CHAPTER XII 



Horses and Mules in Sickness 



IT is appropriate, in continu'ng the narrative of veterinary work and enter- 

 prise among the horses and mules in France, to pause and survey the 

 situation as it was created after the German hordes had poured over the 

 basins of the Somme and reoccupied territory on which it had been hoped 

 they would never again set foot. Such a retreat, like that, for instance, of 

 the Fifth Army in the spring of 1918, must have involved the sacrifice from 

 wounds and exhaustion, perhaps also from capture, of a certain number of 

 animals. 



So much is obvious. We know also during those days of acute tension 

 when the whole terrain was torn and aflame with devastating and devouring 

 gunfire and vast rear areas were searched by long-range guns and bombs, 

 that our gun and transport animals must have borne their share of the dreadful 

 shock of unprecedented battle. What was so along that far-flung 50-mile 

 battle line in the closing days of March must also have been enacted by day 

 and by night in the North when the mighty titanic struggle swayed in and 

 around Armentieres and carried Ballieul and Kemmel in its fierce bull-rush. 



What of our horses and mules during those days of crisis and anxiety ? 

 They were a vital consideration beyond all question. That surely is under- 

 stood, without the mere writing of the words. The saving of our men's lives 

 in movements to the rear must in a large measure be dependent also on the 

 saving of our horses' lives. They must live to preserve the mobility of the 

 fighting forces. They must fill their big and vital part in withdrawing the 

 guns from their forward positions ; in securing the mobility of the Army 

 Service Corps which must never lose touch ; in bringing up ammunition to 

 gunners and infantry ; in saving those transportable stores and munitions 

 of war which an oncoming enemy would advertise as "booty"; and in a 

 hundred different ways. 



It is just natural to lapse at a moment like this into comparing pictures 

 deeply engraved for all time on the mind. Imagination has nothing to do 

 with it, since only those who have seen and participated can understand. 

 Words, however eloquent, cannot convey reahty to those who have not. One 

 recalls the short winter's day on the Somme with Albert left behind to the 

 westward, or a point farther north around which the hell of battle has since 

 raged. Our forward guns were lost in the poor visibility of the fast-ebbing 



