The Washington times., 1935-09-21

IntOItaly's
Cavalry
By James T. Williams, Jr.

'SN " S"OW"y, JuT VOW
being diminished, wiH appear
on the morroD, if there is an.
other W1r, as great as ne
dreamed it to be in the past.
1t tDiu hold its importance as
long as speed and surprise hold
their Udlue on the field of bat.
He.-Generdl Weyodnd, Marshal
FochS Chief of Staff.
Italy has been buying horses
and mules in the United States
for many months. They are
being bought for the use of the
Italian army in the event that
Italy and Ethiopia finally stop
sparring and settle down to
war.
Instead of abandoning cav.
airy as branch of the Italian
army the Italian government is
drawing heavily upon the
United States for animals with
which to reinforce this branch.
Every other first-class European
power would do the same on the
eve of war, because the military
authorities of Europe know the
value of cavalry in modern war.
fare. They know also what some
gullible American politicians
have either failed to find out or
are too ignorant to comprehend:
First-That in time of war the
transportation of every nation
rail, motor, water and air, as
well as animals taxed to ca
pacity.
SecOnd-That the United
States at the present time has
100000 horses and mules on
the mainland-twice as many as
there are in the whole of Eu-
rope today.
Third-That all firStclass
powers are holding on to horSed
cavalry, and that all of them
including Italy and Japan
have more cavalry than Con-
gress now provides for the
United States.
FOurth-That most of the
firSt-class powers are combining
motOrizatiOn and mechanization
with their cavalry and putting
more fire power into their hOrSed
cavalry units.
INNOVATIONS
BY motorization is meant the
substituting of trucks for horse
drawn vehicles.
Mechanization means the in
clusion in cavalry regiments and
divisions of such vehicles as
srmored cars, scout cars, cy-
clists, ETC., for long distance re-
connaissance.
All of these innovations, as
the military authorities of first
class powers we'll know, are
great savers of horseflesh. In
fact, much of the equipment
formerly on the horse is now
carried in trucks and motor
vehicles to save the horse the
fatigue of long-distance recon
naissance.
The number of horses and
mules available to most of the
firSt-class nations of the world
is not sufficient to meet their
military and commercial require.
ments. They are, therefore,
forced to resort to a greater
degree of motorization and
mechanization of their armies
than they would do if they had
anything like the 100000
horses and mules possessed by
the United States.
The up-to-date, farSeeing cav.
alryman of any modern army
welcomes the development of avi-
alton. motorization and mech
anization because he knows
that their proper employment
greatly increases the effective
ness Of horsed cavalry units
now that the horse is no longer
loaded down with equipment
which a truck can transport.
Mobility for combat is the
main objective of all armed
forces and information fur
nished by armored cars and air
planes enables a cavalry COM
mander to proceed to his COM
bat objective with his force
fresh for combat and well in
hand.
FORAGE AND WATER
The use of large cavalry units
by Italy in Ethiopia, the best in
formed military authorities will
tell you, would prove a most diff
ficult problem in the initial
stages of such a conflict for the
following reasons:
Horses and forage are scarce
and must be bought abroad,
which accounts for ItaIy'S large
purchase in this country. Forage
and water in the theater Of
operations would be hard to OBJ
tain. The tsetSe fly, which Is
one of the pests Of Ethiopia,
would be hard on the horses.
Italy's advance into Ethiopia
must be very slow because she
will have to build her line of