War and the Arme Blanche

by Erskine Childers

There, indeed, is the grand paradox. Quite convinced as patriotic Englishmen that we did better in South Africa than the Germans could have done, we nevertheless turn to Germany for light and leading on the mounted problems of to-day. Though I name Germany in particular, and would be justified, for the purposes of my argument, in confining myself to Germany, it need scarcely be added that Continental practice in general has a fatally strong influence on British practice. One may argue interminably, and perhaps not without some success, against the alleged peculiarities of the Boer War, but in the last resort one meets that most exasperating, because most intangible and inconclusive, of all arguments—"other nations believe in the arme blanche. Germany, for example, believes in it. Germany has a large and magnificent army; therefore, Germany and the other nations must be right." As a moderate and sober expression of this view, I quote the following from a leading article which appeared in the Times of September 16, 1909—an article itself founded on the views of the able Military Correspondent of that journal, given after the manœuvres of 1909:

“Prominent among these”—i.e., erroneous schools of thought arising from South African experience—"is that which, in the campaigns of the future, assigns to Cavalry the rôle of Mounted Infantry. As our Military Correspondent points out, Continental nations, to whom our own records, as well as those of the Russo-Japanese War, are equally open, and who are among the most intelligent and experienced in military affairs, maintain large forces of Cavalry, and train them in a certain manner for a certain purpose. As our army is officially designed to fight a civilized enemy, it follows that we must not be deficient in a weapon possessed by potential foes. It is therefore necessary that the one Cavalry division we possess should compare favourably in quality with the squadrons that it may have to meet, whose numerical superiority is not a matter of doubt."

Although almost every word in this paragraph invites criticism, I need call attention only to those I have italicized:

1. “The rôle of Mounted Infantry,” in effect, begs the whole question. It instantly calls up the starved and stunted functions of that arm, as it is now organized and trained, and by innuendo suggests something utterly devoid of dash and mobility.

2. “Experienced.” Russia I shall come to later. When have Germany, Austria, or France had national experience, in civilized war, of the smokeless magazine rifle?

3. “Civilized.” Were the Boers not a civilized enemy?

4. “Numerical superiority.” The suggestion is that, having a small force of Cavalry, we should be all the more careful to obtain excellence in the arme blanche. This is, indeed, an amazing argument. Is our solitary division to court brute physical collisions with the Continental masses? Even “Cavalry Training” admits that the smaller the force, the greater the necessity of relying on the rifle. Think of South Africa—of Bergendal, for example, and scores of other actions! The admission, of course, gravely imperils the arme blanche, because it implies, what is the literal truth, that the rifle can impose tactics on the steel. But how escape the admission?

5. “It follows that we must not be deficient in a weapon possessed by potential foes.”

That will serve as a text for this chapter. Observe that the doctrine of mere imitation is put in its frankest form. Our Lancers already carry three different weapons. If Germany were to add a fourth or a fifth, in that case, too, it would “follow,” no doubt, that we must “not be deficient.” If we act on this principle at all, it was surely a pity that we did not act upon it when the Boer War was imminent. Our “potential foes” then possessed a weapon in which our Cavalry were lamentably deficient, and lacked a weapon which proved to be nothing but an encumbrance to our Cavalry. Did those circumstances prevent us from sending our Cavalry to the war equipped and trained on Crimean lines, more than forty years out of date? Do they prevent Mr. Goldman, even now, from denying that, even for South Africa, that equipment and training were wrong? What I want to lay stress on is the absence of any recognition that there are some general principles at stake. Votes are counted, selected foreign votes, given by “potential foes” to whom our “records are open,” being regarded as equal in value to our own. America, not being a “potential foe,” has no vote. Colonel Repington himself, in the Times of September 14, briefly disposed of the question in just this way. Yet he is too able a man not to know that imitation is not a principle, that counting votes is not decisive, and that the arme blanche must be justified by arguments based on the facts of modern war. Is he prepared so to justify it? I have never seen his full profession of faith. I always seem to detect in his writing the attitude of one who on this matter passively accepts the official doctrine as it stands, and who works with enthusiasm and vigour to make a success of an existing system. After all, I seem to hear him saying, we cannot go far wrong, because our potential foes believe in the same system. I may be in error, but I venture to issue the challenge to him to expound, illustrate, and justify the arme blanche theory; to declare for the “terror of cold steel,” for the dash which can only be inspired by the steel weapon, for the power of the steel to impose tactics on the rifle, for the inevitable shock duel; and to state whether he agrees with General French, or Mr. Goldman, or General von Bernhardi, as to the nature of the abnormalities which make the lesson of the Boer War negligible. If he will help with his keen logic to illuminate the maze of contradictions through which I shall thread my way in this and the next chapter, he will do a still greater service to the true interests of the Cavalry. He will admit that he has undergone conversion since 1904. At a time when he and all the world were under the hallucination that the Cossacks were good mounted riflemen, he wrote that the tactics necessary to destroy them would be the Boer tactics, and that they were “not to be beaten by serried ranks, classic charges,” and “prehistoric methods” of that sort (Times, April 2, 1904).

General von Bernhardi’s work, “Cavalry in Future Wars,” admittedly inspires British Cavalry practice. Is he, in the matter of the steel weapon, a trustworthy guide?