encouragement Of All
Autrseahs u We Ars 70 Occupy
piaos of World Leidership.

force the United States into a position
Of military leadership in the world
whether that sort of leadership may
seem desirable 20 the great majority
Of the people uf mot
It is hardly necessary to say that
the great war proved that, more than
ever is the horse, and the right sort
of horse, indispensable to the success
full prosecution of military operations.
1t Is only repetition to say that the
strategy Of the American expedition
airy force in France last year and the
year before was repeatedly and seri-
ously embarrassed by the woefui In
suf1ciency Of It's horse equipment and
Of the discouragtng ineff1ciency of the
horses that were sent overseas by the
hardworked remount division Of the
army on this side. albeit these animals
were the very best the country had to
send. They were the combings Of the
entire country.
Supply o. Allies Depleted.
The embarrassment Of the armies Of
the powers associated with the uni.
ted States In the struggle against Ger
man world domination was not so
great as was that experienced by the
forces Of Pershing. but II was serious
nevertheless. The horse supply Of
Great Britain and France, although
reinforced BY Tremendous importa-
tons from the United States, South
America. South Africa. Canada and
Australia. had been terribly depleted
by the casualties Of three years Of
lighting by the time our armies be-
came formidable. No rsplacerents
were available.
Thousands Of nne young lives were
sacrificed In the titanic struggle that
ragged from the English channel to the
frontier Of Switzerland from the be-
ginning Of 1918 to the middle Of No
vember because the underhorsing Of
allied artillery limited the protection
that artillery should have rendered to
the attacking infantry. LudendOrf re-
peatedly refers in his story Of the Ger
man defeat to merciful pauses {merci-
full to the hard pressed German army
In the French, British and American
attack that enabled his commanders
to extricate hard fighting divisions
from perilous positions that were ne
cessitated by the inability Of the at
lacking artillery and transport sep~-
ices to keep pace with the advancing
infantry.
Unnecessary hardship had to be en-
dured by the combat troops Of the adj
vancing forces OF civilization because
poor horsing in the transport services
rendered impossible the bringing up Of
supplies In punctual military fashion.
The fruits Of victory were lost time
and again because Of the impossibility
Of promptly exploiting the achieve
ments Of infantry by the employment
of large bodies of cavalry. The lack
Of cavalry at ST. Mihiel, at Chateau
Thierry, in the ArgOnne and at Sedan
made American officers STEPPED in the
traditions Of Forrest and Stuart, Of
PleasantOn and Sheridan fairly cry.
There were some so called cavalry reg
iments in the A. E. F., but they were
not cavalry. At no time was single
American cavalry regiment mounted
Victory Would Have Been Great.
Even the cavalry of the British and
French armies, which had been fairly
we'll horsed at the beginning of the
war'and more carefully conserved than
had been the cavalry of the other menu
bers of the anti-German alliance, was
found wholly insufficient TO push home
victory and convert mere defeats Of
the German armies into rOuts in COM
parisOn with which the French disas-
tiers of Sedan and Metz in 1870 would
have been considered by the military
writer's Of the future as orderly mill
tary operations.
The entente allies and the United
States had about three and q half mill
lion soldiers in the field on the west
ern front in October. 1918. when they
began TO press the previously success
full Germans back toward the Rhine IN
deadly earnest. If 100000 to 5OOON
of these fighting men had been cavalry
mounted on half bred horses the be It
military opinion in this country and II
France and Great Britain holds, the
German defeat would have been the
most complete and most humilating
defeat in military history. There
wouid have been no fairly orderly
withdrawal OF the soldiers of the Ger
man Crown Prince. of Rupprecht, the
Brute. OF Van Galwitz. of Won Amin
and OF Won B0ehn across the Rhine to
be received al houie as unheaten he
roes. The bulk Of the German forces
that began their march thrust for
Paris and victory in pride and inso-
lence under the eye Of the violet pick
Ing Hohen1Ollern paranOiac would