Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1918 — CAVALRY PLAYS A BIG PART NOW [ARTICLE]

CAVALRY PLAYS A BIG PART NOW

General Foch Used French Horsemen to Advantage in Big Drive. PROVE GOOD FIGHTERS AFOOT . J ' Rides 80 Mlles In Day and Relieves Hard-Pressed British in Flanders —Makes New Place for Self In Warfare. Washington.—Skillful use of French cavalry has marked General Foch’s tactics ever since he took over control of the allied armies, as supreme commander, according to information reaching military circles here. The horsemen have played an important role in the whole battle of 1918, as the struggle which began March 21 with the first German drive has come to be known. The employment of swift-moving columns in the present counter-stroke from the Aisne-Marne line has been noted tn the dispatches. Again General Foch took advantage of the great mobility of the mounted artn to throw it in wherever his advancing Infantry units threatened to lose touch with each other in the heat and confusion of the contest. No gaps have been left where the enemy might strike back, for always the horsemen came up to fill the hole until the infantry line could be rectified and connected in a solid front.

The same tactics marked the first use of French cavalry in the battle.of Picardy, when the French took over 55 miles of front from the British to permit the latter t<? mass reserves at seriously threatened points of the line farther north. Cavalry Fights Afoot. A French cavalry corps complete with light artillery, armored cars and cyclists arrived first on the scene in Picardy and relieved the British. They fought it out afoot until the heavy French infantry arrived and tobk over the task. Three days later the horsemen were on the move again, this time hurrying to the front, where the enemy was hitting hard at the Lys line. The cavalry rode hard as the advance guard of the French infantry columns marched toward St. Omar. In the first 24 hours, despite the long strain of fighting in Picardy, they covered 80 miles without losing a man or a horse on the way. In 66 hours they had transferred their whole corps over 125 miles and arrived east of Mont Cassel. “It was a wonderful sight,” writes the chief of staff of a division. “The horses were in fine condition; the men were cheerful and went singing, in spite of the sufferings and privations they had to endure. “In truth, our boys looked a little tired, but they were all very proud that such an effort had been asked of them and all were bearing it cheerfully.” The cavalry corps stood in support of the British for ten days in April after the enemy had forced the line held by the Portuguese division. It maintained communication between two British armies and organized the ground from Mont Cassel to Mont Kemmel, while the French army moved up behind It. As the French infantry came into line the cavalry was drawn off to the left in the Mont Kemmel region, and for five days the horsemen, fighting afoot with two infantry divisions, withstood the terrific assaults of the Germans who sought to hammer a way through behln'd Ypres at any cost. They stood steady bombardment for days, and when the infantry was hemmed in on top of Mont Kemmel, the cavalry drove forward in counterattack and held off the shock divisions of the enemy while the French gunners got their pieces away. Later, at the battle of Locre, the cavalry also shared fully with the infantry, blocking gaps in the line, and the final definite occupation of the town for the allies was accomplished by a cavalry battalion. A sergeant and a handful of dragoons drove 40 Germans out of the town, and at another point a cavalry officer and 20

men backed up the infantry at a critical moment, the officer waving a pistol in one hand and a shovel in the other as he led the dash which restored the situation. Defend Compeigne. A few days later the same cavalry, after another long ride, met the enemy advance against VHlers-Cottefets woods In the Aisne sector, where the fighting today Is waging fiercely, and where the horsemen again are engaged. When the Germans drove forward in their effort, to get around the forest to Compeigne, the horsemen blocked the road between the wooded region and the River Ourcq. In view of this record for swift and dashing attack afoot, the cavalry appears to have established a new place for Itself in modern warfare. They

are the light reserves; the men who are always hurled first into the point, of danger to hold until the slow-mov-ing infantry arrives. They have learned trench warfare completely,, and General Foch,is making use of them in any move that insures them 1 a glorious chance when the day comes for the allies to drive back all along the line. . •