User:Gwinva/Sandbox4

• NOT USED:

The ratio of footmen to horsemen increased over the period as the infantry weaponry improved, and footmen became more mobile and versatile, particularly once the musket bayonet had been adopted, replacing the more cumbersome pike.^[1]

Horses were a vital component of most armies in early modern Europe, and many instituted state studs for the breeding of horses for the military, but in wartime supply rarely matched the demand, resulting in some cavalry troops fighting on foot.^[2]

During the Elizabethan period, British cavalry generally comprised three types: cuirassiers, heavily armoured and equipped with lances, light cavalry, who wore mail and bore light lances and pistols, and "petronels", who carried a early carbine.^[3]

By the English Civil War, the heavy cavalry had reduced (although the Scots retained their light cavalry), and armour was increasingly abandoned, so that dragoons became more common: mounted infantrymen whose main duties involved reconnaissance, escort and security. Dragoons' horses were smaller, and were rarely used in combat.^[3] Cavalry tactics also altered, with fewer mounted charges at pace, and more reliance on drilled manoeuvres undertaken at the trot, with the discharge of firearms once within range.^[4]

However, the heavy mounted charge was not made obsolete, with many generals making use of the tactic over the centuries, from the Duke of Marlborough, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, who made great use of sword-wielding wedge-formation shock troops to penetrate enemy lines,^[5] to Napoleon in the early 19th century, who employed armoured heavy cuirassiers, and rated the cavalry as his most essential arm.[now, where did I just read that?]

• NOT DONE:

Horse artillery was also used with great success in India, although declined in use once ordnance became heavier.^[6]

• Use of horses by infantry officers

• Interesting statistics: Waterloo Campaign Armee du Nord had 47,000 horses: 25,000 cavalry, 12,000 for artillery, 10,000 for infantry and supply columns.^[7]

• NOT DONE:
• The cavalry charge became less frequent, but not ineffectual. At the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, the 21st lancers, a 400-strong regiment charged at and dispersed an infantry force of 2,500. REFERence: WP article for numbers; ref to "famous charge" at Omdurman (in which Winston Churchill rode) in Haythornthwaite Colonial p. 55.

Although cavalry was used with good effect in Palestine, at the Third Battle of Gaza and Battle of Megiddo in World War I, generally the mode of warfare changed, and the use of trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns rendered traditional cavalry almost obsolete.^[8] Tanks were beginning to take over the role of shock combat.^[8] Following the war, armies became mechanised, with many cavalry regiments being converted to armoured divisions, with light tanks being developed to perform many of the cavalry's original roles.^[9]

One of the greatest cavalry charges in modern times occurred in 1917, during the Battle of Beersheba in Palestine, when two regiments of Light Horse from the Anzac Mounted Division successfully charged Turkish trenches.^[10] The regiments formed up over a wide area, to avoid offering a target for enemy artillery, and galloped 3 km into machine gun fire, equipped only with rifles and bayonets. While some of the front ranks fell to bullets, most of the horsemen broke through, jumping the trenches into the enemy camp. Some soldiers dismounted to fight in the trenches, while others raced on to Beersheba, to capture the town and the vital water supplies.^[11] The charge was "instrumental in securing Allenby's victory [in Palestine]".^[12]

Britain's cavalry were trained to fight both on foot and while mounted, but most other European cavalry still relied on shock action. There were isolated instances of successful shock combat on the Western Front, where cavalry divisions also provided important mobile fire power, but "cavalry was literally indispensable" on the Eastern front and Mesopotamia.^[12]

In 1917, Britain had over a million horses and mules in service, but harsh conditions, especially over winter, resulted in heavy losses, particularly amongst the Clydesdales, which drew the guns. Over the war, Britain lost almost half a million horses (one horse for every two men).^[13] [if you want figures, that's 484,000]

Both the Germans and the Russian maintained cavalry units throughout the war,^[13] which proved useful on the eastern front, where some shock action occurred.^[12]

Horses were used widely for transport. A German infantry division in Normandy in 1944 had 5,000 horses for such purposes.^[13] The only American cavalry unit during World War II was the 26th Cavalry – which included some Philippine Scouts – who offered resistance to the Japanese invaders of Luzon, Philippines, holding off two armoured and two infantry regiments during the invasion, and repelled a unit of tanks in Binalonan. They successfully held ground for the Allied armies' retreat to Bataan.^[14]

• British Household Cavalry: ceremony, but also Royal guard and security duties