I cannot do better than begin by quoting two passages from page 187 of the latest edition of “Cavalry Training” (1907). They constitute an epitome7 of the case I wish to combat, and I challenge almost every proposition, express or implied, contained in them. The first runs as follows:
“From the foregoing it will be seen that thorough efficiency in the use of the rifle and in dismounted tactics 2is an absolute necessity. At the same time the essence of the Cavalry spirit lies in holding the balance correctly between fire-power and shock action, and while training troops for the former, they must not be allowed to lose confidence in the latter.”
Beginning with the first sentence, I challenge two assumptions implied in it: first, that “thorough efficiency in the use of the rifle and in dismounted tactics” (by hypothesis an absolute necessity) is compatible with thorough efficiency in shock action, also, by hypothesis, a necessity; second, that thorough efficiency with the rifle is confined to what the compilers of the drill-book call “dismounted tactics.” Passing to the second sentence of the same quotation8, I challenge the definition of the “essence of the Cavalry spirit” there laid down. This definition is borrowed word for word from a German book, originally written before the Boer War and republished in 1902, when the war was ending, by an officer—the distinguished9 General Bernhardi—who founded his conclusions not on experience but on report, and addressed those conclusions to the German Cavalry, whose tactics, training, and organization by his own admission were, and seemingly are still, so dangerously antiquated10 in the direction of excessive reliance on the steel as to present no parallel to our own Cavalry. I challenge the Cavalry spirit so defined because it is a hybrid spirit, impossible to instil12 and impossible to translate into “balanced” action, even if the steel deserved, as it does not deserve, to be “balanced” against the rifle. I challenge the definition still further, because it is not even an honest definition. Affecting to strike a just balance between the claims of the rifle and the steel, it does not represent the facts of existing Cavalry theory and practice in this country. Though borrowed from a German authority, it is even less to be relied on as representing the facts of German theory and practice, nor does it correspond to 3the general tenor13 of the very handbook—"Cavalry Training"—in which it appears. Those facts and that tenor find their really honest and truthful14 expression in the second quotation, which runs as follows:
“It must be accepted as a principle that the rifle, effective as it is, cannot replace the effect produced by the speed of the horse, the magnetism15 of the charge, and the terror of cold steel.”
I challenge both the form and the essence of the statement: its form because the words imply that “the speed of the horse and the magnetism of the charge” are exclusively connected with the use of the cold steel; its essence because the principle laid down is fundamentally unsound.
I want to induce all thinking men, whether professional soldiers or not, who take an interest in our military progress, to submit this theory of the arme blanche once and for all to drastic investigation16, in the light of history—especially of South African history and Manchurian history—in the light of physical principles, and in the light of future Imperial needs. Above all, I want them to examine the case made for the theory by Cavalry men themselves, and to judge if that case rests upon an intelligent interpretation17 of new and valuable experience, or, rather, upon a stubborn adherence18 to an old tradition whose teaching they have indeed been forced to modify, but have not had the good sense to abandon. The principles laid down by professional men for the use of their own arm must of course exact the greatest respect, but they are not sacrosanct19, and if they are found to rest on demonstrably false premisses they deserve to be discarded.
Of all military questions this question of the arme blanche and the rifle is one around which general or outside criticism may most appropriately centre. It is not merely a Cavalry question; it cannot be disposed of by reference to the British regular Cavalry as it exists to-day. 4The training of all mounted troops, regular or volunteer, home or colonial, however armed and trained, depends on clear notions as to the relative value of the two classes of weapon. As an example of what I mean, I suggest that it is shallow and unscientific to present the Yeomanry with the “Cavalry Training” handbook as a whole, and to inform them in a sort of postscript20 of three perfunctory pages that they should be “so trained as to be capable of performing all the duties allotted21 to Cavalry, except those connected with shock action.” According to the interpretation of the words “duties connected with shock action,” the injunction might mean anything or nothing. No clear interpretation of the words could be derived from the handbook itself. The Yeoman might turn for light to the Mounted Infantry22 Regulations, and ask if, in its opening words, he was “an Infantry soldier ...” governed “in his tactical employment by the principles of Infantry training,” and, if not, in exactly what sense and for what reasons he was supposed to differ from the Mounted Infantryman; but he would ask in vain. In the end, he often concludes from the fact that he is “Cavalry,” that he is in peril23 for lack of a sword, and appeals for the sword when he has barely mastered the rudiments24 of the rifle. The Mounted Infantryman, who has been first an Infantry soldier, nourished on “Infantry Training,” may well wonder why that manual encouraged him not to fear Cavalry, while directly he obtains a horse he is warned to fear the steel.
These are examples of confusion of thought at home. What of Greater Britain? A critical time has arrived in our Imperial history. There is an universal sense of the necessity of closer union for Imperial defence. An Imperial General Staff has been initiated25 which is to “standardize” organization and training. One of its functions ought to be to formulate26 some clear, rational principles for the employment of mounted troops. We know we 5can get large numbers of these troops. From first to last in the Boer War we obtained upwards27 of 70,000 men outside Great Britain. We could obtain many in another great war, and make far more valuable use of them; if time and thought were to be given to their organization and training, with a special view to service in an Imperial Army. Inspiration in the first instance will naturally come from the home country. What are we going to ask of these troops, who, be it remembered, are designed to form an integral part of an Imperial Army, ready, without the confusion, waste, and inefficiency28 due to an improvised29 system, to take their place in the field for the performance of definite, specific duties? We shall hardly, it is to be presumed, recommend shock action with the steel weapon to men who have not even the sentimental30 tradition of shock action, much less any practical belief in its efficacy. In what light, then, is shock action to be presented to them? What is to be their r?le? Are they, like the Yeomanry, to be informed that they are unfit to perform an undefined range of duties for which shock action alone is a qualification, or are they to be held competent to act as “Cavalry,” while the Yeomanry cannot claim that privilege? Again, are they, like the Mounted Infantry, to regard themselves on the one hand as “Infantry soldiers” mounted upon horses, and, on the other, as competent to perform regularly the duties of “Divisional Cavalry”? Or are they to be called Mounted Riflemen, a name officially unknown in England? And, if so, in what precise and positive way do Mounted Riflemen differ from Yeomanry, Mounted Infantry, and Cavalry? These questions must be answered, and they must be answered to the satisfaction of practical men whose ideas of war have been moulded by the South African War, where shock action, as they know very well, fell into complete disuse, where all classes of mounted troops, 6home and colonial, performed according to their varying degrees of ability, the same functions, and where the rifle was the only weapon which counted.
This question of weapons for horsemen must be fairly and squarely faced. It is a national and Imperial question, upon which every shade of opinion, volunteer or regular, should be consulted, and a verdict formed on the evidence, historical and technical. Part only of the rich and varied31 experience gained upon this question in South Africa was gained by Cavalrymen. Gunners, Sappers, and Infantrymen, to say nothing of volunteer officers of every description, led mounted troops with distinction. The most brilliant Boer leading came from lawyers and farmers. The point is largely one for common sense, applied32 to known and recent facts, and everybody who takes any interest in military matters, whether he bears arms or not, can and ought to form an intelligent judgment33 on it.
But at present the situation is far from satisfactory, and, unless the controversy34 can be brought to a head in time, seems likely to grow more and more unsatisfactory. General public interest in the details of the South African War languished35 even before it was ended. After the war was over the tendency was to banish36 a tedious and unpleasant subject from memory. That, probably, is only a phase, yet a phase which may be dangerously overprolonged. The citizen army which fought in South Africa side by side with the regular forces has disappeared. A great number of its individual members still bear arms as volunteers, but most of the organizations raised for war purposes have perished as such, and with them many of the sound, young traditions which were derived from war experience. A new generation is slowly coming into being, permeated37, indeed, by growing enthusiasm for military service, but not particularly interested in the war, and taught on the highest authority to regard it as 7abnormal. In the regular forces a somewhat similar tendency has been inevitable38; the causes which led to a general concentration of thought on mounted problems have disappeared. The war once over, the army naturally fell back into its normal organization. Men temporarily called to become leaders of horse from branches outside the Cavalry and regular Mounted Infantry returned to their former vocations39 and became reabsorbed in their old interests.
A great current of vital and original thought was irrevocably diverted. The ideas, no doubt, have lived on and thrived sporadically40. At this moment there is probably much opinion in the army at large which is unfavourable to the official Cavalry view of the arme blanche, but the opposition42 is neither authoritative43 nor effectively articulate. In the natural course of things the regular Cavalry—a force centuries old and vested with immemorial traditions, the premier44 mounted force of the Empire—has reasserted its sway over theory and practice. Shock action, consigned45 to complete oblivion in South Africa and to equally complete oblivion in Manchuria, still holds the first place in the training of the Cavalry soldier. The reaction has been gradual but sure. In 1903, a year after our war, the lance, by official order, was relegated46 to the realm of “ceremony” and “recreation,” and the sword was expressly subordinated to the firearm, which became the soldier’s “principal weapon.” Then the sword regained47 that place, and finally the lance returned to use as a combatant weapon in conjunction with the sword. It is true that the rifle has been substituted for the carbine, and that “thorough efficiency in the use of the rifle” is enjoined48 as an “absolute necessity”; but, as I have pointed49 out, the spirit of the regulations suggests primary reliance on the steel as the main source of enterprise and dash. I lay stress on the spirit, for in the endeavour to make the best 8of both worlds, and to picture a perfect hybrid type, capable of doing all that first-class mounted riflemen can do, and all that first-class shock soldiers can do, the letter of the instructions for the employment of Cavalry in the field is often inexcusably evasive and ambiguous.
But if there were any doubt about the essential meaning, the published writings of Cavalry authorities like General Sir John French, when combating the advocates of the rifle, would dispel50 that doubt. At such times, the principle of balance is forgotten, and the ineradicable belief in the supreme51 efficacy of the steel is laid bare. Does this belief rest on a sound basis? I want to show that it does not. It is a formidable task; how formidable, the mere mention of the name of General French will show. Deservedly he commands widespread respect and confidence, not only as the most distinguished British Cavalry officer now living, but as a soldier of high general ability. To a vast number of minds his verdict on any military point would be decisive. In South Africa he was the incarnation of the soldierly virtues52. His name is bound up with some of the best work done by the Cavalry during that war, so that any critic of the arme blanche who founds his criticism on that war, finds himself continually confronted by the seemingly unanswerable argument that our ablest Cavalry officer believes in the arme blanche, and our ablest Cavalry officer, himself endowed with long war experience, must be right. I ask the reader to reserve his judgment. No one who has not studied in a critical spirit this question of weapons for horsemen can realize the incalculable influence of purely53 sentimental conservatism upon even the ablest Cavalry soldiers. The whole history of the subject has been one of indifference54 to, or reaction from, war experience, with the result that every great war from the middle of the nineteenth century to the recent war in the Far East, with the solitary55 exception 9of the American Civil War, has produced a confession56 of comparative failure in the Cavalries57 employed, even from the Cavalry leaders themselves. General French himself would, I believe, be the first to admit that in South Africa he owed little or nothing to the arme blanche, and everything to the rifle. His case is that that war was abnormal. The arme blanche, indeed, is a religion in itself, comparable only to the religion of sails and wood which, in the affections of the old school of sailors—able sailors—long outlived the introduction of ironclads. This kind of conservatism must be analyzed58, and, if need be, discounted, before we can arrive at the truth.
The published opinions of Sir John French may fairly be taken to represent the best, and in a sense the official, case for the steel weapon. In 1909 a new edition was issued in this country of Von Bernhardi’s “Cavalry in Future Wars,” the work from which the compilers of “Cavalry Training” have taken their definition of the hybrid “Cavalry spirit,” and much more beside. It is admirably translated by Mr. Goldman, who wrote “With French in South Africa,” after accompanying General French in the field during an important part of the South African campaign, who founded the Cavalry Magazine, and who may be regarded as the principal lay advocate of the arme blanche. Bernhardi’s book is preceded by an introduction from the pen of General French himself. This introduction takes the form of an enthusiastic and absolutely unqualified eulogy59 of everything contained in the German publication, whose author is described as having, “with remarkable60 perspicacity61 and telling conviction, dealt in an exhaustive manner with every subject demanding a Cavalry soldier’s study and thought.”
Nor is the book only praised for its intrinsic merits. It is avowedly62 put forward as a conclusive63 answer to the English critics of shock man?uvre with the arme blanche—critics whom General French, in the earlier part of his 10introduction, takes special pains to answer with additional arguments of his own. Mr. Goldman, whose views may be presumed to have received the approval of General French, adds a preface, in which he pursues the same object. Here, then, we have a volume which correctly represents in a compact and convenient form the best professional opinion on this question. I propose to refer to it incidentally, and at a later stage to submit it to closer analysis; but I urge my readers to read the book for themselves, only taking care to remember who Bernhardi was, when he wrote, why he wrote, and for whom he wrote. I venture to think that they will pronounce the representation of his volume as the last word of wisdom for British Cavalrymen, and as the supreme vindication64 of the arme blanche, an almost incredible phenomenon in a strange controversy. They will find it, indeed, profoundly suggestive and interesting, but unconsciously destructive of the very doctrines66 which its English sponsors believe it to uphold. A more genuine representation of Continental67 thought may be found in a book entitled “Cavalry in the Russo-Japanese War,” by the Austrian authority, Count Wrangel, to which I shall also refer.
In submitting theory to the test of facts, I propose to concentrate attention on the modern evidence, and by “modern” I mean evidence since the introduction of the smokeless long-range magazine rifle. Of the two great wars since that era, those in South Africa and Manchuria, I shall deal principally with the former. For Englishmen, bent68 on discovering from their own national experience the best weapons and tactics for mounted men of their own race, as distinguished from foreign races, the South African facts are the only modern facts strictly70 relevant to the inquiry71. Aside from savage72 warfare73, and disregarding the first Boer War as too brief and inconclusive to afford reliable evidence, we have to go back in our search for earlier experience as far as the Crimean War, 11when the firearm was a plaything as compared with the modern rifle. In the realm of foreign experience, there has been a great deal of controversy, much of it painfully sterile74, on Cavalry work in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the Franco-German War of 1870, and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. Here, too, the firearm, though considerably75 improved, was primitive76 compared with the Mauser or the Lee-Enfield rifles. Nor, in spite of the illuminating77 examples furnished by the American Civil War, had anything approaching the type we now know as mounted riflemen been initiated by the Continental soldiers. There was no means of testing the value of this type, because it simply did not exist. Cavalry training and man?uvres were still those of the Napoleonic era. The firearm carried by the Cavalry was inferior even to that carried by the Infantry, and scarcely an attempt was made to inculcate any effectual use of it. Hence the comparative impotence of the Cavalries.
The American Civil War of 1862–65, for Englishmen especially, stands in a class by itself.[9] The men engaged in it were men of Anglo-Saxon race, untrammelled by prejudices and traditions, working out mounted problems by the light of common sense. The firearm, poor weapon as it was, judged by our modern standard, became the most valuable part of Cavalry equipment, and the most fruitful source of dash and enterprise. Sheridan’s Cavalry were said by Stuart, who was the best possible judge, to have fought better on foot than the Federal Infantry. The great Cavalry raids in which the war abounded78, and of which the European wars which followed were conspicuously79 barren, depended absolutely for their success, as all such enterprises always must depend, on aggressive fire-efficiency. Fire from the saddle was constantly used by Morgan, Forrest, and other leaders. 12Infantry on both sides learnt to despise the sword, though for inter-Cavalry combats that weapon, owing to the imperfections of the firearm, remained a trusted auxiliary80. Our modern rifle would have certainly produced the pure type of mounted rifleman which South Africa produced in both sets of belligerents81. The example had no effect upon Continental tactics, a blind imitation of which has always been the besetting82 sin of our own Cavalry school. Thirty-four years later, when the rifle had enormously increased in power, we pitted ourselves against the born shots and hunters of the veld with as little regard for the Cavalry lessons of the American Civil War as though it had never been fought.
Lastly, we have the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. That, as I shall show, seals the doom83 of the arme blanche, and crowns the case for the mounted rifleman. But it is a foreign war, and not, therefore, so peculiarly applicable to ourselves as the Boer War, whose lessons, nevertheless, it drives home. I propose to discuss it at a later stage, and will only remark now that even the most ardent84 advocates of the sword and lance have to admit that those weapons played no part in the war, while, on the other hand, neither Cavalry, not even the Japanese, approached the standard of fire-action attained85 in the course of our own war.
One more general word about the history of the subject prior to 1899. A vast amount has been written upon it. There is much common ground. Nobody denies that the relative important of shock man?uvre with the steel weapon has steadily86 declined for a century. It is generally admitted that the examples of successful shock action in the European wars of the sixties and seventies were relatively87 very few, and the performances of the Cavalries relatively poor to those of other arms. While persisting in the argument that, had certain conditions been fulfilled, Cavalry work, including shock work, 13might have been more distinguished, advocates of the steel now generally admit that even then the neglect of fire-action was the main cause of ill-success. Upon this point no one could speak more strongly than Bernhardi. But if there is much common agreement, we must make our minds absolutely clear as to the nature of this agreement. A great part of the controversy has raged round a comparatively narrow point: whether masses of Cavalry can any longer charge Infantry, and, if so, what are the limitations to the success of such a charge. It is agreed that since 1870 limitations are many and severe; but the settlement of that point leaves the major issue untouched. The opportunities of the steel weapon may have diminished, but to the Cavalry school this weapon remains88 the weapon par11 excellence89 for the Cavalry, the indispensably decisive factor in inter-Cavalry combats, which are to take the form of shock duels90, and the main inspiration for all the wide and important range of duties belonging to the arm. No historian has studied more profoundly, nor written more brilliantly upon, the development of mounted tactics than the late Colonel Henderson. He was deeply versed91 in the Civil War, and preached to deaf ears the great possibilities even of an imperfect firearm in the hands of Cavalry. In a masterly analysis of the mounted actions of the European wars from 1866 to 1878,[10] he pointed out the comparative failure of shock, and the magnificent opportunities which would have been open to any body of mounted troops as skilled in fire-tactics as Stuart’s Confederates. He even goes so far as to say that “a few commandos of Boers could have reduced to utter impotence the whole French Cavalry.” Yet, at the end of his inquiry, just when he seems to have proved to an impartial92 reader that the day of the steel weapon is over and the undivided reign69 of the rifle begun, he 14falters. There is a strange logical hiatus. Then the old dogma proves too strong. After all, he concludes, the source of the “Cavalry spirit” is, and must be, the steel. A precisely94 similar phenomenon, though springing from wholly different causes, and with more domestic justification95, occurs in the case of Bernhardi and of Wrangel. Henderson’s solution was that, if we are to have thoroughly96 expert mounted riflemen, they must be embodied97 in a separate force.
That compromise should have taken this particular form in Henderson is a circumstance I have never been able to understand. It is utterly98 contrary to Civil War experience, as he himself interprets it. That he should recommend one pure type, armed with either weapon, or two pure types, each armed with a different weapon; or one hybrid type, with theoretical perfection in both weapon, would be intelligible99. That he should recommend a hybrid type, with the steel strongly dominant100 and the rifle admittedly inferior, plus a pure type of expert mounted riflemen, is strange indeed, after the conclusions he draws from history. But the arme blanche plays the strangest tricks with the acutest minds. Bernhardi and our own Cavalry school are shrewd enough to postulate101 theoretical perfection in the hybrid type, even if they make the sword the supreme source of dash. We do not know what Henderson’s final opinions were. The essay in which he alludes102 to the Boers was written before the end of the war. In him we can easily trace the cause of the logical hiatus. He had to take into account the use of the steel by American horsemen in inter-Cavalry combats, but at a time when the imperfections of the firearm left a field to the steel which has since been shut off. Whether the South African War, with its mounted rifle-charges, modified his views, we are ignorant. His first volume of the “Official History” never saw the light, and he died in 1903. But we know 15this, that the last paper he ever wrote, the “British Army”—though he does not touch specifically on the mounted problem at all—insists primarily on the revolution wrought103 in all modern tactics by the deadly efficacy of the smokeless, long-range magazine rifle, a revolution whose essence was the substitution of individual skill and intelligence for those formal, machine-like movements of massed bodies which are best exemplified in the case of shock action.
Using the South African War as his primary source of illustration and guidance, I ask the reader to grapple seriously with the logic93 and history of this matter. I beg him not to be content, failing incontrovertible arguments, with the assurance of Cavalry men that, in spite of the lessened104 opportunities for the arme blanche and the greater importance of the rifle, the former weapon must still be regarded as the governing factor in Cavalry training. I ask him to take nothing for granted, but to examine every function of Cavalry, tactical or strategical, defensive105 or offensive, whether against Cavalry, Infantry, or guns, and with a pitilessly critical eye to investigate the evidence bearing upon this vital question: Which is the better weapon?
He will be discouraged and confused at the outset by the obscurities connected with nomenclature. Names sanctioned by time always have a strong influence in human affairs. Nowhere is this influence more disproportionately strong than in the case of mounted troops. The fine old word “Cavalry” simply means horse-soldiers without regard to weapon; but by the tradition of centuries it has always been, and is still associated with the sword and lance, though, in fact, for a long time past all Cavalries have been accustomed to carry some sort of firearm as well. Then there are Mounted Infantry, a force, so to speak, improvised out of Infantry, with a short additional training as horsemen; then the 16volunteer Yeomanry, and the Colonial Mounted Riflemen.
Names apart, the reader must ask himself: What happens in action? Does the rifle dictate106 tactics to the sword, or the sword to the rifle? What precise part does the question of weapons play in the ascription to Cavalry and the denial to Mounted Infantry of all the difficult and important duties of the major reconnaissance, duties obviously requiring many faculties107, mental and physical, which have no connection with the steel weapon? Can a man ride quicker or better, be more observant, original, or intelligent because he carries a sword? Finally, how is training to conform to weapons? In the realm of tactics does the official language correspond with the truth? Why should the expression “dismounted tactics,” as opposed to “mounted tactics,” be always used in reference to the use of the rifle by Cavalry? Does not the common factor of mobility108 transcend109 the factor of weapons? Cannot mounted riflemen “charge,” not, of course, according to that narrow interpretation of the word which restricts it to shock, but in ways equally, if not more, efficacious? And if, aside from the mobility derived from the horse, the dash shown in these and similar operations can demonstrably be shown to have been inspired by the rifle, is not the old Cavalry maxim110 that dash is derived from the sword seriously shaken? It is all very well in printed instructions to inculcate perfection in both, but is it humanly possible to maintain unimpaired in the same body of soldiers, still defined as “Cavalry,” the old standard of shock man?uvre, with all the rigorous training it demands, and all the specialized111 instincts and habits associated with it, while adding all the equally rigorous, and equally specialized education of body and mind, which is indispensable to the production of a good mounted rifleman? If not, which weapon is likely to go to the wall?
17Seeking light on these and kindred matters, the student will find himself straying in a fog of loose definitions corresponding to loose thought. He will find the word “Cavalry” used in several different senses for several different purposes; sometimes merely to mean armed horsemen, sometimes with special emphasis on the steel weapon, sometimes with particular reference to the rifle. He will find Bernhardi calling the Boers Cavalry, and his commentator112, Mr. Goldman, gravely rebuking113 him for not seeing that they were Mounted Infantry. He will find General French hotly combating the heresy114 that “Cavalry duels” are a thing of the past, and confusing in his own mind duels decided115 by the arme blanche with those struggles for mastery between the rival mounted forces of two opposing armies which, everyone agrees, must be a preliminary factor of high importance in all campaigns; and we find him becoming eloquent116 on the great and growing r?le of Cavalry in war, as though anybody had ever doubted that proposition, except in so far as it implied that Cavalry drew their power mainly from the arme blanche.
The South African War, no less than the Manchurian War, throws a flood of light on all these difficulties. It seems strange that it should be necessary to recommend a thorough sifting117 and weighing of the South African evidence. Yet it is necessary, for it is the fashion now to dismiss that war as abnormal, and throughout this volume I shall have to devote considerable space to arguing why, for the purposes of this controversy, it should not be regarded as abnormal. In the meantime, I appeal for the maintenance of some reasonable sense of proportion in this matter. The war lasted more than two and a half years. It cost upwards of 200,000,000 pounds sterling118. It exacted supreme efforts, military and economic. The total number of male belligerents opposed to us from first to last, foreigners and rebels included, 18scarcely exceeded 87,000. The total number of soldiers put into the field to meet them from first to last exceeded 400,000. For us, as I have already reminded the reader, it was the first great war against a race of European descent since the Crimea. For us, and for everyone else, it was the first test on the grand scale of the smokeless magazine rifle, not only in the hands of Infantry, but in the hands of mounted troops, and in the hands of mounted troops operating against Cavalry of the old type. Artillery119 apart, our foes120 one and all were mounted riflemen of the pure type. By degrees all our own mounted troops, of whatever category, became merged121 in the same type. And the war gradually became a mounted war. Mounted efficiency became the touchstone of success. Unprepared in multitudes of ways for the great struggle, it was in this respect from first to last that our chief deficiency lay. On the other hand, it was by their skill in the use of the horse and rifle combined that the Boers were enabled to defy us for so long.
Merely to state these elementary and indisputable facts is to prove that the war cannot lightly be regarded as abnormal. Common self-respect, to say nothing of historical judgment, should forbid such a manner of thinking. We need to recognize both our faults and our merits as disclosed at that great turning-point in our Imperial history. Pushed, as it is pushed, to extremes, this idea of abnormality becomes a narcotic122, lulling123 us into lethargy and reaction. This was our war, won only by a vast expenditure124 of our blood and treasure. It has its memories of bitter humiliation125 as of glorious achievement, and those memories are ours. The experience is mainly valuable to us in that it is ours. In moments of exaltation we congratulate ourselves, probably with sound justification, on having, in spite of many blunders, achieved what a Continental army could not have achieved. And yet, when it comes to reading the plainest 19technical lesson of the war, we find the leading exponents126 of Cavalry doctrine65 brushing aside our own priceless experience, appealing to Germany for light and guidance, and introducing German formulas—meaningless to Germans themselves—into British instructional handbooks.
One of the worst features of this insistence127 on abnormality is the tendency it breeds in Cavalry writers to read the mounted operations of the war from the Cavalry point of view only. Had things been otherwise, had there been the normal opportunities for shock man?uvre, how much more brilliant would have been the part played by the Cavalry! That is the line of argument, prompted, as no one can fail to observe, not only by an abstract faith in the arme blanche, but by a very natural anxiety to place in the best light the achievements of the Cavalry in South Africa. Confined within proper limits, that motive128 is unexceptionable, but the moment it begins to have the effect of converting a technical question into a sentimental question it becomes vicious. That is what has happened. No one can doubt the fact who reads Mr. Goldman, General French’s military biographer, and notes the laboured efforts to extract from the most unpromising material conclusions favourable41 to the arme blanche, and the deplorable loss of perspective which such an effort entails129. May I say here, if Mr. Goldman will permit me, that, although controversy will compel me to criticize his work unsparingly, I gladly and sincerely recognize its value as a historical narrative130. We differ, not about facts, but about the reading of facts. I think his very natural admiration131 and affection for the Cavalry have led him into the error of believing that their reputation, as a branch of the service, is bound up with the reputation of the steel weapon. Believing the contrary myself, I cannot help chafing132 sometimes under what seems a sort of coercion133 into assuming the r?le of a detractor of the Cavalry, while my sole desire is to attack their 20armament. I fancy that all critics of the arme blanche have to face the same disagreeable ordeal134. I can only do my best throughout to make my attitude clear. The topic ought to present no difficulties. As a nation, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we cannot discuss a great theme like this dispassionately on its merits. The Cavalry, like every other body of mounted troops in the King’s dominions135, is an Imperial possession. We are all proud of them, and if we criticize their methods, it is with the single object of making sure that the energies of this splendid body of men are directed into the most fruitful channel. In all wars we know we can count on their setting a high example of the great soldierly qualities, but we also want to make sure of their taking their right place at the outset, and maintaining that place throughout, as the leading exponents of progressive thought applied to mounted problems, and in that capacity to serve as models to all their Imperial comrades, and to the world at large.
On its merits, then, and on broad lines, I propose to discuss this question, avoiding so far as possible everything tending to cloud the vision with prejudice or bias136. When I illustrate137 from recent facts it is not with the barren and invidious purpose of apportioning138 blame or praise, but with the single aim of elucidating139 the truth.
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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hybrid
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| n.(动，植）杂种，混合物 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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6
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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7
epitome
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| n.典型，梗概 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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11
par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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12
instil
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| v.逐渐灌输 | |
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13
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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14
truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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15
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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16
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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17
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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18
adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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19
sacrosanct
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| adj.神圣不可侵犯的 | |
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20
postscript
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| n.附言，又及；(正文后的)补充说明 | |
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21
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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23
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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24
rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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25
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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27
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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28
inefficiency
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| n.无效率，无能；无效率事例 | |
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29
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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30
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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31
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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32
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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33
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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34
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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35
languished
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| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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37
permeated
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| 弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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38
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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39
vocations
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| n.（认为特别适合自己的）职业( vocation的名词复数 )；使命；神召；（认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的）信心 | |
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sporadically
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| adv.偶发地，零星地 | |
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41
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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43
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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44
premier
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| adj.首要的；n.总理，首相 | |
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45
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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46
relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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48
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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50
dispel
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| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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51
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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52
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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53
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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54
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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55
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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56
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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57
cavalries
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| 骑兵（cavalry的复数形式） | |
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58
analyzed
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| v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
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59
eulogy
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| n.颂词；颂扬 | |
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60
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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61
perspicacity
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| n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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62
avowedly
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| adv.公然地 | |
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63
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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64
vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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65
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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66
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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67
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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68
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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69
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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70
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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71
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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72
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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73
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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74
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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75
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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76
primitive
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|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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77
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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78
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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80
auxiliary
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| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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81
belligerents
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| n.交战的一方（指国家、集团或个人）( belligerent的名词复数 ) | |
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82
besetting
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| adj.不断攻击的v.困扰( beset的现在分词 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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83
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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84
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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85
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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86
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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87
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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88
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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89
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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90
duels
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| n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 )；竞争，斗争 | |
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91
versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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92
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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93
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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94
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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95
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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96
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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97
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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98
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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99
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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100
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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101
postulate
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| n.假定，基本条件；vt.要求，假定 | |
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102
alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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103
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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104
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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105
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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106
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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107
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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108
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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109
transcend
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| vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围 | |
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110
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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111
specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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112
commentator
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| n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员 | |
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113
rebuking
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的现在分词 ) | |
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114
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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115
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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116
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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117
sifting
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| n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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118
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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119
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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120
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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121
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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122
narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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123
lulling
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的现在分词形式） | |
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124
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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125
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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126
exponents
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| n.倡导者( exponent的名词复数 )；说明者；指数；能手 | |
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127
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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128
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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129
entails
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| 使…成为必要( entail的第三人称单数 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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130
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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131
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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132
chafing
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| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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133
coercion
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| n.强制，高压统治 | |
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134
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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135
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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136
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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137
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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138
apportioning
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| vt.分摊，分配（apportion的现在分词形式） | |
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139
elucidating
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| v.阐明，解释( elucidate的现在分词 ) | |
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