CAVALRY WORK IN FRANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1917, Page 4

CAVALRY WORK IN FRANCE.

DASHES ALONG THE “SIEGFRIED LINE.”

One of the most interesting and extraordinary features in all the fighting cast # of Bapaume (writes Philip Gibbs, in a despatch from the front on April 2nd) lias been the work of our cavalry squadrons in reconnaissance and attack.

I confess that, after two and a half years of trench warfare, I was utterly sceptical of the value of fliounted troops, in spite of the little stunt (as they called it) south of High Wood, after we took the Bazentine and Longueval, in July of last year, when the Royal Dragoons and Deccan Hoi’se rode Out and brought back prisoners.

Conditions have changed since then by a great transformation scene, owing to the enemy's abandonment of his old fortress positions on' the Somme under our frightful onslaught of gunfire. The country into which we have now gone is beyond the great Wide belt of shell craters, which made the battlefields of the Somme a wild quagmire of deep pits and ponds. The roads between the mined vil-

lage aretvoriderfully smooth and good where the}' have not been mined, and the fields are as Nature and French husbandry left them after last year’s harvest.

XEW GROUNDS A.\l) OLli. Then (hero has been a glorious absence of great shellfire while the enemy has -been drawing back guns to emplacements behind the Hindenburg line, and this to cavalry, as well as to jnfantry, makes all the difference between heaven and hell.

So the cavalry has had its chance agiiin after the old far-off days when they rode up .the Mont des Cats and chased Uhlans through Meteren, and scouted along ilie Massines Ridge in the autumn of 1011,^ There have beeii no great sensational episodes, no shock of lance against lance in dense masses, no .cutting. tip of rearguards nor slashing into a routed army, but t here has been a great deal of good scouting work during the past three weeks. Eight villages have been taken by oiir mounted troops, and they have captured a number of prisoners, and machine-guns.

They have liked their hrintitig. l have Seen the Indian cavalry riding across the fields with their lances high, and it was a great sight, and as strange as an Arabian Nights tale in this land of France to those streams of brown-boarded inen, as handsome as fairy-book princes, with the wind blowing their khaki tuibans. Night aft', r night.our cavalry have gone out in patrols, the leader ahead and alone ; two men following'; behind them a small body keeping in touch. They ride silently like shadows, with no clatter of stirrup or chink of bit. They find the gaps in the enemy's wire, creep close to his infantry outposts, ride very deftly into the charred ruins of abandoned villages

and come back with their news of the enemy’s -whereabouts. A LISTENING POST. A week ago one of their patrols went into the Forest of Holnon, which is still held by the enemy, and listened to Germans talking. Our men were undiscovered. They took the villages by sweeping round on both sides in a great gallop, with their lances down, and the enemy fled at the first sight of them. When the cavalry charged at Bquanconrt a body of British infantry who had come on to the ground six hours earlier than they need have done, in order (as they said) not to miss the show, cheered them on with the wildest enthusiasm.

“Look at those beggai’s,” shouted one man as the cavalry swept past, “that’s the v’ay to take a village. No blighted bombs for them, and hell for leather all the way ! ” It was a difficult operation, this taking of Equancourt, and was carried out in the best cavalry style according to the old traditions.