CAVALRY
As in all armies, the French cavalryman considers himself as good as
two infantrymen; the origin of this may probably be traced back through
time to feudal days, when only the better classes of vassals were able
to provide horses with which to come to the standard of the feudal
chief. Certain it is that even in these present days of scientific
warfare, when the guns and rifles count equally with the swords of an
Army Corps, the cavalryman still looks on himself as a superior person,
more efficient and more to be admired than a mere gunner or a mere man
in a line regiment of infantry. Certainly, he rides, and this fact he
is always ready to impress on the infantryman; what he keeps quiet
about is that he has to groom the horse he rides, and to attend to its
needs when the infantryman, having finished his march at practically
the same time the cavalryman finished his, has his meal cooked and
eaten before his fellow of the mounted unit has got away from stables.
Considering that the time of the infantry conscript is fully occupied
in the compression of all his tuition into his two years of service,
it may be imagined that the way of the cavalryman is not an easy one,
for he has far more to learn than the infantryman. He has not only to
learn to use the carbine which corresponds in his case to the infantry
rifle, and to execute movements on foot, but he has to groom his horse,
clean his saddle, keep the stables in order, and do all the things that
are absolute necessities where horses are concerned, as well as having
nearly twice as much personal kit to look after as the infantryman--and
then he has to be trained in the use of the sword, that of the lance in
some regiments, and to add to his other drills the business of riding
school.
The horses of French cavalry, as a whole, are not so well cared for
as those of the English cavalry regiment; methods used in connection
with the care of horses are not so complete and perfect, and the stock
itself is not such well-bred stuff, as a whole, as the horseflesh that
goes to the British Army from Irish and other breeding establishments.
At the same time, the cavalry trooper is taught how to care for his
mount in his own way, and, trained in a harder school, French horses
of the cavalry are tougher than those of English regiments. If a unit
from each army were placed side by side in a position in which there
was no chance of feeding horses on full rations of forage, but all had
to live on the country and make the best of it for a time, the French
animals would probably come out better of the two from the ordeal,
since they are more used to hardships in time of peace. The British
trooper is taught to treat his horse as he would a baby, while the
French soldier, inured to rigorous discipline himself, has a horse that
shares his own circumstances.
The cavalry conscript elects to serve in a mounted unit, for, on the
1st of October on which a man comes up for his training, he is given
choice between cavalry, artillery and infantry service, as far as the
exigencies of the service will permit. Like the infantry recruit, he
begins his service by drawing kit and clothing and fitting the latter
to the satisfaction of his superior officers; in addition to the
equivalent of the kit drawn from store by the infantryman, however, the
cavalry conscript must draw stable kit and cleaning materials, spurs
and all that goes to make the difference between the mounted and the
dismounted soldier. Unlike modern practice in the British cavalry,
the way with the French conscript is to get on teaching him at once
as much as possible; riding school, foot drill, gymnastic exercises,
and stable work are all crowded into his day, for there are but two
years available before he will go back to civilian attire and ways. And
there is much to teach him; more, really, than two years can be made
to serve for. It may be said that, except in the case of men who were
skilled riders before they came up for training, the French cavalry
conscript is not a complete soldier by the time he has finished his two
years, for it is impossible that he should be. All that can be done
to make him efficient is done, though, and the difference between the
finished article, going back to civilian avocations, and the conscript
from which he is formed, is little short of marvellous. Detractors from
the merits of a conscript system overlook the effect on the conscript
as regards physique and moral stamina; out of the rough schooling men
emerge far more fitted for the battle of life than they entered, and
the net effect of military training in a cavalry regiment--two years
of it, taken as the French soldier is made to take his training--is in
nineteen cases out of twenty all to the good.
Riding-school is a serious business; when a man first leads his horse
through the riding-school entrance and mounts, he learns what a
perfect brute--from his point of view--an instructor can be, and it
is not until he is nearing the end of his period of riding-school
instruction that he learns to look on the instructor as not a bad
fellow, a bit strict at his work, but responsible for the turning out
of some of the finest riders in the world. For in horsemanship the
French soldier is no whit behind his English confrère, and it is only
in recent years that the British Army has taken up the circus tricks
which for many years have been practised in the French Army in order to
make men thoroughly familiar with their mounts. A conscript is taught
not only to ride a saddled horse, but also to vault on to the back
of a cantering horse, to make his horse lie down, and various other
tricks--they are nothing more in themselves--which give him thorough
confidence in himself and thorough knowledge of the capabilities,
intelligence, and nature of his horse. Recognising the wisdom of this
form of teaching, the British Army has of late adopted it, to the
betterment of cavalry riding as a whole.
The new _loi de trois ans_, introduced in the war ministry of M.
Viviani, will be to the advantage of the French cavalry, when it
has had chance of a fair trial--it had hardly become a definite law
before the outbreak of war put a stop to peace training and peace
organisation. But, when things become normal again, it is certain that
the cavalry will benefit by the extension of the period of service,
and although they were perfectly capable of taking the field when need
arose, French cavalry will be improved in quality by the additional
training. This applies not so much to the main points of drill and
discipline as to little things; veterinary tricks and ways, capacity
for individual service, and self-dependence in the fullest sense,
especially to the extent demanded of the man who goes out on patrol
work and scouting duty, are not to be learned as thoroughly as could be
wished in two years, but must be ingrained by experience as well as by
tuition.
Before his first year of training is concluded the cavalry conscript is
expected to have learned all that the riding-school can teach him. In
addition to the class of riding which may be termed circus work, and is
taught on horses with handled pads instead of saddles, the recruit is
initiated into bending lessons, by which his horse is rendered flexuous
and easily amenable to pressure of leg and rein. It is worthy of note,
by the way, that the principle on which the modern training of horses
is based is due to a Frenchman, who brought to England what were at the
time considered revolutionary principles with regard to riding.
The method by which the French conscript is trained at riding school is
of such a nature that it trains horse and man at the same time. At the
beginning of training with saddles the ride is formed of about sixteen
men who walk, trot, and canter their mounts along sides of a square in
single file. The man is made to ride his horse well into the corners
of the square and to make three turns sharply, and, when men have
acquired full control of their horses so as to be able to perform this
simple movement properly, they are taken on to more complex matters.
While strung out along one side of the square, at the word of command
each man turns his horse at a direct right angle, proceeds across the
square, and, turning again at a right angle on the far side, the ride
forms single file again and proceeds. A diagonal movement of the same
nature is then taught; men are taught to halt their horses suddenly and
rein them back a length or two; they are taught when at the canter to
cause their horses to passage sideways across the square, and, in fact,
are instructed to make every movement of which a horse is capable.
At first, as may be assumed, the tuition is carried out with trained
horses, but, as men become advanced in the art and practice of riding,
they are put on to younger horses, and it will be easily understood
that, in learning himself to make the horse execute the movements, the
cavalryman trains the horse to its work as well as increasing his own
knowledge.
In the matter of foot drill there is not so much to learn in the
cavalry as in the infantry. Cavalry foot drill, as a matter of fact, is
practically a replica of the drill to which troops and squadrons of men
are subjected when mounted. The principle governing cavalry foot drill
in practically all armies consists in assuming that a man shall not be
called on to execute a movement which he cannot execute on horseback,
as, otherwise, confusion might arise in the course of mounted drill.
It would be interesting, for instance, if cavalry were taught infantry
drill, to see what would happen if a squadron of mounted men were
ordered to form fours in the infantry style.
Actual foot movements do not by any means comprise the total of drill
that the cavalry conscript must learn on foot before applying it to
mounted work. The use of the sword and also that of the lance are first
thoroughly taught to squads of dismounted men, and a recruit must be
fully conversant with sword and lance exercise before he ventures to
perform either offensive or defensive movements with either of these
weapons on horseback. The unskilled man waving a sword about when
mounted would probably do more damage to his horse's eyes and ears than
to anything else, and the man with the lance, if unskilled, would
probably find himself dismounting involuntarily if he tried to use
the lance on a spirited horse. Thus men are taken out, dismounted,
in squads; each man assumes the position which he would occupy on
horseback with feet well apart, knees bent and toes turned to the
front--an exhausting posture to maintain for any length of time. In
this attitude the recruit is taught such movements as are requisite to
full control of sword and lance. For final training in the use of these
weapons men are given fencing outfits and set in pairs to oppose each
other. When they have attained to proficiency, the whole business is
repeated on horseback, and by that time their training for actual field
work in the ranks is practically complete.
The part of his work that the cavalry conscript likes least is the
grooming and sweeping up and cleaning of saddlery in the stables.
There is a morning stable hour with which the day begins; there are
about two hours before midday which must be devoted to grooming,
cleaning saddlery, sweeping up, etc., and there is another hour or so
to be spent at stables in the afternoon, when the "orders of the day"
are read out to the men by the sergeant-major of the squadron or his
representative.
As is the case in the infantry, each conscript, on arriving at the
regiment in which he is to serve, is allotted to the charge of a
corporal, who instructs him in all things pertaining to his work, and
takes charge of him on _corvées_, the equivalent to the "fatigues" of
the British Army. _Corvées_ include the carrying of forage from the
stores to stable, fetching coal for the cooks, white-washing where
and when necessary, building riding-school jumps, and, in fact, all
and every class of work which men are unable to perform individually
for themselves. Much of this work is undergone by the men sentenced
to _salle de police_, which is the equivalent of the British Army's
punishment known as "days to barracks," with the addition that the
offenders sleep in the guard room at night instead of in the barrack
room. This of course involves entire confinement to barracks, which no
offender is allowed to quit unless he is on duty; it also involves no
possibility of attendance at the canteen at any time of the day, and,
further, the man sentenced to _salle de police_ devotes practically
all the spare time that is his under normal circumstances to some form
of _corvée_. On the whole, however, the punishment is not so severe as
it appears, for, with the exception of sleeping in the guard room at
night, and rising exceptionally early in the morning, a man undergoing
_salle de police_ is not debarred from the society of his comrades,
and there is usually some good-natured chum willing to fetch canteen
produce, and thus make up for at least one of the deficiencies involved.
This last, however, must be done when the corporal is not looking, or
else both men are likely to get into trouble. Strict discipline is
the rule and the conscript is expected to take his punishment--when
he incurs it--as part of his training. It must be added as a mark of
the quality of the material of which the French Army is composed that
punishments and rewards alike are usually accepted in equally good part.
The corporal, who is the superior officer with whom the conscript
is brought most frequently in contact, sleeps in the same room as
his squad; he is thus able to give men hints with regard to riding
school work; he trains his squad at elementary drill, both mounted and
dismounted; he instructs men in the way in which clothing should be
folded for placing on the shelf, and the way in which to clean kit and
equipment. In the matter of troop drill the conscript is taught his
work by the sergeant of the _peloton_ or troop, and the sergeant in
turn is responsible to the lieutenant or sub-lieutenant over him. He
is also responsible to the sergeant-major of the squadron, and through
him to the senior captain of the squadron. To follow the matter
through, the senior captain is responsible to the _Chef d'Escadrons_,
who again is responsible to the commanding officer of the regiment.
Decentralisation of command has been an important factor in French
military training for many years, and although the responsibilities of
the corporal and sergeant pass through so many grades before they reach
the ultimate head of affairs, both these lower ranks are extremely
important items in the discipline and training of the French cavalry
regiments.
There is one system pursued both in the cavalry and in the artillery
of the French Army which leads to pleasant expeditions for a certain
number of men in each of these branches of the service. The system
referred to is that of boarding out a certain number of horses away
from regimental control for that portion of the year which the regiment
spends in barracks. When the time approaches for the regiment to go
on manoeuvres, a party usually made up of a sergeant, possibly a
corporal, and two or three troopers, goes round to the farms where
these horses are at grass, and inspects them with a view to reporting
on their condition and fitness for use. As may be imagined, the men
selected for these expeditions are envied their appointments, for
it is a pleasant matter to get away from the discipline and strict
routine of service with the regiment for a time, and, if the sergeant
in charge is a companionable man, the whole affair becomes a perfect
picnic for the men concerned. On expeditions of this kind men are
perfectly certain of receiving full hospitality at such places as they
may visit, and altogether the trip is as good as the furlough which
the conscript, unlike his British _confrère_, does not get, save in
exceptional circumstances. The two years in which a man must become
fully conversant with his work is too short a period, in view of the
number of duties he has to learn, to admit of holidays.
Altogether, the life of the cavalry conscript in barracks is not by any
means an unpleasant business. A comparatively large number of men, when
given the choice of the arm of the service in which to serve, request
to be sent to the cavalry. The majority of those joining cavalry
regiments are used to horses in some way--and by this is implied very
many ways indeed, and very many kinds of horse. French cavalry as a
whole is built up out of good material; the spirit of the men is good;
the reputation of the French cavalry for horse-mastership is as wide
as it is deserved, and, bearing in mind the period of active service
for which men are required to serve, it may safely be said that there
is no better body of cavalry troops in the world than the French. This
remark, however, cannot be reckoned as a wise one if the speaker is
addressing a British cavalryman, who always regards himself as a member
of the premier squadron in the best regiment of the very finest cavalry
force existent. But then, the French cavalryman will tell the same
story.