The New York herald., 1922-07-16
Gen. Feraud Says French
Horsemen Finally Halted
Germans.
COVERED ALLIED CENTER
Declares Tank Too Cumber-
some and Calls Airplane
Only New Weapon.
Special Gable 10 THE NEw York HERALD.
Copyright, 1922. by THE New York HERALD

Special Gable TO THE NEw YORK HERALD.
Copyright, 1922, by THE New York HERALD
New York Herald Bureau.
Paris. July Is.
Not only was the last war not solely
one whose vital moments belonged to
machine guns. artillery and infantry,
role of cavalry in modern warfare is
by no means limited and will increase
as the methods Of conflict progress.
This is the view Of Gen. Feraud. pub
lished this week. which Is causing
great surprise, the average citizen
having swallowed readily the yarn
prepared early in the war for German
consumption that the cavalry's day
was ended once mankind took to hid
! ing in holes
This belief seemed strengthened by
| the fact that the Canadians dis
mounted much cavalry and trans
formed them into foot soldiers; but it
| is now revealed that this was due
| merely to a desire to make the horse
| fighters capable of all sorts of war
fare training which in the latter
days of the war resulted in disaster
| for the enemy.
Where Cavalry Helped.
!, OF course the cavalry's greatest OPP
portunities came during the first six
months Of the war. but occasionally they
showed up to excellent advantage. In
fact. according to Gen. Feraud. il was
| the French cavalry just as much as the
| Americans which finally halted the Ger
mans outside of Chateau-Thierry, one
cavalry corps standing off a score Of
| German divisions.
| Further north the cavalry already
J had gained renown by filling the breach
! in Foch's army, covering the whole CEN
ter Of the allied armies for days. In
1 Artois, when the British troops were
| forced to retreat to- Amiens, 1t was the
British cavalry that presented the first
| opposition to the advancing Germans.
and for three days enabled the riddled
! British ranks to reassemble for infantry
action on new front.
Toward the autumn Of 1918 French
and British cavalry continually de-
ploycd. every time proving an ideal
weapon whenever force and ruse had
to be combined On two occasions they
saved the situation under trying cir
| cumstances; one when the horsemen
| rushed for sixty hours OF forced rid
Ing In Flanders and stopped the fina.
German effort for Calais. and then when
they returned to Normandy. only to be
called out for another steady ride to
fill the widening breach in the Cham
pagne front.
! Gen. Feraud's only regret was that the
French, during the war. reduced their
cavalry from fourteen to three divi-
sions; but 1t Is significant that the wars
lessons have been learned, and the new
80 \ a..
at least cadre or skeleton formations
of cs.valry, on the same basis as before
the war.
Ended Cavalry Opportunity.
THE war ended at the very moment
when the cavalry would have been OF
immense value In destroying the Ger
man morale Gen. Feraud says. 1T
was essentially its role to exploit the
victory. as a single trooper is frequently
able to stand off large patrols of the
enemy. but the conditions OF the ar1nis-
tice prevented the traditional role being
filled to the fullest extent"
Gen. Feraud vigorously opposes the
theory that the war provided the tank
as the greatest example of military prog
ress, and declared that this engine of
war will never prove really effective. as
II Is too cumbersome to combat with
the prestige of horsed soldiers.
I'm fact. the only new weapon Is the
airplane. and while this Is useful for
accommodating behind the lines for short
periods daily reconnaissance work at the
front, especially at night in forests and
the uncharted lanes of new country, must
still be intrusted to cavalry"
He says In his latest plea for the de-
velopment of the cavalrys role that
every trooper knows how to handle a
\ machine gun, the rife and g-enades. II
this Is done in the future he adds. even
heavy armored weapons like tanks may
be dispensed with gradually and the
costly petrol and supplies they call for
may be devoted to aviation.