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
The one does not, of course, exclude the possibility of the other.
General Stuart, in the campaign of Gettysburg, rode all round the
hostile army, broke up its communications, drew hostile troops away
from the decisive point, and was yet in his place on the wing of
the army on the day of battle. What this man performed with cavalry
and the inestimable damage he inflicted on his opponent are worth
studying. The fortune of war, which lay in might and in the nature of
things, he could not turn. Nor could he bring the advance of an army
to a standstill, because at that period and under those circumstances
it was possible for the army of the North to live, at least for a
time, upon the country. If we regard his achievement by the light
of modern conditions, we shall certainly not fall into the error of
underestimating the value of such enterprises. If we compare it with
the performances of cavalry upon the battlefield in the latest war, we
will be able to obtain a true impression of the degree of importance of
modern cavalry action.
I am inclined to think that such enterprises will be of altogether
extraordinary significance in a future war; least so, perhaps, during
the earlier battles resulting from the concentration, when it will be
difficult to get round the flanks of the enemy, but more so during
the subsequent course of operations. We have only to imagine what the
decisive consequences must have been if General von Werder, and, later,
General von Manteuffel, had been in a position to continually interrupt
the rear communications of the army of Bourbaki. In all probability
the latter must have capitulated long before it reached the Swiss
frontier, always granting that it was successful in getting so far as
the battlefield of the Lisaine. The whole crisis of this campaign,
which was very nearly ending in the defeat of the Germans, would thus
possibly have been avoided.
There are plenty of examples of this. To indicate only one from the
history of the latest war, I would call to mind the undertaking of the
Russians against the rear communications of the Japanese army.
If this undertaking had been actually directed against the only railway
at the disposal of the Japanese army, if it had been carried through by
throwing into the scale the whole fighting strength of a really mobile
and efficient cavalry, and if it had thereby succeeded in interrupting
the supplies of the Japanese army for a period, the whole course of the
campaign might have been changed. Victory in this tremendous conflict
hung continually in the balance, and it needed but little more weight
on either side to turn the scale of the fortunes of war.
The importance of such raids in modern war should not therefore, in
my opinion, be underestimated. They are capable rather of exercising
enormous influence on the course of events.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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