Is it not part of the training of the senior officers of cavalry that they should know the nature of the infantry combat, that they should grasp the consumption of reserves and the gradual moral degradation of the enemy’s infantry, that they should have studied works such as Colonel Ardant du Picq’s Études du Combat, which furnish the most thorough and complete dissection of moral in war?
In a note to one of his chapters on the value of discipline, Ardant du Picq relates how in the eighteenth century four British captains “stood off” when signalled to for help in an attack about to be made by their admiral. The latter won his fight, but was mortally wounded. He, however, sent for the four captains, court-martialled them and had three hanged at the yard-arm, and the fourth cashiered before he himself died.
Every leader should know how narrow is the path which he will tread when in command of troops in a fight. How essential it is, then, in cricket parlance to “give no chances.” And it is a great mistake for young officers to be left in ignorance of the fact that a good fighting regiment, battery or battalion, yes, and brigade or division, can only exist where there is a high standard of moral and a thorough mutual understanding that every one will, and must, play the game, be the risk, difficulty, or odium what it may.
Polo players will tell you that one selfish player will ruin a team. This is ten times more true in war, where they will see the selfish polo player skulk, run away, or let in his commanding officer and the army in the very first fight he gets into. And cavalry officers of all ranks must learn in peace that it is only by practising at all times broad-minded comradeship not only in their own corps and arm, but with the other arms, that victory in the field can be ensured. Let them read and ponder on what a French general says of our army in South Africa:—
Each arm acted on its own.... This comradeship can only be fostered by daily intercourse in peace.... In England it exists neither between the different arms nor between one battalion and another.... Good fellowship in the fight can only be produced by good fellowship in time of peace, and the latter results from a life in common.[82]
This ideal is apparently realized in the Japanese army, where, it is said, “there are no regiments that have a reputation or a history which is not that of the whole army. Just as there are no crack corps, so there is no crack arm. The pay and standard of education and living of cavalry officers are the same as those of other branches of the service.”
Our conclusions then must be:—
1. That courage and activity are the most valuable attributes in the field.
2. That these may wane when the body is exposed to unaccustomed wear and tear, unless this is foreseen and guarded against.
3. That habits of decision in tactical situations must be acquired by practice in peace-time.