This review is from: The Last Great Cavalry Charge-The Battle of the Silver Helmets-Halen-12 August 1914 (Hardcover)
RIDERS OF THE STORM
Joe Robinson, Francis Hendricks and Janet Robinson,
The Battle of the Silver Helmets Halen 12th August 1914. Fonthill, £18.99. Hardback, 160 pages, 37 ills. maps, notes and refs, bibliog. ISBN 978-1-78155-183-7.
As they proved in their magnificent reference work The Great War Dawning, published last year, American ex-soldiers Joe and Janet Robinson certainly know about the German Army of 1914. In The Last Great Cavalry Charge their expertise has been boosted by the contribution of former Belgian soldier and military historian Francis Hendricks. The result is fascinating. An account of a battle which took place days before the BEF went into the line at Mons and one which I venture few readers of Stand To! have even heard.
Whilst my own research on First Ypres had shown the lack of training of German cavalry in dismounted action, the authors truly underline incompetence of the nation’s mounted arm. It had prepared for past wars. Despite Terence Zuber’s views which loudly happily trumpet the magnificent quality of every almost aspect of the German army in 1914, its cavalry was inadequate. It was an arm of service still shackled to the anachronistic concept of the "knee to knee" grand action charge, of night-time bivouac. Deployed in inadequate strength, on the left of the advance into Belgium, it offered dated Napoleonic personnel sapping, horse killing, and exhibition of military inefficiency. I In truth it was little more than a parade ground trophy force whose problems of outmoded doctrine were magnified by strategic and tactical ineptitude and defective logistical support. Unlike British cavalry - trained and highly effective infantry once dismounted – the German was effective in the 20th century as would have been Ney’s (whose thinking it broadly, and it seems willingly, embraced).
If not the very last cavalry charge, the fighting at Halen was almost certainly the most disastrous employment of cavalry on the field of battle of the Great War. Two brigades of Fourth Cavalry Division attempted no less than seven separate charges. In effect they were destroyed by dismounted Belgian cavalry and infantry which was itself firmly on the on the back foot. The episode underlined in stark terms that the Germans had ignored a new reality - modern weaponry made the élan of l’arme Blanche dead in its saddle. The tides of war had washed over the sand of mounted man and horse. Those on foot, with magazine rifles and the support of relatively limited quick firing artillery and machine guns now held all the aces against lance wielding men on horses and the officers who commanded them.
The Last Great Cavalry Charge is not merely the story of the battle but also a valuable dissection of the German cavalry arm in 1914. In doing so it deploys an impressive range of official records, supported by telling personal Belgian and French personal accounts 37 well chosen illustrations. That all said it must be added that a number of niggles indicate that the authors deserved better copy editing from their publisher. Mapping of the individual sections is adequate if necessarily broad brush. A large per map showing overall deployment and movement of forces and this area of Belgium, little know to Brits, would have been welcome. That all said this is a valuable addition to the early history of the Great War and a reflection of genuine ‘donkeyism’.
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