Germany's Fighting Machine: Her Army, her Navy, her Air-ships and Why She Arrayed Them Against the Allied Powers of EuropeHenderson, Ernest F. (Ernest Flagg)
History
Germany's Fighting Machine: Her Army, her Navy, her Air-ships and Why She Arrayed Them Against the Allied Powers of Europe
Henderson, Ernest F. (Ernest Flagg)
Germany. Heer; Germany. Kriegsmarine; World War, 1914-1918
It has been thought in some quarters that aeroplanes and other
contrivances for scouting and communication would supersede cavalry,
but the German army administration evidently does not think so, as it
has more than 150,000 horses in use even in time of peace. In time
of war all private horses are subject to requisition, as are also
automobiles, motor-trucks, motor-wheels and aeroplanes. The better
riders in a regiment train the horses for the rest, and there is a
constant mustering out of the inferior ones in favor of others that are
stronger or younger or more docile. There are military riding schools
at Hanover, Dresden and Munich, where officers are taught not only to
ride well and to instruct others but also to break in young horses.
Prussia has her own stud-farms in which the royal family, since the
days of Frederick William I, has taken the greatest interest. There
is a regular Prussian type, small and tough. The theory has lately
been advanced that Asiatic horses are more free from disease and that
they proved more enduring in the recent Turkish-Bulgarian War, while
the Prussian horse, through faults in the manner of raising, has
degenerated during the long period of unbroken peace. This, however,
is simply an academic question and nothing short of war itself can
demonstrate that under all conditions another type of horse will be
preferable.
The Russian-Japanese War brought the old cavalry raid, such as we
associate with the names of Sheridan and Wilson, once more to honor,
and an expedition of Mischtschenko’s in February, 1905, though not
wholly successful, aroused much interest in cavalry circles in Europe.
It is considered not unlikely that such “raids” will play a great part
in the present war. The Germans use the American word for the maneuver.
If cavalry is merely an adjunct of infantry, this is still more true of
artillery. Its function, according to the latest German writers, is to
facilitate the advance of the infantry, or, in other words, to break
and open the path by which the infantry shall storm. It has sometimes
been thought of the battle of the future that it would consist of two
parts: the great artillery duel and the infantry struggle; and that the
infantry would have to stand aside until the artillery duel was over.
The contrary is the case. The two, in this coming war, will fight side
by side: the artillery opening the breach, the infantry coming in.
[Illustration: A Field Gun]
[Illustration: Wheel Belt for Cannon]
[Illustration: A Howitzer Battery]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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