CHAPTER X
HORSE ARTILLERY AND CAVALRY
“Fundamental principles of action against different arms must be laid down so definitely that complicated orders in each particular case will not be required. This is needed because the utmost possible independence of leaders down to the squadron commander is desirable. It must not degenerate into selfish wilfulness.”—Von Bernardi.
That modern horse artillery coupled with cavalry and machine guns has almost unlimited opportunities can hardly be gainsaid. Only a madman or an absolute ignoramus would willingly dispense with horse artillery. But can it be said that, without an organization and training in peace-time, which has afforded full opportunity of practising every situation which we can meet, we shall get full co-operation in war?
Arms brought together almost for the first time on the battlefield cannot have mutual confidence in one another. Yet how much depends on a thorough understanding and good feeling between the cavalry leader and his commander of horse artillery. If the battery commander cannot from constant practice and usage actually foretell nine times out of ten what the cavalry brigadier will order at a certain stage of the attack, or if the officer commanding horse artillery of a cavalry division does not know by intuition his divisional general’s views, farewell to any idea of valuable combination between the two arms.
Heretofore this brotherhood of arms has not existed, nor has our organization aimed at effecting it.
Langlois in Lessons from Two Recent Wars, p. 140, puts this very tersely:
Cavalry has need of the support of the other arms in strategical exploration.
And again:
The English took no steps in peace to create and strengthen any union between the arms, and evil overtook them. I cannot insist too much on this point, and we (the French) must profit by the lesson.
A large number of horse artillery officers never have opportunities of working with cavalry. Our horse artillery batteries are too often quartered where such cannot be obtained. But even at places like Aldershot and the Curragh little can be done in this direction, the ground is too cramped and too well known, and there was always the necessity of a good classification at the practice camp haunting the mind of the battery commander, and making him grudge every moment not spent in the direction of attaining that most important item.