Belgium and France 1914: British Cavalryman versus German Cavalryman

By Alan Steele

Osprey Publishing, 2022

Peter L. Belmonte, Reviewer

German Uhlan, 1914

In this fascinating book historian and British Army veteran Alan Steele examines British and German cavalry on the Western Front during World War I. Steele has consulted a fine array of war diaries, military manuals, memoirs, and secondary sources to produce this book.

Steele covers the topic by analyzing in detail three clashes between British and German cavalry in August and September 1914: Casteau (22 August), Cerizy-Moy (28 August), and Le Montcel (7 September). Before describing these actions, Steele covers the history, organization, recruitment, training, tactics, and weapons of both the British and German cavalry. He then provides the operational and tactical situation on the Western Front immediately prior to each clash. He discusses such obscure things as horsemastership (how soldiers take care of their mounts), in which the British excelled, and how each side taught soldiers to sit upon their mounts; these topics will give non-specialist readers some idea of the comparatively minor details that serve to give soldiers an edge over their opponents in combat.

Steele’s descriptions of mounted combat are interesting and will give readers an idea of the confusion inherent in any combat, particularly in a fast-moving cavalry clash. Of the fighting at Le Montcel, Steele says: “It is a measure of the fluidity of the situation that both British and German cavalrymen either singly or in small parties seem to have been wandering around Le Montcel and its environs willy-nilly” (p. 68). In the end, Steele argues that the British succeeded more than the Germans. To his he attributes British Regular Cavalry training (vastly improved since its sorry performance during the Boer War). Still, Steele notes that the German cavalry fought well in these clashes.

British Life Guards Departing for France

The author argues that Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig was correct to insist on the retention of a British cavalry corps in France after the fighting switch to static trench warfare. Haig “fully understood that the BEF needed to have a mobile force at hand to exploit any breakthrough in the German defenses” (p. 76). Since the British cavalry did provide some mounted ability in 1918, Steele comments about British success in the Palestine theater: “This campaign exemplified the correct use of the mounted arm in attack, outflanking the enemy, and pursuit and fully answered those sceptics who wished to abolish the horse cavalry as obsolete and ineffectual” (p. 76).

The maps and accompanying battle summaries are very helpful and detailed; the illustrations by Raffaele Ruggeri depict vignettes of the combat as well as individual soldiers. Contemporary photographs round out the fine presentation of the topic.

This book is highly recommended to those who want to learn more about cavalry on the Western Front in 1914. There are other recent books that cover the cavalry with perhaps a slightly different perspective (see Philip Watson, Audregnies: The Flank Guard Action and the First Cavalry Charge of the Great War, 24 August 1914, Warwick, UK: Helion, 2019, and Joe Robinson, Sabine Declercq, and Randal Gilbert, Chasing the Great Retreat: The German Cavalry Pursuit of the British Expeditionary Force before the Battle of the Marne August 1914, Warwick, UK: Helion & Company, 2022), but this brief book is worthy to be read alongside any such study.

Peter L. Belmonte