AVALANCHE OF GOOD CAVALRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 256, 22 October 1908, Page 4

AVALANCHE OF GOOD CAVALRY

SI'LExNUID CHAISE US SALISiiUKx PLALV

COMING BATTLE. Salisbury Plain, August 23. Thi! GUUU men oi the calvary division that is training on Salisbury Plain took part yesterday in a niagnilkieut charge at high speed.

Sir .Joim French rude over from Xethcravon and witnessed the work for the lirst time, lie docs not begin .his oilical survey as Inspector-Oneral until Wednesday,.but he is too keen a caval-ry-man to miss much of the work of this division, which is largely his own creation.

The division was drawn up in a great mass in the valley at Well Bottom, aud Sir John l r reneh requested that it should be moved out at a very fast pace and m as compact a form as possible. It was an interesting te.->t of the force's skill in keeping good formation over immense switchback slopes. * (When the division rose at the opposite slopes scarcely a square yard of grass could be seen that was not covered Ity man, horse, or gun. Almost in an instant they had reached the crest line and had disappeared from view. The effect was magical. In a moment the vast number of horsemen had been swallowed up in this wonderful grassland. | After riding up the slope one behild a sight of- much grandeur. On a bro-id acreage of rising ground these tiOOO horsemen were living at a pace that set amateurs agape with admiration. The riders to Kassassin or to anywhere eUe could not equal this (lying host, which seemed to be rising up the huge bank of grassland to the crest lino of tie Roman ditch as if borne on a tidal wave. The line bent and sawyed in the undulations of the ground., lengthened with elastic touch at an obstacle, and came together again without squecz- 1 ing a single man from his place. \Vheu the brigades readied the sky; Hue they seemed to stand giant-like for an instant. Then, crossing the ditch, they were gone again. In addressing the staff afterwards, Sir .John French said: "I think the drll was extremely good, and very creditable to the training of the stjimdrou by the squadron lemb-rs, to the regiment., bv the regimental leaders, ami to the brigades by the brigade commanders. It wag ycry creditable indeed/'