This result of my labours has encouraged me in the preparation of this new edition to make use of all the latest experience, to bring out with additional clearness essential points, and to add much new material.
I trust that in this manner I have materially increased the practical value of the work, and hope that in its new form it will continue to exert its silent influence, winning new supporters for my views, and helping to gain for the splendid Arm to which I belong the place which, in the interest of the whole Army, it deserves.
THE AUTHOR.
Strazburg, in the winter of 1902.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
It would be difficult for a layman to form even an approximate conception of the amount of work annually accomplished in the German Army.
The very vivid consciousness stirring everywhere as to the magnitude of the demands the not far distant future may make upon us, and the knowledge that the means with which we are compelled to work are certainly not always in agreement with our ideals, incite us to strain every nerve to make the most of what we have; and I believe I am not far wrong in asserting that it is the Cavalry Arm which, under pressure of circumstances, responds to these demands with the greatest avidity. This is, in fact, but the necessary consequence of the many-sidedness of our duties.
Whether, however, the end and aim of all our exertions is everywhere attained must remain an open question.
In every long period of peace there lurks the danger that methods of training may deviate after false ideals, lose themselves in the cult of imposing appearances, and in the clash of individual opinions fail to distinguish the essential—i.e., what is really practicable under the conditions of active service.
This danger is all the more imminent when the characters and forms of Warfare itself are constantly changing; hence, ever new demands have to be made upon the troops themselves, and the exact bearing of each of these is not easily to be appreciated in the humdrum surroundings of our peace-time duties.