A successful cavalry charge in 1918!

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And on the Western Front, no less!

http://amichass.europeanservers.net/article.php3?id_article=47

That page is in French but here's a rough translation:

After the front was broken on 27 May 1918, 4th squadron, 10th Chasseurs à cheval (light cavalry) regiment was dispatched to support the 299th infantry regiment, from Savoy, which had lost 2/3 of its personnel.

While Chaudin had been taken, the road to the Villers-Cotterêt forest was open to the enemy. On 30 May, 4th squadron would charge to open the path for the counterattack of the infantrymen of 299th regiment.

Commanded by captain d'Avout, the squadron was down to eighty cavalrymen.

What hope was there for such a weak force against the momentum of a victorious infantry? that simply wasn't the question.

- Draw sabers!

Eighty blades spring like so many lightning bolts. Eighty breasts pant.
A Dieu vat!

- Richert, dress your line, one rank, two meter interval. To the German infantry, ride!
- Direction: to the right of the single tree in front of you!

Lieutenant Richert salutes with his saber the colonel and staff of the 299th. The infantrymen, pale with emotion, salute back...

The platoon deploys as if this was just a parade drill, passes the 299th's line... starts...

Immediately, the German machine guns rattle. Fortunately, they're firing extremely low, mowing the rye. Only two horses fall.

- Charge! Charge!

The german artillery wakes up. Volleys of shrapnel fill the air with their sharp cracks. 2nd platoon starts to follow, then it's 3rd platoon's turn...

The charge sweeps the plateau. At full gallop, bent over their horses' necks, the chasseurs echo the officers' cry:
Charge! charge!

The machine-guns of the 299th are supporting the movement to the right. Other horses, a few men fall.

Behind the cavalrymen, colonel Vidal starts moving his regiment with fixed bayonets. A shout is heard:

Forward! Forward!

The Germans hadn't had the time to come to their senses. Surprised by the suddenness of the attack, unware of the paltry numbers of the cavalrymen, the officers don't have time to give orders. The first line offers no resistance. Their skirmishers lie on the ground, protecting themselves with their packs. The squadron rushes over them. It is now riding on toward the steep ravine through which runs the Vierzy-Soissons railroad, its front on the plateau now an echeloned 300m.

Until now, losses have been light, despite heavy machine-gun fire and the German artillery's shrapnel barrage. What will happen when the platoons reach the second line, an invisible line that has had time to realize the situation? Suddenly, a German infantry squad rises through the rye in front of 1st platoon.

An officer orders them to fire. Rifles crack, bullets whistle, lieutenant Richert's horse falls... a moment of anguish. The platoon starts to waver, but only for a passing second. Richert stands up, waves his saber: Forward! forward!

The platoon passes him, continues the charge, while the officer jumps on his now standing horse. A strange scene now unveiled. Everywhere, on the ravines edge, German soldiers appeared, not to fire, but to flee.

At captain d'Avout's command, the squadron regroups facing north. On this side of the plateau, there still are German squads left, prolonging the line the squadron has just overrun.

frightened by this charge in their rear, by the sight of the sight of the tirailleurs regiment which is moving in support of the 299th, the men drop their weapons and throw up their arms. The Moroccans only have to pluck them.

In a few minutes, the charge swept the plateau over 2km, first from the west, then from south to north. The infantrymen of the 299th followed it with bayonets. They only had to send to the rear the men of 7th Grenadier over whom the charge had ridden and who surrendered without any resistance. There wasn't a single armed German left on the plateau...

299th reoccupied the position from which they'd been driven in the morning. The squadron slowly marched back to the small wood from which it started...

The men count themselves. Fourteen horses and their riders are missing... but one by one, the missing cavalrymen find their way back to the squadron, several of them carrying their dead horse's packs. One wounded. Not a single dead.

Somehow it's quite fitting that the guy who led the charge bore such a Napoleonic name

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Great stuff

But then again in the twentieth century, the only advantages that the Cavalery has left is its speed and shock value. Why not use it fully then, as above.


Mr.Penguin

 

[Ape]

That story brings a tear to an old armchair generals eye

 

[Jove]

Originally posted by Mr.Penguin
Great stuff

But then again in the twentieth century, the only advantages that the Cavalery has left is its speed and shock value. Why not use it fully then, as above.


Mr.Penguin

And its all terrian features which could even go places vehicals could not. The Russians used a lot in both wars.

 

[HJ Tulp]

Great stuff

 

[Alexandru H.]

This great charge reminds me of "The attack of the light cavalry"...nice movie

 

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Mounted infantry probably still has a role to play in certain situations, but in the mounted role it's been obsolete for a long, long time, at least since the introduction of MGs and probably as far back as the ACW.

The event described above is a freak occurrence and a significant part of its effectiveness was probably German stunned disbelief that anybody could be so out of his mind as to try that kind of collective suicide. trying it on a regular basis would just have worked to add canned horse meat to the German ration packs.

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Originally posted by Sire Enaique
The event described above is a freak occurrence and a significant part of its effectiveness was probably German stunned disbelief that anybody could be so out of his mind as to try that kind of collective suicide. trying it on a regular basis would just have worked to add canned horse meat to the German ration packs.

There is also the Polish cavalry charge on the 1.sep 1939 at Krojanty, where a polish cavalry brigade attacked a german infantry battalion. The german infantry was to stunned to react, before the cavalry charge hit them, it worked pretty well ontil some german armor cars showed up, forcing the poles to withdraw with heavy casultiers. Some Italian hack writer later made it into to myth about how, the brave but foolish polish cavalry had attacked the armored cars with thier sabres.

Some days later on the 9.sep on the highway between Rypno and Fastow. Did another polish cavalry unit pull of a succes full charge, on a german infantry battalion and a supply column. Again did the german infantry react with a mix of stunned disbelief and panic. This time didnt any german armor cars show up, to stop the attack. The result was a destroyed motorized suppy column and more than 200 german prisoners taken, polish losses was 30 horses, 15 wounded and 3 killed.

At both cavalry attacks was it the surprise, together with the speed and shock of the cavalry charge, that prevented the infantry from useing its superior firerpower to stop the attack. In spite of the fact, that cavalry had to cross a large open area doing the charge.


Mr.Penguin

 

[Besuchov]

1.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

5.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

I just had to

 

[unmerged(5120)]

Originally posted by Besuchov
I just had to

Sure, but they lost.

Who was the general who said this charge "c'est beau, mais ce n'est pas la guerre"
In English: "this is beautiful, but it's not war"

For a XIXth century general to say that, it had to be pretty damn stupid.

 

[phelbas]

it was said by a french general called Bosquet. and he followed up his first comment with "C'est de la folie." - "this is madness"