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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 117
as opposed to cavalry, tactics. The horses were small, virtually ponies, and were well used to
the conditions. Their riders were sensitive to their horses’ needs, well aware of their limitations and
concerned to avoid demanding more than the horse was capable of giving.
The British mounted forces were of three types. The cavalry was the established arm and it had
done much to come to terms with new conditions of battle, as the Cavalry Drill Bookof 1896, written
by Colonel John French with help from Major Douglas Haig, demonstrates. The massed charge had
not been of much relevance against the fragmented forces encountered in colonial wars and a range of
sophisticated tactics had been developed. However, at the outbreak of the war, the cavalry was
present only in modest numbers.
The forces raised locally, such as the Imperial Light Horse, were of mounted infantry who rode
to the scene of the action but fought on foot. They, like the Mounted Infantry used in large numbers
later in the war, fought dismounted, but unlike the Boers, had one man in four out of the fight, holding
his own and his companions’ horses.
British problems were caused by a number of factors. First, the standard daily ration for a
cavalry horse was ten pounds (4.5kg) of oats, twelve pounds (5.4kg) of hay and eight pounds (3.6kg)
of straw. The difficulties of supply forced the British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Redvers Buller, to
order, on 6 November 1899, that the ration be reduced to twelve pounds of oats and eight pounds of
grass if it could be had – starvation rations. Second, few horses could be acquired in South Africa
and so mounts were imported first from Britain and eventually from such distant sources as Australia
and Argentina. On board a boat these horses could not be exercised and thus arrived unfit and ill-fed,
only to be thrust into immediate service. Finally, the abrupt expansion of mounted infantry by Lord
Roberts, when he arrived as Commander-in-Chief in January 1900, brought many men into that arm
who were ignorant of any aspect of horsemanship and many had to be taught to ride. They did not
know how to care for their horses, to husband their strength or to judge what distance they could carry
a certain load. The solution was to supply enough remounts to deal with the fearful mortality that
resulted and to accept the operational inefficiencies that could not be changed.
Although the principal tasks of the mounted force were scouting, supporting infantry and, later in
the war, attempting to gain positions from which to engage the Boers while dismounted, the tactics
still included the charge. This has been ridiculed by many commentators but it was, on occasion, very
effective and was even used by the Boers. At the Battle of Elandslaagte fleeing Boers were pursued
and killed, to the horror of their countrymen, in a classic charge that, if unpleasant, achieved its
objective. In the course of the British flanking approach to Kimberley, Boer opposition at Klip Drift
amounted to some 2,000 riflemen. The British cavalry charged, broke though, and suffered between
four men wounded (Cavalry Division war diary) and twenty killed (other reports) – very small losses
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