Thus it may happen that, following the rule that in a retreat the most mobile troops should be farthest out to the flanks, a cross fire may be brought by two sections on the enemy’s pursuit. The drill regulations of German cavalry, 1909, impress the point
... that, should the issue of the battle prove unfavourable, the cavalry must strain every nerve to facilitate the retreat of the other arms. It is in just such cases that they must assume a restless offensive. Repeated attacks on the flanks of pursuing troops will produce the best results.
In regard to the many other occasions on which horse artillery can assist cavalry they say:
The horse artillery will often by its fire cause the foe to disclose his strength and thus help reconnaissance. In union with maxims it enables the opposition of the enemy in occupied positions and defiles to be overcome, and thus spares the cavalry a dismounted attack.
Horse artillery and machine guns enable the cavalry to hem in at long range the enemy’s marching columns, to cause these to partially deploy through flank fire to change the direction of their march.
Horse artillery is the one thing that prevents an enemy sitting still and thus preventing the cavalry factor of mobility asserting itself.
CHAPTER XI
CO-OPERATION OF HORSE ARTILLERY WITH CAVALRY IN THE GENERAL ENGAGEMENT
“Cavalry has more need of artillery than infantry, because it cannot reply to fire, but can fight only with the steel.”—Napoleon.
Of close co-operation by the horse artillery in the charges of cavalry against infantry there is practically little or no trace in the battles of 1870. The training of cavalry and horse artillery and the organization of the cavalry division had not proceeded on these lines, as is evident from the fact that there is no mention of it in books such as Von Schmidt before that war, or in Prince Kraft’s Letters on Cavalry after it. The latter writer shows that the tendency was to deprive the cavalry division of its horse artillery when a battle took place, and put it with the corps artillery. It was claimed that by so doing the horse artillery were practically of double use.