The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1920-01-14
QUALITY OF BLOOD COUNTS
French Army Furnished the Thorough
breds that Enabled Our Guns to
Stop ludendorf's Drive Toward
Paris and Victory.

aggregate matter OF S4OO,OVOVU OF
S5O0, 100000, additional proof Of the
superlative value of thoroughbred
blood in the military horse and the
comparative worthlessness Of cold
blood that proof was supplied by
the experience of the Second Division
of the American Expeditionary Force
In the sumner of 1918. The Second
Division was the division in which the
famous Marine Corps was brigaded.
The Second was one of the best
equipped of the American grand units
as regards horseflesh. The cream OF
the remount service was in its artillery
and transport departments.
In June, 1918, the Second Division
was ordered from quiet sector OF the
western front near Verdun to the
western angle of the great Marine sa-
lent the German offensive of March
to June had created in the French line.
Foch had Sensed the impending Lu-
dendOrf thrust that was to win Paris
and a victorious peace, and he was
assembling all his available soldiers
to meet It. The carrying out of this
order by the Second Division involved
a march of less than 100 miles, 81 to
be exact. Yet so per cent of the cold
blooded horses of the artillery brigade
succumbed to the rigors of this more
date march without having come under
gunfire. Upward of half the horses
that dropped out of line were so COM
pletely done up they were unfit to be
sent to base stations for recuperatiOn
with the ultimate object of returning
to service.
The French divisions that accom-
panied the American divisions on this
march lost no more than five per cent
of their horses. But the French artil
lery, cavalry and transport horses
were half and three-quarter breds,
the produce of q system of breeding
That had been instituted by a far
sighted government sixty or seventy
years before the outbreak Of the great
war.
Second Division Suffers.
Because of the collapse of its horse
equipment and artillery brigade of the
Second Division did not reach its OBJ
iective until a day after the great
struggle that was to terminate in the
whining appeal of the German army
for an arnstice in October had begun.
The Second Division fought the first
day without artillery protection and
suffered outrGgeously in consequence.
The artillery brigade reached the zone
OF conflict late i'm the second day and
was enabled to take part in the series
of actions that completely deranged
LudendOrfs ambitious plan Of conquest
and put the great German army on the
defensive only because American re-
ahln m rn-aunin
it from the surplus horse supply of the
French army with half and three
quarter breds. The French were in
a position to furnish these indispensa-
BILE animals because up to the begin
ming of March the war had been a
war of position rather than a war of
movement and no hard demand had
been made on the artillery and cavalry
horse reserves of the French army.
When the great war came to its un-
expected finish the United States hal
under arms. ut home and abroad.
some 100000 soldiers. of which
$4,000 were infantry, 394,O0 were
engineers, $4,000 were field artillery,
but only 10000 were cavalry. The
field artillery was horsed after fash
ion. SO was the engineer contingent.
But the quality of the horses that
served the field artillery and the en-
gineer contingent generally was no
better, il, indeed, ii was as good. than
was the quality Of the horses that failed
the artillery brigade of the Second
Division in the march from verdun to
the Marine salient.
Our Cavalry Not There.
For such masses Of infantry and
artillery there should have been 25O,-
600 to 100000 cavalry, according to the
most advanced military opinion in the
United States and abroad. Yet only
an insignificant fraction Of the absurd
~ small mounted contingent Of the
gigantic military establishment Of the
United States of November LIST, 1918
the second, third, sixth and fifteenth
cavalry regiments-was in France
Most of our $4,000 troopers were pa
trolling the Mexican frontier. More
over only a mOety of the sO-called
American cavalry forces In France
was mounted. At no time was II pos
slble to completely horse the second
third, sixth and fifteenth regiments
The troopers of these regiments, when
| they were not serving with machine
| gun contingents, were guarding mum
| tons and quartermasters stores. This
condition was due to the disgracefuI
| fact that the United States had nc
suitable mounts for its cavalry. France
and Great Britain, to insure prompt
! and effective cooperation by the
American grand units In the great
| counter offensive of FOch might spare
serviceable artillery horses of the hall
and three-quarter bred types because
as had already been pointed out, the
struggle for civilization up to the be
ginning of 1918 on the western from
had been for the most part war OF
position rather than one Of maneuver
Their reserves of artillery horses haC
not been exhausted. But neither
France nor Great Britain felt disposed