Re Horses, this is amusing but also accurate
http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/149754041585/yellingintothevoid-authoratmidnight
http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/149754041585/yellingintothevoid-authoratmidnight
Re Horses, this is amusing but also accurate
http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/149754041585/yellingintothevoid-authoratmidnight
I personally think the whole idea of a massed, coordinated cavalry charge was rendered essentially obsolete once the Maxim machine gun went into production in the late 1880's.
Imagine how they react to bullets, shelling, air attack, abusive handlers. Unlike humans they have no idea why this is happening to them. A jeep will never get PTSD.
South Africa used horse in their "bush war" in Southwest Africa, more for traditional tasks of scouting and "raiding", but also as a light infantry with stealthy mobility in the right terrain. That may mean only Counter-insurgency Operations late in the century, but even through to the Second World War horses could move in terrain that vehicles could not, were stealthier and had other advantages to keep them viable, but it is a niche role even before the First World War began in many respects.
How about Mexico fighting against a US-backed insurgency in the north?
As much as the then modern rifle round could kill a horse, indeed I believe it was in part the consideration for rounds as potent as 8mm Mauser or .30-06, the real demise for cavalry was by most accounts barbed wire.
In the early 1900s the British Army found from experience from the Boer War and veterinary tests that 'small' calibre rifle rounds (.303, 8mm Mauser etc.) would not reliably stop a charging horse unless it hit a leg bone, or a major organ. There are numerous account from the period of horses collapsing and dying after a successful charge.
Horses apparently don't suffer from reaction shock in the same way we humans do. I.e. they don't think 'OMG! I've just been shot!'
Equally they have a healthy respect for long pointy things and will not risk them which is why a squadron of heavy cavalry with over a hundred tons of horse, man and kit was not able to simply squash their way into an infantry square bristling with bayonets. In the wild they will not go into dense scrub willingly as they need open space to flee if threatened.Horses apparently don't suffer from reaction shock in the same way we humans do. I.e. they don't think 'OMG! I've just been shot!'
As much as the then modern rifle round could kill a horse, indeed I believe it was in part the consideration for rounds as potent as 8mm Mauser or .30-06, the real demise for cavalry was by most accounts barbed wire. It destroyed the mobility of the horses in the West but allowed cavalry and mounted infantry to be relevant longer in the East where it was less continuously employed. It was used heavily in the Russian Civil War and both sides in WW2 in Russia. I could see it being relied on longer by the US Army patrolling the Mexican border lands. (Obviously horse transport had a longer life). And so on. Thus my comment about SADF usage, you need the right conditions, but horses are stealthy compared to a loud diesel truck or APC, can alert the rider to danger, put the rider up to get a good vantage point, navigate terrain well, etc. Increasingly all-terrain vehicles supplement or simply replace the horses. And once you can afford helicopters then you reduce horses to ceremonial and specialist applications at best.
Patton had better luck patrolling in Mexico after he switched to using Dodge Brothers Touring cars from horses
I've once read in book about Battle of Moscow memories of German solider who witnessed charge of Turkmen cavalry division against German positions-half of division charged, all cavalrymen were killed before they reached German lines. What was Soviet reaction? They send second half of this division to battle with the same result.
In the early 1900s the British Army found from experience from the Boer War and veterinary tests that 'small' calibre rifle rounds (.303, 8mm Mauser etc.) would not reliably stop a charging horse unless it hit a leg bone, or a major organ. There are numerous account from the period of horses collapsing and dying after a successful charge.
Horses apparently don't suffer from reaction shock in the same way we humans do. I.e. they don't think 'OMG! I've just been shot!'