Cavalry: A Popular Edition of "Cavalry in War and Peace"Bernhardi, Friedrich von
History
Cavalry: A Popular Edition of "Cavalry in War and Peace"
Bernhardi, Friedrich von
Cavalry
And will it be different in the battle of all arms? In that case,
if the army cavalry advances from the wing of the army with the
intention of attacking the enemy's flank, what need will it have of
échelon formations? It is known that an attack must be made under any
circumstances. Further information as to the comparative strength of
the enemy cannot and must not be waited for. All available forces
will be engaged in order to wrest a victory, and must from the
beginning be so disposed that the enemy will be compelled as far as
possible to conform to our movements, and that we may prepare the most
favourable deployment for attack in the manner discussed above. Must
we, then, advance with the division in close formation, écheloned
within itself, in order to afford the greatest possible target for the
enemy's artillery? Are we to choose the pusillanimous formation of the
defensive échelon, that we may perhaps be obliged to approach and to
deploy under the enemy's eyes, incapable in this unwieldy formation of
turning the ground to account? I cannot think that this is practical
and believe that modern artillery fire of itself suffices to make the
écheloned division an impossibility and to banish it for ever from the
battlefield.
It must be added that should the unexpected appearance of the enemy
on a flank make it necessary, _rearward_ échelon is much easier to
assume from a formation of brigades on the same front than is the line
or attack formation from rearward échelon. It is only necessary for
that part of the line which is to be écheloned to halt or decrease the
pace, and the échelon is soon formed. To push forward units from depth
while on the move means, on the other hand, a considerable and indeed
unnecessary expenditure of force.
VII. FORMATIONS FOR MOVEMENT
As the brigades in a modern division must, on account of the effect
of artillery fire, be disposed according to completely different
principles from those of the past, so, too, must the formations adopted
by the various groups be chosen to suit modern conditions.
Our new Regulations lay down that, if the cavalry, after its
preliminary deployment, has to cross an extensive fire-zone, the
subordinate leaders are to choose such formations for their units
as will minimise the effect of the hostile fire, and that, for this
purpose, the configuration of the ground must be turned to the best
advantage, even though it should involve temporary departure from
prescribed intervals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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