Michael Frederic Rimington

“ The amateur who comes out to the war, with the courage of ignorance, and finds how helpless he is, how useless are his best efforts, how complete the disillusionment of those under him as to his power to keep or get them out of trouble, let alone hurt the enemy, will, if he survives, have learnt a very useful and painful lesson, but no nation can afford to give lessons on the field of battle. ”

“ One glance is enough to tell an experienced eye if all is right with a horse or not. They cannot speak, but they are very full of expression if anything is wrong. The good troop and squadron leader is for ever solicitous about his horses, and woe betide the unlucky stable-guard whom he catches resting his back against a bale of hay when there is a horse loose. Once it is understood that each man stands or falls in the squadron leader’s estimation, and is noted for punishment or a light reprimand when brought up before him, according to the care of his horse, everything will go well. ”

“ If the squadron training has been well done, they will act like a swarm of bees, trying here, trying there, everywhere moral and movement, till the weak spot is discovered; and then the rush will be made with an irresistible force in the firing line, and no slow pushing up of supports and reserves. ”

“ They are defeated and disgraced. They will not, as a squadron, again face the cavalry of the enemy whose squadron defeated them. Better, far better draft the squadron and send the leader to another arm or work if, unfortunately, he has survived. Why be so severe? Why treat them thus? Because the heart, the moral of the defeated squadron has lost two-thirds, whilst the winning squadron is elated, believes in itself and its leader, and despises the enemy. ”

“ There is every reason to believe that Alexander, and later Rome and Carthage at their zenith as military nations, had proportionately as highly-trained cavalry as is possessed by any nation of to-day. Those who have fought in rearguards and running fights realize that the Parthian method of fighting must have required the highest training and moral. The cavalry of the predominant nations were drawn from those who kept horses for their own sport and amusement, and for the gratification of their pride, and who felt they were better fighting men on a horse. ”

“ Good cavalry will beat bad infantry, and vice versa. An officer of artillery or infantry should believe that he and his men cannot be ridden over so long as they keep steady and in good heart, whilst a cavalry officer should, on the contrary, believe that he and his men can ride over anything. These two propositions, speaking in a logical sense, it is impossible to bring into agreement. Officers on the staff and general officers have by their training risen superior to the petty jealousies between the various arms; but experience shows that this can never be the case throughout the army. ”

“ The art of maintaining himself and his command in the outpost line is a question of vigilance, imagination, and forethought on the part of the commander, and cunning on the part of his men. Let us place ourselves in the position of an officer commanding a hundred to two hundred men, and detached some ten miles out to the flank and front of a force. ”

“ Men scramble to the sangars, or are waked up and hustled to their loopholes. They will not be ready to fire under a minute; this will bring the enemy’s cavalry at a gallop over six hundred yards nearer. For two or three hundred yards the attackers will be exposed to magazine fire, but they are certainly not an easy mark, and few would fall, even on a rifle range. But at this moment during the twenty or thirty seconds which elapse before most of them will be in dead ground, a perfect inferno of shell and, still worse, machine-gun fire bursts on the ridge. ”

“ The idea of a thin cavalry screen surrounding their own army for protection against view of the enemy is very fallacious. An energetic enemy, full of enterprise, will easily pierce this thin web with his scouts. Only an active screen can be of any use, which really in practice is no longer a screen only, but is coincident with the true offensive reconnaissance. He who advances regardlessly into the hostile reconnaissance zone, and attacks the cavalry detachments of the enemy with determination wherever they are found, gives the death-blow to the information apparatus of the enemy. ”

“ It is all very well to say that every hill should be regarded as being held by the enemy till you know otherwise, but let us take care to know one way or other without delay, and not to imagine that there is any great value or safety in being on a hill. Hills may be well shelled by the enemy’s horse artillery, whilst his cavalry gallop up to the dead ground to be found in front and flank of nine hills out of ten, where, if supported by horse artillery fire, it is better placed than the dismounted men on the hill. ”

“ In many cavalry training-grounds can now be seen an acre of ground in which are a score or more of self-adjusting dummies of varying heights, and representing horse and foot; there is no better practice than to send half-a-dozen horsemen into this tilting ground at a sharp gallop, and let them practise for the mêlée for a minute or so.
The French cavalry lay great stress on these pointing exercises; they do not expect to turn out many real swordsmen in a squadron, but they want every man to be able to ride his horse at an enemy, and run him through. ”

“ There are obviously many plans by which an enemy can be deceived as to the strength of your force, if you can work behind cover, by first showing a number of men in one place and then in another. It is well to remember that even if an enemy sees you acting with duplicity the effect is by no means a bad one, as next time he sees you moving in your real direction he may think the action is for his benefit, and covers a movement from an entirely different direction. ”

“ Looking at the horse sideways on, the ribs may easily deceive one, but following a horse it is much more easily seen to which category he belongs. The poor horse is split up and hollow in the region of the muscles lying alongside the backbone. Feeling the neck is not a safe criterion—big neck muscles may merely mean that the horse has been fed on the ground; the appearance of the coat is also fallacious. A sharp canter of a mile should, however, furnish a good test, as the blowing and snorting of an untrained squadron and a soapy lather instead of a clear watery sweat at once tell their tale. ”

“ If he is not a rich man, it is well worth his while to learn, so as to train his own polo ponies and hunters. Many officers do so most successfully. Scores of horses, cast as unruly animals, are, by the aid of some of our riding-school methods, quickly brought to hand, and turn out most useful and temperate hunters or polo ponies. A comparison of military and civilian horsemanship is not a desirable theme, but it is surprising how many of the horsemen of the nation, even those who ride to hounds and between flags, are profoundly ignorant of all-round horsemanship and horse-training. ”

“ We do not wish to see cavalry always getting off their horses and trying everywhere to shoot their enemy out of each bit of difficult ground, but neither do we wish to see a regiment or brigade sitting helplessly in mass with an infantry or cavalry patrol holding a defile in front of them, unable to turn them out because the ground prevents them galloping at it. ”

“ That the ordinary hunting man in Great Britain knows very little indeed about economizing his horse’s strength is evident from the fact that not one in twenty is ever, after a sharp gallop, seen to dismount, loosen his horse’s girth, and turn his head to the wind. Ten to one, if any one does so, it is a soldier, and one who has served in South Africa.
First of all is the question, What is the most suitable animal for cavalry work? ”

“ There can surely be few more marked successes in the efforts of the nation to “return to the wild” in the body, whilst raising the mind to the higher levels, than the institution of “Boy Scouts,” and it is one which every genuine soldier must heartily welcome.
In all detached work where the cavalryman is engaged “on his own” against well-armed men, far more dangerous antagonists than any wild animals, there usually comes a time when prudence calls loudly to the ordinary man to turn and so avoid the chance of a bullet, whilst duty tells him that he should try and see or find out more. ”

“ Competitions between sections and troops, the former for choice, work great things in a squadron. If the minds of sixteen section leaders are all at work to find out the best way to train a recruit in various exercises, to feed a horse to the best advantage with the forage available, to get the best shooting average, and so on, it is obvious that the squadron leader has a good chance of disseminating his knowledge, when found out, through his squadron, whilst an interest is given to the work which is perfectly invaluable. ”

“ 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.... ”

“ Whilst we do not wish for one moment to be understood to advocate unduly small horses for cavalry, we do wish the chest measurement standard to be adopted more widely. We cannot help advancing the theory that the natural height of the horse appears to be not more than 14 to 15 hands at most, and all above that are in the nature of forced exotics, obtained by selection and good food for mares and foals, and in these stamina has not been grown in proportion; take, for instance, the power of the heart, which has to pump blood farther to the extremities in a big horse. ”

“ In all the arrangements to be made for sending out scouts, never neglect the value of darkness for getting near the enemy’s lines, or through their line of pickets. What can be done with ease then, is impossible in daytime for the cleverest scout in the world, and it is foolish and unfair to scouts to ask them to do this; in fact, it is seldom asked for except by officers unacquainted with their business. All who have attempted to shoot big game, even in a fair moonlight, are aware how uncertain their aim is then. ”

“ It is beyond question that dealing with a dismounted force, whatever may be the amount of fire with which it is endowed, shock tactics may play an important part.
The opportunities of effective outflanking and surprise may possibly be few; but the very fact that the enemy has both the power and the will to seek out such opportunities and to charge home is bound to hamper the movements and to affect the moral of any force of horsemen which depends on fire alone. ”

“ It is not sufficient to have good cavalry, it must also be well handled by the superior authorities. These latter are really responsible for many mistakes unfairly laid at the door of the cavalry. Cavalry divisions must be allowed a proper liberty of action, without entirely slipping out of the hands of the commander-in-chief; whilst the masses of cavalry were formerly kept back to be employed in reserves or in the pursuit, the tendency now exists to send them forward at once, on the first day, to a great distance in a certain direction. ”

“ Now, let any one who wishes to study the aids exhaustively, and set up a line of conduct in the training of the horse for himself, turn a fresh young horse loose in a riding-school or enclosed manège, and keep him on the move, with a whip, if necessary. Let him note how the horse bears and uses his head, neck, leg, forehand, and haunches, as he bends and turns. The most correct aids are those indications by the reins, weight of body, legs, whip, and spur which a rider applies, so as to produce the natural preliminary attitudes for the flexion, pace, or movement desired. ”

“ It is not in the brigade nor even in the regiment that dismounted work can be taught, but it is there that the effects can be seen. It is in the troop and the squadron that men should be taught to be quick, not hurried, in getting on and off their horses, and it must be done without the old-fashioned caution in the navy, “Five-and-twenty for the last man up the rigging.”
A brigade is manœuvring against an enemy; a house, a garden, a clump of trees is seen, which, if seized and held by rifle fire, will prove a most valuable pivot of manœuvre. ”

“ It may not be out of place here to say that an escort to a convoy should invariably be at least twice the strength of any force which is likely to attack it. The handicap of being tied to a convoy following a certain route and supplying detachments for advanced and flank guards and of fighting on ground of the enemy’s choosing, etc., necessitates this, if safety is desired. Small parties of horsemen should be sent on, wide of and parallel to the road, to get touch of the enemy; the principle of separating the rôle of information and security is thus adhered to. ”

“ Long days in the saddle, and nights spent on the outpost line with an insufficiency of food, the constant strain of vigilance will tell on most men, in fact in some degree on all men. But the officer who knows beforehand that he may expect his initiative, firmness, zeal, and love for action to evaporate somewhat after some months or even weeks of campaigning will be on the look-out. ”

“ Here we must pause whilst we make it plain that the really stupid man, who has no imagination, makes a very bad officer for training purposes, because in peace-time he is quite unable to picture to himself what does happen in an action. ”

“ Perhaps the point to which most attention should be given is that the man must be taught to have implicit confidence in his weapon; this can be attained best with the lance or with the pointing sword. A man appreciates the fact that with either of these weapons the point goes through easily; whilst with the cutting sword only the most expert can make any impression on, say, a leg of mutton covered with a sack and a leather strap or two.
In the German cavalry, stress is laid on teaching the trooper that the sight of the lance is sure to make the enemy turn and fly. ”

“ The cavalry of an army are a part of a machine, in which reliance must be placed, and in which every nut or screw of doubtful metal is a danger. Cherfils rightly says: “Three-quarters of the strategy of war lies in the method of employment of the cavalry.” Why? Because of the supreme importance to the generalissimo of Liberty of Manœuvre. But this liberty can only be gained by a thrusting forward of masses of cavalry, which must go on and get the greatest share of the terrain intervening between the two armies. ”

“ The cavalry soldier should feel that he will get a horse, good, bad, or indifferent, accordingly as he shows himself a good, bad, or indifferent horseman and horsemaster, and should be made perfectly aware that he will be punished with the greatest severity for every act of carelessness, neglect, or ill-treatment of his horse.207 Whilst, on the other hand, a well-cared-for horse should be a certain passport to the good graces of his leader. A squadron leader, careless of this mode of procedure, never has good and well-cared-for horses on service. ”

“ The same unfortunate trait makes him a bad leader in war, because he is unable to picture what the enemy will most probably do in certain cases. In the cavalry this type of officer has no place, even in the lower ranks, because the cavalry officer so frequently has to act by himself, and then the fate of an army may be dependent on what he sees, or on the information which he sifts and sends into the chief. As an infantry officer of the same rank he is more under the eyes of a commanding officer. ”

“ 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? ”

“ And if needs be, would not fire alone be good enough to disperse the troops of riderless animals and reduce the men who are fighting some way off on foot to infantry without valises, without food, and soon even without cartridges?” And on page 98: “Does this mean that cavalry are never to use their carbines? No one has, I believe, and no one ever will, uphold such a theory. Improvements in firearms have rendered this particular weapon more and more useful, one may even say indispensable. Its employment has become more frequent and more justified in every phase of the engagement.” ”

“ New ground is worked over, practice in camping duties and expedients takes place, and, last of all, there is time and opportunity to carry out thoroughly and practically the instruction; there is time for the men, because they are freed from many duties which are necessary in barracks, and for the officers, because they have the whole day before them, and do not go on leave. If a whole cavalry brigade has gone to such a camp of instruction, the element of competition may be introduced in many ways, which will help to stir the most sluggish. ”

“ But battles, except where we adopt the defensive, are not fought where natural obstacles cover our flank. Therefore, we must have sufficient cavalry if only to neutralize the enemy’s cavalry, otherwise they will work round our flank and attack our reserves, and, if they are accompanied by horse artillery, whilst our horse and field artillery is already engaged in the great battle, they possess a marked advantage over us. ”