Description
Narration on archival images evoking the use of horses during the First World War and the passage of cavalry charges to tanks.
Transcript
Horses, essential tools of war for over 5,000 years began to see the end of their usefulness during the First World War.
At the onset, many predicted that leaps in technology would spell the end of mounted warfare, but cavalry units were still very much part of attack strategies on all sides of the conflict.
However, at the battle of Cambrai in 1917, the first Allied cavalry charge to be truly mowed down by Central Powers’ machine-gun fire had everyone rethink their use, and fast!
Trench warfare also made them redundant. Anyone trying to charge through a maze of dugouts, tunnels and barb wire wouldn’t get far.
This marked a transition period.
Horses still played a significant role throughout the war but mostly for reconnaissance, carrying messages, pulling artillery, ambulances, field kitchens and supply wagons through deep mud and rough terrain.
A new tool of war was about to replace the horse in shock tactics: the tank.
Tanks didn’t succumb to machine gun fire.
Tanks didn’t get skin conditions or need veterinary hospitals.
Tanks’ dead carcasses didn’t cause disease.
Tanks left no waste contributing to poor hygiene in camps.
Progressively tanks took over the role of horses, but not completely.
On March 30 1918 a Canadian regiment, Lord Strathcona's Horse, led one of history's last great cavalry charges against superior German positions, well protected by machine guns, at Moreuil Wood.
The Germans surrendered, but seventy-five of the Canadian soldiers were killed or wounded.
Symbolically, and soon very practically, the era of the horse was over. The future belonged to the tank -- and to armoured regiments.
But many Canadian armoured regiments proudly strut their equine past to this day -- like Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), the very unit that led that last cavalry charge.