ALCON: This article is a guest post from a military dependent. We figured some of you would have kids that identified with him, if you don’t yourself. Check it out and let us know if this is something you might be interested in seeing in the future. The moniker ‘Spawn of Shooter’ was chosen for its relevance to fps gamers (you know as well as I do how many “military brats” play CoD3, MW3 and the like) and also because youngsters dad and all his uncles are military…literally every branch, and some of them deployed right now. See what you think. -Brandon
Real Warhorses and their Riders
by Spawn of Shooter
About a month ago (on Christmas Day, perhaps you remember it), the movie Warhorse was released to the public in theaters. So far almost all the reviews (and most of my friends) say it’s pretty dang good. Now a lot of Kit Up! readers probably knew better, but back when it came out a lot of people (myself included) were asking “Did they seriously use cavalry in WWI, the so-called ‘Great War’? Against machine-guns and all the tools of modern warfare?
Why yes, yes they did. There’s a lot of reasons behind that. Entire books have been written about the hows and whys of the various mistakes made back then. (It’s not for nothing that millions of guys died stupidly: stop and think about it, what if those were my uncles or my dad, or yours?)
This is a picture of American cavalry in WWI. American troops sent to WWI were called the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).
Under the Radar: Picture from an actual magazine article right after WWI: US Cavalry troopers.
Under the Radar: Royal Scots Greys in WWI
Australian Light Horse cavalry in WWI. The man on the right was killed at the Battle of Gallipoli against the Turkish Army.
Anyway, they did use cavalry (not Calvary, that’s a pretty important hill near Jerusalem). In fact, on August 22, 1914, the very first British shot of the war in France was apparently fired by a cavalryman, Edward Thomas of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, Near Casteau, during a patrol in the buildup to the “Battle of Mons”. The last cavalry charge was by the Australian 4TH Light Horse on Halloween night, 1917 at the Battle of Beersheba.
There’s a really good article about it on Command Posts, if you’re interested. You can find out more about the movie Warhorse on IMDB. The other thing you can do is check out the book the movie’s based on, Warhorse.
Oh, and there’s a “society of military horse” too, like a historical study group of cavalry and warhorses. Its pretty cool.
“The use of horses in World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force, but over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern machine gun and artillery fire reduced their utility on the battlefield. This paralleled the development of tanks, which would ultimately replace cavalry in shock tactics. While the perceived value of the horse in war changed dramatically, horses still played a significant role throughout the war.”
If you want to see an older movie about cavalry in WWI, you should check out The Lighthorsemen. I’d never heard of it until I talked to one of my uncles who saw it on a pump to the Philippines right after it had actually come out. Here’s a clip. It’s really good.
Until the next time, I hope your family’s safe if they’re deployed. Thank you for your service. I may see some of you soon at Ft. Leonard Wood!
Spawn of Shooter
Spawn of Shooter is a military dependent and a gamer. His great-grandfathers, grandfathers, dad, uncles, pseudo-uncles and other influences (arguably worthy of the title ‘role model’) present a wide mix of military (some now LE) personnel from all four branches, including a grunt CSM, a gunner’s mate, one green-side corpsman, a couple of MSGTs, several junior NCOs of various MOS/AFSCs, a grunt/STA Marine, one FO, a couple military police, a nurse and some civilian cops who all were in the military. He likes first person shooters, gets his dork on in WoW and Skyrim and can competently shoot basic qual courses with a shotgun (20ga. not 12, yet) and pistol (still working on the rifle). He understands the advantages and disadvantages of living in the fishbowl that is base housing (and of getting on and off base during FPCON exercises). He doesn’t particularly care for shopping at AAFES, though unlike some of his peers and age groups does not mind rendering proper courtesies during retreat or colors. He does love Anthony’s pizza.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Ill have to catch this movie.
Yes, cavalry was even used during World War II. Of course, its obsolescence is emphasized by Poland’s use of cavalry during the German invasion, though one should consider that horses were used by Germany for logistics throughout the war, especially in the late stages due to shortages in petroleum. During Operation Uranus, the Soviets employed cavalry to encircle the 6th German Army. Cavalry was largely rendered obsolete, though was still practical for logistics and communications.
The famed Polish cavalry charge vs. German tanks never really happened, the “charge” was nothing more than German propaganda which has managed to survive to this day where many people still actually believe that the Polish cavalry actually attacked German tanks with lances. The truth was that there was a Polish cavalry charge but against German infantry and it was a successful attack too.
haha, you would be surprised how many times this myth is still thrown around. Initially, yes, the charge of krojanty was successful, though skirmishes between horses vs armored vehicles doesn’t end well for the former.
There’s a book called the “Sabres for savoy” by Farrell, Nicholas. Its about the Italian 3rd Dragoons routing 2,000 Soviet infantry in 1942.
The US did use Horses in WW2 but in very limited number and filled more of a courier and scout role. Jeeps where a much better way to get around.
Great article!
I actually wrote a research paper for a college course partly on “The Lighthorsemen” it was a great movie.
My grandfather was a Colonel in a Cavalry regiment right before the kick off of WWII. I have a picture of them that’s about 3 feet long and 6 inch tall of all of them lined up on horseback. I proudly display his sword in my house. His Regiment was changed into Mechanized Cavalry but with the army growing so fast he was quickly promoted out of his Regiment. He was found of reminding me that the last US Calvary charge on horseback was in 1942.
That no longer stands true. If I recall there was a us cavalry charge in Afghanistan in 01 or 02
Great article! Would like to see more like this.
Anyone else know the song “Horse Soldier” by Corb Lund?
That was a neat little tidbit of history. I enjoyed it.
xcalbr,Great posting!
Great article, Spawn! Pleased to see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
http://www.militaryhorse.org will answer any questions
Nice post.. Makes me think of things I have read about Gen Patton – He was a cavalry officer in WWI and was a pioneering leader in development and improvement in technology of saddles and sabers and horseback techniques before he was a pioneer in the application of tanks in battle. A cool book if you can get it is ‘Recon Scout’ by Fred Salter.. In the first part, he spent his youth dreaming of being a modern Scout (Bill Cody style) and after joining up, he was trained as a Scout on horseback in the late 30′s – As soon as the war started they took the horses away and sent gave them jeeps !! Bummer.
its fascinating how wheeled vehicles were lauded by the German Army, though on the Eastern front, they floundered because the country is perpetually covered with mud. Horses were more suitable in the harsh terrain and werent necessarily completely confined to roads. The particular breed of horses used by the Russians were more durable than the Panzers. Wikipedia has a pretty interesting article titled “Horses in World War II”.
I remember reading a article about US Special Forces relearning horse riding skills to better suit the terrain of afghanistan, which destroys wheeled vehicles. Fascinating how that country throws combatants back to the middle ages…
The Australian Light Horse units were ‘mounted infantry’ rather cavalry. The Beersheba was a big exception.
Remember that WWI was very large and complex…some random thoughts:
All the armies were effectively married to cavalry at the start, with large numbers of troops configured thus and the most socially prestigious officers concentrated in cavalry… everyone expected some sort of war of movement, too, and the war started out that way until modern firepower stopped the works.
There remained potential uses even on the western front…exploitation comes to mind. If infantry managed to take the opposite trench, they were shredded and exhausted and not at all well suited to rapid movement in the enemies communication zone. Even when it started becoming apparent late in the war that tanks might be breakthrough weapons once proper tactics were developed, the first generation machines were not much good for the job…according to my reading, once the things had survived the run into the opposite trench, the machines were shot to **** and the crews exhausted and sickened by the ride in a box full of cordite and oil fumes. Infantry had to exploit and so was very limited…
One semi successful experiment was sorta cavalry…each tank could drag a Rolls Royce armored car (unable to cross the front on its own) until they reached solid ground behind the first rows of trenches…then the cars could go shoot up the rear echelons and cause some widespread havoc.
At the end of the war, my Grandfather was in training as a US cavalry officer (he caught the killer flu epidemic–survived but was knocked out of the service before shipping out).
His story from training…our tactical thought was that 1918-19 would see the breakthrough problem solved, with better and more tanks and better coordination of forces we would destroy the effectiveness of the trench line, and lots of cavalry was going to follow behind tanks and infantry as a mobile exploitation force able to move rapidly and pave the way for the much slower infantry/armor followup.