CAVALRY
Practically any man of the twenty-eight cavalry regiments of the line
will announce with pride that he belongs to the “right of the line.” By
this claim is meant that if the British Army were formed up in line,
the regiment for which the claim is made will be on the right of all
the rest. As a matter of fact this claim on the part of the cavalryman
is incorrect, for when the Royal Horse Artillery parade with their
guns, they take precedence of all other units, except the Household
Cavalry.
British cavalry is divided normally into three regiments of Household
Cavalry and twenty-eight cavalry regiments of the line. These latter
are subdivided into seven regiments of Dragoon Guards, three of
Dragoons, and eighteen regiments of Lancers and Hussars. Theoretically,
Lancers take precedence over Hussars, but in actual practice the two
classes of cavalry are about equal. Dragoon Guards and Dragoons rank
as heavy cavalry; Lancers are supposed to be of medium weight, and
Hussars light cavalry. In reality Dragoon Guards and Dragoons are
slightly heavier than other corps--except the Household Cavalry, who
are heaviest of all--but Lancers and Hussars are of about equal weight,
both as regards horses and men.
The possession of a horse and the duties involved thereby render the
work of a cavalryman vastly different from that of an infantryman. In
the matter of guard duties, for instance, it would be possible in time
of peace to abolish all infantry guard duties without affecting the
well-being of the units concerned. In cavalry regiments, on the other
hand, it is absolutely necessary that a certain number of men should
be placed on night guard over the stables, since horses are capable
of doing themselves a good deal of harm in the course of a night, if
left to themselves. This is only one instance of the difference between
cavalry and infantry, but it must be apparent to the most superficial
observer that a vast difference exists between the two arms of the
service.
Cavalrymen affect to despise the infantry, whom they term “foot
sloggers” and “beetle crushers,” while various other uncomplimentary
epithets are also applied at times to the men who walk while the
cavalry ride. Each section of the cavalry has its own particular
prides and prejudices. The Household Cavalry, for instance, consider
themselves entitled to look down on the regiments of the line; line
cavalrymen, conversely, affect to despise the men of the Household
Brigade, who, they say, count it a hardship to go to Windsor and never
get nearer to foreign service than Aldershot. Further, a Dragoon Guard
considers himself immensely superior to a mere Dragoon; both look
down--a long way down--on the thought of service in the Lancers, and
all three affect to despise the idea of serving as Hussars. In the
meantime the Hussars declare that Dragoons are big, heavy, and useless,
while Lancers are not much better, and the Hussar is the only perfect
cavalryman. All this, however, is a matter of good-humoured chaff,
and in reality Dragoons and Lancers, or Dragoons and Hussars, or any
two regiments belonging to different branches of the cavalry, when
placed side by side in the same station, respect each other’s qualities
without undue regard to their particular designations.
Among the many little legends and traditions of the cavalry, that
attaching to the Carabiniers (Sixth Dragoon Guards) is as interesting
as any, though not a particularly creditable one. It is alleged that
some time during the Peninsular Campaign this regiment misbehaved
itself in some way, and the sentence passed on it was to the effect
that officers and men alike should no longer wear the red tunic common
to Dragoon and Dragoon Guard regiments. Thenceforth a blue tunic was
substituted for the more brilliant red, and in addition a mocking
tune was substituted for the ordinary cavalry réveillé, while the
band was ordered to play before réveillé each morning--possibly the
band was guilty of exceptionally bad behaviour in order to merit this
extra-special punishment. In any case the blue tunic, the réveillé
and the band-playing have persisted unto this day, and even yet it is
unsafe to inquire too closely of a Carabinier into the reason of his
wearing a blue tunic while all others of his kind wear red, although
the regiment elected to retain the blue tunic when a further change of
colour was proposed.
Another tradition is that of the 11th Hussars, who on one historical
occasion were supposed to have covered themselves in gore and glory
to such an extent that the original colour of their uniforms, and
especially that of their riding-breeches, was no longer visible. For
this meritorious feat, which is more or less authentic, the regiment
was granted the privilege of wearing cherry-coloured riding-breeches
and overalls, and this privilege, like the Carabiniers’ blue jacket,
still survives. It is hardly necessary to add that the “Cherry-picker,”
as the 11th Hussar names himself, is considerably prouder of his
cherry-coloured pants than is the Carabinier of his jacket. A different
explanation of the colour is that it was adopted in honour of the
Prince Consort, and since the regiment still retains as its title “The
Prince Consort’s Own,” the latter is more probably correct.
From the beginning to the end of his service the cavalryman never
gets quite clear of riding school. Riding-school work forms the chief
portion of his training as a recruit, when he is taught to ride both
with and without stirrups, to take jumps with folded arms, to vault
on to a horse’s back, and, in brief, to do all that can be done with
a horse. Supposing him to be an average horseman, he comes back to
riding school annually, at least, to refresh his memory with the old
riding-school lessons, while, if he is a really good horseman, he
is set to training remounts, in the course of which he has to train
practically unbroken horses to do their part in the work which he
himself has learned on the back of a horse already trained. The best
riders of all in a regiment are singled out as “rough riders” or
riding-school instructors, and their duty is to take charge of rides
of remounts, to instruct men and horses too, and to pay particular
attention to the breaking in of especially unmanageable young horses.
The riding-school training adopted in the British cavalry is based on
the system inaugurated by Baucher, the famous French riding-master
who came over to England and revolutionised all ideas with regard to
horsemastership in the early part of the nineteenth century. Under
this system a horse is taught to obey pressure of leg and rein to the
fullest possible extent, and the bit mouthpiece forms only a part of
the rider’s means of control. By this means the horse is saved a good
deal of unnecessary exertion, which is an important thing as far as
cavalry riding is concerned, since the object of the cavalryman on
active service is to save his horse as far as possible against the need
for speed or effective striking power.
Following on the work of the riding school the cavalryman is taught on
the drill ground to ride in line of troop at close order. Theoretically
the interval between men is “six inches from knee to knee,” but in
practice the knees of the men are touching. When a troop of men can
keep line perfectly at a gallop, a squadron line is formed; the
culminating point of cavalry training is perfection of line in the
charge, of which the rate of progression is the fastest pace of the
slowest horse. A charge produces its greatest effect when the men ride
close together and keep in line, the object being to effect a definite
shock by throwing as much weight as possible against a given point
at as great a pace as possible. The impact of the charge, in theory,
carries the men who make it through and beyond the enemy against whom
they have charged, when they are expected to break up their formation
and re-form, facing in the direction from whence they have come.
The training which a man has to undergo in order to fit him for
participating in these shock tactics is necessarily long and severe. In
addition to this, cavalry training is directed toward a multiplicity of
ends. In any military action infantry have their definite place, which
involves bearing the full brunt of attack, maintaining the defensive,
or in exceptional circumstances assuming the offensive and charging
with the bayonet. Cavalry, however, very rarely bear the full brunt of
a sustained attack, as their organisation and equipment render them
unfit for prolonged defensive operations. They are used, generally on
the flanks of a field force, for making flank attacks and pursuing
retreating enemies; they are also used in small bodies, known as
patrols, as the eyes and ears of an army. Preceding other arms of the
service in the advance, they spy out and bring back information of the
position and strength of the enemy, avoiding actual contact as far as
possible. Work of this kind calls for such initiative and self-reliance
on the part of the rank and file as infantrymen are seldom called on to
exercise.
Further, all cavalrymen are expected to be as proficient in the use
of the rifle as are infantrymen, while they have also to learn the
use of the sword, and Lancers still carry and use the lance, which,
carried by a certain proportion of the men in the ranks of the Dragoon
Guards and Dragoons at the end of the last and beginning of the present
century, is no longer used by them. It will be seen from the foregoing
that a properly trained cavalryman must be a thoroughly intelligent
individual, and must be capable of greater initiative and possessed of
more resource than his brother on foot. In many directions, also, he
is required to exercise more initiative than the artilleryman, who is
always protected by an escort either of cavalry or infantry, and is
called on to think for himself and work the gun himself only when all
his officers and non-commissioned officers have been shot to stillness.
At first sight it would appear that the Lancer has an immense advantage
over the man armed only with a sword, but in actual practice the man
with the sword is slightly better off; the Lancer gets one effective
thrust, but, if this is parried or misses its object, the man with the
sword can get in two or three thrusts before the Lancer has the chance
for another blow. Thus Dragoons and Dragoon Guards lose little by the
absence of the lance, since they, in common with all other cavalry
regiments, still carry the sword. The American Army, by the way, is the
only one so far which has tried the experiment of arming the rank and
file of its mounted units with revolvers or pistols; in the British
Army revolvers are carried only by sergeants and those of higher rank,
and the rank and file trust to cold steel for mounted work, reserving
the rifles which they carry for use on foot.
The bane of the cavalryman’s life in his own opinion is stables, where
he spends about four hours each day in grooming, cleaning, sweeping
out, taking out bedding and bringing it in, and various other duties.
Grooming in a cavalry regiment is a meticulous business; the writer
has personal knowledge of and acquaintance with a troop officer who
used to make his morning inspection of the troop horses with white kid
gloves on, and the horses were supposed to be groomed to such a state
of cleanliness that when the officer rubbed the skin the wrong way
his gloves remained unsoiled. Such a state of perfection as this, of
course, is possible only in barracks, and it is hardly necessary to say
that the officer in question was not exactly idolised by his men. Like
most youths fresh from Sandhurst, he was incapable of making allowances.
On manœuvres and under canvas generally, grooming is not expected
to be carried to such a fine point as this; on active service it
frequently happens that there is no time at all for grooming; but the
general rule is to keep horses in such a state of cleanliness as will
avert disease and assist in keeping the animals in condition. During
the South African war it was found that grey and white horses were
dangerously conspicuous, and animals of this colour were consequently
painted khaki. It is not many years since a proposal was made that
the 2nd Dragoons, known in the service as the Scots Greys, from the
nationality of the men and the colour of the horses, should have their
grey horses taken from them and darker coloured animals substituted.
From the time of the founding of this regiment its men have been proud
of their greys, and the order necessitating their disappearance caused
a certain amount of outcry, in spite of the fact that modern military
conditions rendered the substitution desirable. Regimental traditions
die hard, and the Scots Greys elected to remain “Greys” in reality,
while they will retain their name as long as the regiment exists.
The cavalryman, far more than the infantryman, makes a point of wearing
“posh” clothing on every possible occasion--“posh” being a term used
to designate superior clothing, or articles of attire other than those
issued by and strictly conforming to the regulations. For walking out
in town, a business commonly known as “square-pushing,” the cavalryman
who fancies himself will be found in superfine cloth overalls, wearing
nickel spurs instead of the regulation steel pair, and with light,
thin-soled boots instead of the Wellingtons with which he is issued.
It is a commonplace among the infantry that a cavalryman spends half
his pay and more on “posh” clothing, but probably the accusation is a
little unjust.
There is in the cavalry a greater percentage of gentleman rankers than
in any other branch of the service, and there are more queer histories
attaching to men in cavalry regiments than in units of the other arms.
The gentleman ranker usually shakes down to a level with the rest of
the regiment. It has never yet come within the writer’s knowledge that
any officer accorded to a gentleman ranker different treatment from
that enjoyed by the majority of the men, in spite of the assertions of
melodrama writers on the subject. Favouritism in the cavalry, as in
any branch of the service, is fatal to discipline, and is not indulged
in to any great extent, certainly not to the benefit of gentlemen
rankers as a whole. Work and efficiency stand first; social position in
civilian life counts for nothing, and the gentleman ranker who joins
the service with a view to a commission must prove himself fitted to
hold it from a military point of view.
The gentleman ranker is frequently a remittance man, and in that case
he is certain of many friends, for the frequenters of the canteen are
usually short of money a day or two before pay-day comes round, and
thus the man with a well-lined pocket is of material use to them.
Disinterested friendships, however, are too common in the Army to call
for comment, and many and many a case occurs of one cavalryman, quick
at his work, helping another at cleaning saddlery or equipment after he
has finished his own, without thought or hope of reward.
The mention of saddlery takes us back to stables, where the cavalryman
goes far too often for his own peace of mind, although, as a matter
of fact, the three stable parades per day which he has to undergo are
absolutely necessary for the well-being of the horses. The really
smart cavalryman is conspicuous not only for keeping his horse in
exceptionally good condition, but also for the way in which he keeps
the leather and steel-work of his saddle and head-dress. Regulations
enact that all steel-work in the stables shall be kept free from rust,
and slightly oiled, and leather-work shall be cleaned and kept in
condition with soft soap and dubbin only. This regulation, however, is
honoured in the breach rather than in the observance, for by the use
of brick-dust followed by the application of a steel-link burnisher
steel-work is given the appearance of brilliantly polished silver, and
various patent compositions are used on leather to give it a glossy
surface, this latter with very little regard for the preservation of
the leather. All this means a lot of extra work in the stable for the
cavalryman; it is induced in the first place by one man desiring to
give his outfit a better appearance than the rest. The squadron officer
approves of the polish and brilliance--or perhaps the troop officer
is responsible--and as a result all the men take up what is merely
extra work with no real resulting advantage. In some extra-smart
units the men are even required by their superiors to scrub the stable
wheelbarrows and burnish the forks used for turning over the bedding,
but this, it must be confessed, is not a general practice. At the same
time, the fetish of polish and burnish is worshipped far too well in
cavalry units, with the occasional result that efficiency takes second
place in time of peace to mere surface smartness.
As has already been stated in a different connection, the barrack-room
life of the cavalryman is easier than that of the infantryman. Kit
inspections and arms inspections take place at stated intervals, and
barrack-rooms are kept clean, though not kept with such fussy exactness
as in infantry units. The trained cavalryman in normal times finishes
the main part of his work at midday. He then has his dinner, and after
this makes down his bed as it will be for the night. Unless it is his
turn for fatigue, he generally snoozes through the afternoon until
about half-past four, when it is time to get ready for stable parade.
In India especially a cavalryman has a light time of it, for there
is allotted to each squadron a definite number of syces, or native
grooms, who assist the men as well as the non-commissioned officers
in the care of their horses, and who do a good deal of the necessary
saddle-cleaning. Cavalry serving in Egypt also get a certain amount of
assistance in their work, and, on the whole, a cavalryman is far better
off on foreign service than he is in a home station. The advantages of
the home station consist mainly in the presence of congenial society
among the civilians of the station. The soldier abroad is a being
apart, and for the most part civilians leave him very much alone. There
remains, however, the ever-present football by way of consolation.
As in infantry units, bodies of signallers and scouts are necessary
to the establishment of every cavalry regiment. Signallers, for the
period of their training, are excused from all duties connected with
horses and stable work. Cavalry scouts, on the other hand, have to use
their horses in the course of their training, and thus attend stables
like the rest of the men, although stable discipline in their case is
somewhat relaxed. The cavalry scout requires more training than the
infantry scout; with his horse he is able to go farther afield, and
his work is more definitely that of reconnaissance and the obtaining
of information which may be of more use to a brigade or divisional
commander than that any infantryman is capable of obtaining without a
horse to carry him.
To his other accomplishments the cavalryman is expected to add some
slight knowledge of veterinary matters, in order that, when forced
to depend on himself and his horse, he can find remedies for simple
ailments, and keep the horse in a state of fitness. The shoeing-smith
and farriers who form a special department of every cavalry regiment
are under the control of the veterinary officer included in the
establishment of each cavalry unit, and the veterinary officer
constitutes the final court of appeal when anything affecting a
“long-faced chum” is in question.
Sufficient has been said about the cavalryman on duty to show that
his tasks are legion. His fitness to perform them has been attested
on recent battlefields as well as on earlier historic occasions. Off
duty and in time of peace he is, in the main, a fairly pleasant fellow,
often a very shy one, and usually capable of using the King’s English
in reasonable fashion. The average cavalryman has a sufficiency of
aspirates, and, in the matter of intelligence, the nature of the duties
he is called upon to perform voices his claims quite sufficiently.