PREVENTION OF WASTAGE. 57 



The greatest wastage in France was in the hght draught 

 horses of Artillery. The work of getting ammunition up to 

 gun emplacements, over shell-pitted ground and through seas 

 of mud at dead of night, was of the severest possible description, 

 and the situation was complicated by lack of fit remounts of 

 that class to keep pace with wastage. Bad, rainy weather 

 always was succeeded by an aftermath of DebiHty evacuations, 

 in Artillery units particularly. The churned up mud of 

 Flanders, the shell holes filled with liquid mud every few steps, 

 into which animals under load dropped exhausted— probably 

 to drown, was a picture that required to be seen to be realised 

 to its full degree of awfulness. 



The French Army used a large number of donkeys for carry- 

 ing ammunition. They were driven in lots of about twenty, 

 and they picked their way across country, skirting the edges of 

 the shell holes. 



The war in France was not a Cavalry one, but when Cavalry 

 in force participated in Offensive, casualties — battle casualties 

 chiefly — were heavy. In one offensive the casualties for a week 

 amounted to 10 per cent, of strength, but there was 1000 per 

 cent, of gallantry that far outweighed the loss. It is war when 

 cavalry begins to move, and you may laugh at prevention. And 

 when behind the movement there are the pent-up feelings of 

 several months inactivity, " I reckon there's going to be some 

 show." 



INote. This is supposed to be a treatise on prevention of 

 wastage and inefficiency] . 



I close the chapter with reference to Transport. In France 

 nothing could have exceeded the high state of efficiency of 

 animals generally in Army Service Corps units of Divisional 

 Trains, Reserve Parks, and Auxiliary Transport Companies. 

 They certainly were not exposed to the hard lot of Artillery 

 horses, but they were a real good class of well selected animals, 

 and the organization of the A.S.C. in personnel left nothing 

 remaining for their care. The wastage, excepting in some of 

 the reserve Parks in the early days of the war, was phenomen- 

 ally small, and a large number served through the whole period 

 of the war and returned to England at the end of that time. 



