Evening star., 1940-08-22
Cavalry Comes Back,
But Horses Play
Little Part in Il
Functions Of Arm Are
Same, Even Though 1t
Now Moves on Wheels
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.

StAT Stdll SOllcSpoiocht'
OGDENSBURG, N. Y. Aug. "a
The cavalry is coming back as
smoke belching. armor Gathering
troops of iron elephants.
This new cavalry is far call
from the romantic, dashing sOldiery
of Jeb Stuart or of Custer and is
not greatly different from the Ger
man "panzer" division-minus the
heavy tanks which constitute a
service branch of their own.
But it is cavalry just the same.
explain Regular Army cavalry off1-
GERS assigned to observation duty
with the National Guard troops
on maneuvers here. 1t is a quick
moving, heavy striking, morale de-
stroying force-the most mobile
branch of the ground forces. That
is precisely what the old cavalry
was, but it so happened that up to
the present decade horses fitted
into the picture better than any
thing else. There are still horses,
but they are likely to play a very
minor part in any actual cavalry
encounter.
Setup of Modern Cavalry.
Here is the present setup Of a
mechanical cavalry division, as ex-
planned by It. Col. Sam Richmond:
Scout cars with light armor and
four wheel drives. carrying 80 and
so caliber machine guns. which
precede the division at from go to
10 miles and hour along any roads,
or cart paths that can be found.
and even across open fields. They
are the reconnaissance arm, with
the age-old cavalry duty of estab-
fishing contact with the enemy.
Directly behind them so as to be
In position to strike heavy blow
instantly when the scout cars have
smoked out the enemy, comes the
main combat element-light, fast
tanks with heavy armor, which can
shift at will from wheels to tracks.
They can move at from 40 to so
miles an hour over any sort Of
roads and from Is to 40 miles an
hour over any reasonably open
country.
The next element is the mechan-
ized cavalry artillery with rs milli-
meter howitzers, followed by the
machine gun units mounted on half
wheel-half track vehicles which can
follow the tanks almost anywhere
Next are the mortar elements with
so to 81 millimeter mortars whose
primary purpose is to throw smoke
screens. They are mounted on
special vehicles-small trucks with
tail gates which can be dropped to
the ground so that the mortar can
be fired from that position.
Horses Ride to Battle.
Back in reserve are the horses
carried "portee"-that is in trailers.
There are still places. says Col.
Richmond, where motorized equip
mentn cannot goat least not
rapidly enough to perform the func-
tions of cavalry. These places a
horse still can penetrate. Machan-
lied cavalry, In fact, is i'll suited
to a country where there are no
roads of any kind.
This does not apply to Western
Europe. Everywhere the German
panzer divisions have gone there
has been a net work of roads of
some sort, many of them fairly
good roads. Besides it has been
mostly open country, although
there have been some rough places
which have been penetrated. The
same conditions would hold gen.
orally in the Eastern United States.
But If war ever came to this con-
tinent, Col. Richmond believes, the
old horse cavalry, with some mech
anized additions. would have real
part to play. He spoke particularly
of the area of the Great Smokes
from Bluefield, w. Va, to Chatta-
nooga, through which it might be
necessary to move rapidly. Through
the whole region there are only two
roads suitable for the rapid move
ment of mechanical cavalry and
these have been built at such great
expense that 1t would be unthink-
able to duplicate them in war
emergency. There are still large
areas in Kentucky and Tennessee,
he says, which might be important
backgrounds, but which are prac-
tically roadless. The same condi-
ton obtains in parts of the Ozarks,
and the Black Hills region is so
rough and poorly traversed by roads