4. Push on the part of one side will compel the other to bring up more squadrons and lead to the fight of cavalry masses.
5. It is only by special training that cavalry leaders can learn their duties in a general engagement.
6. Much depends on the leader’s initiative, whilst this again depends on his knowledge gained by previous practice in similar circumstances.
There are those who ask, “But where are the Ziethen and Seydlitz cavalry charges nowadays?” Let them call to mind, for it is instructive to do so, the combination of circumstances, and, be it noted, circumstances which may well rise again, which conduced to the success of the cavalry of Frederick the Great.
I. A king general, who had a taste for and knowledge of training cavalry.
II. A training of all ranks suited to the war about to be undertaken.
III. A cavalry with picked leaders quite unencumbered by officers past or unsuited to their work.
IV. Horses well conditioned under the eye of an autocrat, who had the common sense to demand and see that he got, not fat, but fit horses.
V. A skilled direction of the cavalry on the battlefield by a cool and intensely determined generalissimo, such as Frederick the Great undoubtedly was.
Now let us, on the other hand, state the case in the South African operations of 1899–1902. (In almost the same words as regards some paragraphs as were used in 1897.)