Shrapnell

[Sir James]

Another reason for the British preoccupation with battlefield cavalry in WW1 was a few spectacular successes in the Boer War, where Boer troops were caught in the open by British and Australian cavalry.

At the start of WW2, the British still had horsed cavalry in the Middle East, but they converted to armour before getting into trouble. Mounted recce troops were used in parts of Burma, and Wingate had the typically quaint idea of mounting some Chindit officers.

 

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Re: Cavalry

Originally posted by Emperor of Europe
Hi,

Regarding cavalry, it saw extensive use on the Eastern Front during the Second World War in both the Axis and Soviet armies. Some of the most valuable non-German Axis formations were cavalry, especially the Rumanian cavalry formations proved quite valuable. The German army also organized new cavalry formations throughout the war, upgraded regiments to divisions etc.
It was the Soviets though, who used cavalry the most. IIRC they had up to 42 cavalry divisions in 1943 or 1944. Cavalry was employed in two ways: early on (during Stalingrad) to provide a link between the infantry and the breakthrough armour, and later on in combined-arms cavalry/armour formations designed for operational penetration and breakthrough.
The Soviets employed such massive numbers of cavalry because it proved so succesfull during the Civil War in the 20's. Actually a lot of highranking Soviet commanders in WWII served in the extreme succesfull 1st Cavalry Army of the Civil War, and learned mobile warfare first hand.
There are a few accounts of cavalry charges. Most of them - of course - turned out to be utter massacres of men and horses. The power of cavalry formations came from their mobility and their ability to live off the land (1st (Guards?) Cavalry Corps operated in the German rear almost a year after its initial breakthrough during the Moscow counteroffensive of 41/42), not from the use of the horse on the actual battlefield.

Regards,

EoE

That's exactly what I meant.

A note about the 1st Red Cavalry Army: AFAIK, Stalin only trusted in high positions those officers with whom he had served in this outfit during the civil war.

 

[Agelastus]

Originally posted by sean9898
Well, as we still have a few hours until Agelastus weighs in with a spirited defense of British pre-war military policy, let me say that the Weeden school was probably as interested in producing fox hunters as much as officers

Sean9898, I'm here!

Glad to see you doing my work for me!

Still, why you think I would defend pre-war British military policy.......oh, wait, we're talking First World War here. Mostly, although your quote refers to the run-up to the second.

Not a lot to add actually, just that the Germans got good service out of their Uhlans on the Eastern front in WWI. The Western Front was the worst environment possible for cavalry. Although there is at least one example (I think on the Somme) of cavalry actually riding down the machine gunners, rather than being cut to pieces.

Cavalry is more mobile than infantry, but doesn't require the enormous logistic investment of mechanised formations. It was useful in certain specific theatres of WWI and WWII........mostly where the British weren't!