At the same time it is right to make it perfectly plain that the non-professional cavalry soldier has an exceedingly hard task before him, and one requiring very exceptional qualities such as are not usually found in those who do not possess the initial asset of being constantly in the saddle and out in the open. Even these must find it extremely difficult to train to anything but a very mediocre standard, unless they possess (i.) sufficient leisure to prepare themselves amidst the surroundings of regular troops, and (ii.) the large amount of patriotism and right feeling which induces a man voluntarily to place himself under and endure the irksome restraints of discipline.[53] Ten times more does this apply to the officer; purely amateur officers are poison (the virus being in direct proportion to their rank), and entirely out of place in war. To imagine that it is patriotism to wait till war begins, and then aspire to lead others, is an idea that should be crushed once for all. It is not patriotism, it is murder.
Few amateurs would aspire to conduct the operations in a London hospital, and the operations of war are, in their way, no less intricate, and perhaps entail more loss of life and limb when conducted by the unskilled. The amateur who comes out to the war, with the courage of ignorance, and finds how helpless he is, how useless are his best efforts, how complete the disillusionment of those under him as to his power to keep or get them out of trouble, let alone hurt the enemy, will, if he survives, have learnt a very useful and painful lesson, but no nation can afford to give lessons on the field of battle.
The cavalry of an army are a part of a machine, in which reliance must be placed, and in which every nut or screw of doubtful metal is a danger. Cherfils rightly says: “Three-quarters of the strategy of war lies in the method of employment of the cavalry.” Why? Because of the supreme importance to the generalissimo of Liberty of Manœuvre. But this liberty can only be gained by a thrusting forward of masses of cavalry, which must go on and get the greatest share of the terrain intervening between the two armies. As an instance of this, in the Ulm Campaign on the 4th October Napoleon in his orders to Murat makes it plain that he wants him to push aside the enemy’s patrols and make plenty of prisoners; he tells him to take three divisions of cavalry and do so, leaving one division only to watch his left flank, that on which Napoleon was making his main infantry advance. He left the initiative to Murat.
Does any one imagine that these cavalry masses could, solely by means of musketry fire, drive the enemy out of the positions which they will take up, on finding a stronger force of cavalry in front of them? We believe certain people do reckon on this, though it has never occurred in actual combat, and (in the opinion of those who have witnessed attempts at it) will not do so in the immediate future. Across the open plains the weaker, worse armed and equipped cavalry will keep falling back rapidly to the next defensive line. If this is a river or range of hills, experience shows that the stronger cavalry will soon cross it and move forward.
Too much emphasis can hardly be laid on the value of success in the first great cavalry combat, in “initial ascendancy.”[54] Let those who doubt this inquire of any who have been on stricken fields and have learnt the great lessons only taught by defeat.
But these lessons are not to be confused with the tendency to say “A” nation beat “B” nation, therefore “A” nation’s methods are right, and forthwith slavishly follow their methods, even carrying this so far as to follow the fashion of some pelisse or pickelhaube as well.
Occasionally the Boers read us a lesson, and, as Kipling says, “a jolly good lesson too”; at once there is a great rush to imitate their methods, by those impressed by them, as though these were applicable to every possible case. To take one case—they are certainly not suitable for mounted troops who wish to advance. In that case we want the resolute offensive, with a thorough understanding in all ranks that they must be prepared to fight for information and liberty of manœuvre. Now spectators of any large fight in South Africa cannot claim to have seen this resolute offensive on the part of the Boers. They never pushed us back, partly, no doubt, from difficulties of command, but chiefly from defective armament and training, and consequent inability to bring the combat to a hand-to-hand fight. On the other hand, they fell back fighting whenever we attacked resolutely. Exactly what a generalissimo could not permit his cavalry to do. Why? Because he, by doing so, surrenders his share of liberty of manœuvre, of which there is a limited amount between the armies, to his adversary.
Our conclusion is that the trained cavalry masses which have a personal weapon and good support from horse artillery will push back any improvised or worse-armed cavalry with the utmost rapidity across all open ground, and that the moral ascendancy thus established will render the enemy’s defeat in rough ground an easy task.