Longer use of horse cavalry

Simple, delay/slow down the progression and discovery of gunpowder weapons.
Which is of cause an utter cop out.
That depends on the terrain. If you're on decent ground, you can get at least part of your horse's food supply from local vegetation and grass. You can't forage for gasoline!
That becomes difficult when you're actually keeping horses in work (e.g. in condition to carry a trooper plus weapons long distance)... at the place I go riding we've got eight horses running on 40 acres: even with that much grass the two thorougbred who are in regular work (trail riding, show jumping and cross country... none of which measure up to a 20km march and still being energetic enough to put in a charge to two afterwards) need extra feed to maintain condition (not so the three Standardbreds... but none of 'em see much more than the occasional light trail ride).
 
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With a POD during, before, or after the First World War, make it so that horse cavalry isn't discredited at large and continues to be used well into the 20th century.

Hmmm...
bilbord.jpg

:p
 

Cook

Banned
Not horse cavalry but mules and donkeys to haul supplies along narrow paths no truck can go.

That is currently the case, not a change from OTL. The CIA spent large sums of money providing good mules and horses for the Mujahidin in Afghanistan in the 80s and is logistics, not cavalry.
 
I think WWI is too late a point of departure, even with small armies, for horse cavalry to continue.

Plain and simple, horses are no longer the best way to do what they do in cavalry units.

So unless the development of trucks is severely retarded, there's just not much a horse can do better - a few narrow niches, but that's about it.

Lancers are too easily shot to pieces and tactically limited even in good conditions (nature of the weapon). Saber wielding cavalry are about the same, and mounted infantry doesn't really need horses most of the time if trucks and other motorized vehicles are available.

And that not being the case post-1914 would be rather difficult.
 
I've seen photos of US paratroopers with these military-issue folding mountain bikes that look pretty recent. Maybe late '90s early 2000s.

Regarding the Japanese, didn't they extensively use bicycles during the attack on Singapore? It worked pretty well moving them around from what I remember.
 

Cook

Banned
Regarding the Japanese, didn't they extensively use bicycles during the attack on Singapore? It worked pretty well moving them around from what I remember.



Yes, because of a shortage of vehicles. They used bicycles, many without rubber tyres, on the main highway south in Malaya. Many of the inexperienced troops opposing them thought that tanks were approaching, panicked and ran.
 
Which is of cause an utter cop out.

That becomes difficult when you're actually keeping horses in work (e.g. in condition to carry a trooper plus weapons long distance)... at the place I go riding we've got eight horses running on 40 acres: even with that much grass the two thorougbred who are in regular work (trail riding, show jumping and cross country... none of which measure up to a 20km march and still being energetic enough to put in a charge to two afterwards) need extra feed to maintain condition (not so the three Standardbreds... but none of 'em see much more than the occasional light trail ride).

Ah. I admit I was wrong, then.
 

Macragge1

Banned
Without wanting to appear single-issue, there's a compelling argument that mounted units would re-appear in a home security role following a nuclear war or similar emergency; obviously this saves on precious, dwindling fuel on a day-to-day patrol basis.
 
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