Was Cavalry Useless in the First World War?

My Grandfather was in the US calvary during WWI. I'm drawing on my age 16 memory, but he told me that they chased the Germans through the Arden, only catching them when the war was over. He also said they were a light machine gun company, and that challenged my conception of calvary, which admittedly had been formed from cowboys and indians movies.

Australia’s Light Horse captured more ground than any army in the Holy Lands, so that’s confirmation that cavalry were still decisive in WWI.

So basically its an F...ng nightmare...
Damm why does the world have to be so messed up😢
And just so i can get this on the record... i just dont see Russia letting ths opportunity to put oil up to 380$ a barrel slip away
So bet on iran joining in and the Hormuz straight being closed ...
Sod sod sod ..
Europe will go bankrupt

"Well, I knew my days were numbered when o'er the trenches lumbered
More modern machinations de la guerre
No match for rapid fire or the steel birds of the sky
With a final rear guard action, I retreat
No match for barbered wire or the armored engines whine
Reluctant, I retire and take my leave"

"Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier" by Corb Lund.

Best history channel ever created. .

WW1 was a descent into madness… it was steam-punk meets cannon fodder.

My Great-Grandfather on my fathers side was a Dragoon in the 1. Badische Leibdragoner Regiment Nr.20

From the letters he wrote and the few pictures that exist they were sent into battle as true cavalry, with sabers and carbines at the beginning of the war and later transitioned away from sabers into pure rifles, they went to the eastern front afterwards and were mainly used as border patrols during the last year of the war. He had a background as a stable boy and was used to working with horses which is why they sent him to the dragoons in 1914.

No.

In a trench hellscape they are useless but they were fairly useful in the US expeditions into Mexico during the WWI era.

Fascinating! Thank you!

during the darkest hour HE CAME BACK

Cavalry was even used in 2001 in Afghanistan by the northern alliance…

Very interesting

Thank you for fighting the laundering of facts by You Tube .

Awsome video, i always thought cavalries where useless in WW1 and most cavalry men ended up in the trenches.

Even I understand it's not possible to tell about everything on one short video, this one is disappointingly superficial. Using (or no-using in circumstances when cavalry could have a decisive influence on the strategical level) mounted troops on the IWW fronts has a huge amount of examples for more interesting and complete review of cavalry's role in the war. Even talking about French calalry you could remind us how French cavalry made possible the capitolation of Bulgaria due to it's brilliant 3 weeks raid. You could remind us a crucial role of German and Austro-Hungarian cavalry (yes! Austro-Hungarians had a brilliant mounted troops and used them with bravery and success) in operations during the Eastern offensive (they and their Russian opponents used a big formations of cavalry for gaining stratigical aims of the whole offensive). Or you could make a quick comporative analysis why East Prussian disaster happend, but the same disaster in Galicia didn't (in the 1st stage because of pre-war intelligence lack Russian armies on the South were very close to the same catastrophe as 1 and 2 Russia armies in East Prussia) -- because gen/ Samsonov and Rennenkampf (sadly ironically both were generals of mounted troops) didn't use their cavalry according to the situations, but 5 army commander gen. Pleve organized an improvised cavalry corps and used it for a big raid and finally made a victory in the whole operation reality. Or just necessary example of the Western front in 1918. Germans didn't have a cavalry there, so during the 100 days offensive they weren't just able to destroy supply lines etc. French had a cavalry -- so, in Amien offensive their cavalry corps made a great deal during the 1 stage of operation. But you preferred to talk about squadrons and small raids. So, definitely dislike.

Hi Jesse, you missed the Iraq front in the graet war and the role of Calvary in the Campaign particularly in the battles of sheiba , Cetaphon and the capture of Mosul 1918 and raid of the column of General Bartov into Dyalaa

The mount of Megido = A Megido = the battle of Armageddon

My grandfather was a USA cavalry trooper in WWI and Type 1 diabetic.

Bulgaria: 🗿

This video made me think about the film War Horse

I was enjoying the video and felt like I was learning something but then I heard you quote Noel Ignatiev and now I don't know how much of what you said to believe

"But is that really the case?", someone is watching TIK!

I think an interesting video could be done on Camels in the War.

Guess you can say the Great War was the last Hurrah for horse 🐎 cavalry(Calvary still played a big impact on warfare after the war until this day, but has tanks and mechanized Calvary)

@TheGreatWar I’d love to see your analysis on the extent and importance of American Lend/Lease to the Soviet Union.

Maybe you could do a little episode about Kitchener.
Nothing was done about him during the centennial of the war itself.
And there's a wealth of things that can be brought up as background images showing the places he was and the things that he did.
Another interesting aspect is the fact that he traveled with his decorations as most of these soldiers did,and his medals are still somewhere in the wreckage of that ship that was transporting him to Russia when it sank.
Bear in mind...The Star of India that he wore was entirely encrusted with diamonds like the medal that Nelson wore, which was stolen in the 1960s.

I can see the usefulness of horses in modern war. Transportation of troops in rough terrain, scouting, gathering resources (in desperation) and occasionally cover open ground, (possibly support vehicles) although the last one would be more for desperation. Soviet Afghan War was the last time cavalry was used in combat.

My grand grandfather server in Russian Cavalry but he was Polish.

Yes, indeed cavalry mattered! They were still very important. Everyone who is interested even more in cavalry is welcome to stop by at my very little channel where I not only try to explore the cavalry in depth but am on my way to reconstruct a ww1 german hussar. That includes not only the gear and equipment but the riding-skills as well. It is still a long way to go and I would be glad about everyone who stops by. :)

I clicked the title because I thought this was an IWM video but let's see how it goes. I'm excited

I recently discovered my great grandfather was a batman to a colonel in ww1, with his role mostly looking after horses as he used them in civilian life as a farmhand. I cant find any info if he fought in any capacity sadly but still proud of his brief contribution.

Yes! More WWI please!

Another Eye opening episode. Thank you very much for your work :)

austro-hungary?

no love for Austro-Hungarian cavaly?

This episode reminds me how OP revolver cav was in Shogun 2.

Calvary units were only to use raid weak points warehouses reprovide recon info and don't forget ambushes the Russians had the units unitl the second world war you also you could use em terrain that's not suitable for tanks or armored cars like swamps steppes forests and bogs

Calvary still hasn't completely disappeared as its still used for transportation in less developed and rugged environments like Afghanistan

This was a great video

For a long as people have been using horses, how could army doctrines not know how to take care of them in 1914? Or, were the French just morons?

Now you can use horses not only to move carts with material, but to move individual soldiers over a rough, terrain in many cases when motorized transportation was primitive without the kind of drive train, and horsepower horses were still the best way to move large groups of people quickly

What was obsolete was a cavalry charge was savers to try to route infantry, and certainly even with bolt action rifles. This work very well because the bolt action rifle, leaving with a long bayonet was not sufficient of a pike to stop a cavalry charge of the charge in Horse, they didn’t have the training the discipline in order to mass at a Square formation, and this was not possible because artillery could easily break up a Massed group of infantry.

What made the cavalry charge useful was in supply line harassment, where you didn’t have enough coverage in defense in depth it made for scrimmages and reconnaissance, very useful in the short run

Horses are very expensive animals to take care of and you need a whole infrastructure and supply chain and specialized veterinarian care to keep your horses available

No cavalry charges against machine gun and artillery in open to rain isn’t particularly very effective

From what I understand the British stopped using cavalry charge is in the 1920s and the US military stop using cavalry charge is resorts in the mid-1930s

What made the Horse Mountain Calvary still useful was the need to have mounted police officers on federal Parkland I personally know, or knew they were tired government service employee who starred in the early 30s as a Mountain, a Calvary soldier, and then was transferred to the department of interior as a Park police officer, because of his horse writing skills

Getting back to sorts on board navy ships the cutlass, although officially taking off the ships in the early 1940s were surreptitiously maintained on a lot of ships to the point where early in the Korean War a cutlass was used by a marine engineer to dispatch a North Korean combatant in Incheon

Edged weapons don’t go away

Basically, the use of having a horse mounted spear cat carrier still has some uses as having a human being on top of a horse going faster is a very effective way of breaking up by infantry troop formation, and the last British and American savers were basically spears

Thank you for sharing this remarkable episode about calvary role-playing during The great war.....thank you for sharing

At least since the Revolution French cavalry was infamous for bad horsecare.

cavalry palyed a huge role in the africa fronts, indian cavalry was heavily used in east aftica.

Excellent summary of the arm's activities! As you point out, conventional wisdom (and Hollywoo'd's representations) of Cavalry of that era are not accurate to the reality. When armies were moving, Cavalry was useful and important. But since most people project the Western Front's experience with trenches to the entire war, (which is not an accurate assumption), they often dismiss the value of cavalry.

Thank you.

My grandfather was a horse whisperer, so at the outbreak of war he enlisted in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps, (AAVC) eventually being promoted to Sergeant, (you had to have a veterinary degree to be an officer in the AAVC).

Some breathtaking stories.

Heard it best from a iraq war veteran a man would rather be shot then stabbed and that fear is very useful even in modern warfare.