New Britain herald., 1929-08-10


 the effect that the World War
 would soon have been over if either France or Germany had possessed a sufficiently strong and mobile force
 of cavalry.
 "Other arms may win battles; only cavalry will make them worth win hing" said Lord Haig, and the argu- ment of our own military men is that it would be dangerous 10 form fixed ideas of war from the World Wars long period of trench warfare. No nation will voluntarily submit to war of attrition behind barbed wire, and for wars Of maneurer an army must have horse, foot and artillery, along with such modern improve ments as planes and tanks. Instead of dropping out of the pie ture to give way to armored cars and swift tanks, the cavalry expects to add these to it's own units and thereby extend it's radius of action and it's fire power,
 Whereas. the air service is re- stricted by weather conditions in scouting work and reconnaissance, cavalry can be used at night and in all kinds of weather and also in thickly wooded territory, where enemy units might be hidden from aerial observation. Cavalry is also able to pick up important details, by minute searches and by question: ing inhabitants, for instance. It may bC able to operate when enemy air craft illustrates ours.
 Armored cars are considered more vulnerable than cavalry and they can be easily blocked. Tanks are unable to operate alone or to hold captured ground. They are liable to mechanical difficulties and are likely to be impeded by water. thick woods and boulders. Cavalry is rcver hampered by lack Of gasoline.
 "The capacity of an army for ac- ton is not shown until It gets off the roads" says a cavalry officer. "Weather conditions and lack of carry on just the same"
 In ordinary Warfare, when man. cuver isn't rendered impossible by trench fighting with Hanks resting on impossible obstacles. cavalry does it's stuff by arriving quickly at the scene of action, spreading out over wide spaces if necessary, concentrating quickly, attacking suddenly by sur prise and escaping quickly after striking a blow at superior numbers. It can cross rapidly through zones swept by fire, presenting difficult target and arriving at close quarters with the enemy without destructive losses.
 Even In the World War, despite the entrenchmcnt on the westeI front. cavalry was active and often importantly successful. It covered the concentration, detraining and ad- vance of the French, British and German armies. A Belgian cavalry division gave the Germans their first serious setback when it held up the advance of German cavalry on Brussels. French cavalry did val uable accommodating work against the first German advance. When the Allied and German armies were trying to envelop each other. caval- ry corps galloped ahead in the sc called race 10 the sea"
 Early in the war cavalry main- tained connection between separate armies or parts of an army. Ger man cavalry figured most important ly in Hindenburg' overwhelming de fcats of the Russians. Cavalry ap- pCared to be the most important military arm of all in the operations in Egypt and Palestine. French cavalry cut off the retreat of tn" Eleventh German army in Macedonia and Italian cavalry staged some bril- liant pursuit work on the Austrian front just before the war ended.
 Cavalry officers are fond of quot ing this statement of General Pcrsh ing in 1922, based on lessons on the war:
 "Thcrc is not in the world today ar officer of distinction, recognized as an authority in military matters in broad way. who does not de clare with emphasis that cavalry is as important an arm today as it has ever bcen.'