The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1919-12-31
Supply IF Allies depleted.

supply u SliiSS CcPlCtcu'
The embarrassment Of the armi of
the powers associated with the Uni
ted States in the struggle against Ger
llan world domination was not so
great as was that experienced by the
forces of Pershing, but it was serious
never theless. The horse supply Of
Great Britain and France, although
reinforced by tremendous importa-
tions from the United States, South
America, South Africa, Canada ami
Australia, had been terribly depleted
by the casualties of three years of
fighting by the time our armies be-
came formidable. No requirements
were available.
Thousands~Of fine young lives were
sacrificed in the titanic struggle that
ragged from the English channel to the
frontier Of Switzerland from the be-
ginning of 1913 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 perllous positions that were ne.
cessitated by the inability of the at
lacking artillery and transport serv-
ices to keep pace with the advancing
infantry.
Unnecessary hardship had to be en-
dured by the combat troops of the adj
vanclng 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. AIihiel, 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.
Here were some 50 called cavalry reg
iments in the A. L. f., but they were
not cavalry. AT no time was a single
American cavalry regiment mounted.
Victory Would Have Been Great.
Even the cavalry of the British and
French armies, which had been fairly
well hOrsed at the beginning OF the
war and more carefully conserved than
haC been the cavalry of the other men,
bers of the antl-German alliance, was
found wholly insufficient TO push home
victory and convert mere defeats of
the German armies into routs In conf
pasisOn 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 aud half mil.
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 tne Rhine in
deadly earnest. II 100000 TO 100000
Of these fighting men had been cavalry
mounted on half bred horses, the be-
military opinion in this country and IN
France and Great Britain holds, the
German defeat would have been the
most complete and most humilating
iefeat in military history There
would have been no fairly orderly
withdrawal Of the soldiers of the Ger
nan Crown Prince, of Rupprecht, the
Brute, Of Van Galwitz, of Won Arnim
aud Of Won Boehn across the Rhine to
De received at home as unbeaten he
.oes. The bulk OF the German forces
hat began their march thrust for
Paris and victory In pride aud inso-
ence under the eve OF the violet pick. :