World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force. Over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern weapons such as machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire greatly reduced their utility on the battlefield.
About Horses in World War I in brief
World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force. Over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern weapons such as machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire greatly reduced their utility on the battlefield. While the perceived value of the horse in war changed dramatically, horses still played a significant role throughout the war. All of the major combatants in World War I began the conflict with cavalry forces. Germany stopped using them on the Western Front soon after the war began, but continued with limited use on the Eastern Front. The Ottoman Empire used cavalry extensively during the war and the United States used cavalry only briefly. The use of trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns rendered traditional cavalry almost obsolete. Tanks were beginning to take over the role of shock combat. Following the war the armies of the world powers initiated a process of mechanization and most cavalry regiments were either converted to mechanized units or disbanded. Many memorials have been erected to commemorate the horses that died. Artists, including Alfred Munnings, extensively documented the work of horses in the war; horses were featured in war poetry. Novels, plays and documentaries have also featured the horses of World War II, and horses of WWI have been the subject of numerous films and TV shows. The value of horses and the difficulty of replacing them were such that by 1917, some troops were told that the loss of a horse was of greater tactical concern than the loss. The continued tactical use of the cavalry charge resulted in many troops and horses in fruitless attacks against machine guns.
In comparison to their limited usefulness on theWestern Front, cavalry continued to be indispensable in the Middle East in the Great Great War. The Allied cavalry had some success in the open nature of the front, allowing a more traditional war of movement. At Cambrai, troops from Great Britain, Canada, India and Germany participated in mounted actions. Cavalry was still deployed late in the War, with Allied cavalry troops harassing retreating German forces in 1918 during the Hundred Days Offensive, when horses and tanks were to be used in the same battles. This plan never came to fruition due to missed opportunities and the use of machine guns by German forces. The military used horses mainly for logistical support; they were better than mechanized vehicles at traveling through deep mud and over rough terrain. The presence of horses often increased morale among the soldiers at the front and contributed to disease and poor sanitation in camps, caused by their manure and carcasses. Hundreds of thousands of horses died, and many more were treated at veterinary hospitals and sent back to the front. The blockade of Germany prevented the Central Powers from importing horses to replace those lost, which contributed to Germany’s defeat. There were isolated instances of successful shock combat on the western Front, where cavalry divisions also provided important mobile firepower. Britain’s cavalry were trained to fight both on foot and mounted, but most other European cavalry still relied on the shock tactic of mounted charges.
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This page is based on the article Horses in World War I published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
