INTRODUCTORY 15 



brigades in ?. division, tlic divisions in a Corps, and the Corps in our Armies 

 on all the Fronts you arrive at a first calculation of the \ital necessity of 

 horses and mule in many tens of thousands, the wastage among which has to 

 be watched with the greatest care in order that the establishments prescribed 

 may be rigidly maintained. For easy mobility and flexibility in rapid 

 movement are vital and essential in the making of successful warfare. 



Then with the Artillery of every Division there must be a Divisional 

 Ammunition Column, which means several hundred more animals, and again 

 there is the Divisional Train Transport, chiefly horsed by weighty draught 

 horses, while you must also bear in mind that every battalion of infantry has 

 its own transport of at least half a hundred animals. Think also of the tremen- 

 dous variety of other Units (especially those connected with Machine Guns 

 and the Royal Engineers), which go to make an Army in being, each having 

 horses or mules, or both, allotted to it. One has in mind Labour and Road 

 Construction Companies, Railway Companies, Forestry Companies, units on 

 Lines of Communication and the Medical Service. 



What of the cavalry ? There is an idea that it has ceased to exist since 

 those early days when it did invaluable work in the retreat from IVIons. 

 L^ndoubtedly it seemed to pass into the limbo of things forgotten and out-of-date 

 during the years of trench warfare, and no doubt both first and second line 

 cavalry were put to more active uses than mereh' watching and waiting for 

 the word to dash into the break in the barrier that never really came. I am 

 writing, of course, of the era of trench warfare. 



Was it not Mr. H. G. Wells, that genius of imagination, who wrote during 

 the era referred to that the day of cavalry had gone for ever ? It would be 

 paying his genius and reputation a poor compliment to say that many people, 

 both in and out of khaki, were not influenced by his pronouncement. Yet 

 Jerusalem w^ould never have been entered but for General Allenby's Cavalry ; 

 the crusade into the heart of Palestine was distinguished by the fine exploits 

 of Yeomen of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire ; 

 but fcr Indian cavalry Allenb\''s brilliant coup by which two Turkish armies 

 were smashed would not have been possible ; while the success and gallantry 

 o; the Dorsetshire Yeomanrv at Matruh in the Senussi fill a sparkling page in 

 near Eastern military operations. The advance to Baghdad and beyond along 

 the shores of the Tigris was not made possible by guns and infantry alone. 

 So, too, in France, when comparatively open warfare displaced the stalemate 

 of trench warfare, we had cavalry coming into its own again. With an 

 enemy in retreat cavalry must be present to direct, aid. and hurry the victorious 

 sweep onwards. In my opinion the day must come in the closing stages of the 

 w^ar when cavalry will play its own great part. It will operate at the end as it 

 did at the beginning but with this difference , that cavalry when used in an 

 advance in conjunction wdth modern methods and engines of war must be 

 more vitally important and essential than when used in defence. 



If, therefore, I have made it clear that horses and mules are necessarily 

 taking a big share in the burden of this gigantic war it will surely be appropriate 

 that I should sketch briefly the methods adopted by our Army Authorities in 

 dealing with the arriving crowds from across the xAtlantic preparatory to their 



