Horses in warfare

History of Cavalry 1957 US Army; Soldiers on Horseback; "The Big Picture"

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• published: 03 Jun 2015
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more at http://quickfound.net/links/military_news_and_links.html 'The lusty history of the Cavalry depicted on "THE BIG PICTURE" -- With this issue of THE BIG PICTURE, the camera sweeps back through the pages of history to bring television viewers the story of the Cavalry in its long ride to glory. It is a long ride and a colorful one from the horse to the air, but that is the story of the Cavalry in the United States Army as dramatically filmed in this episode. It is both artistic and magnificent, and with the skillfully written narration voiced by Alexander Scourby it becomes one of the best, if not the finest, of THE BIG PICTURES produced by the Army Pictorial Center, Long Island City, New York. If THE BIG PICTURE has taken its cue from the recent success of westerns on television, then "The History of Cavalry" should certainly prove to be most entertaining. As expressed by the series' host, Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, "Surrounding the very word 'Cavalry,' there is a warm glow of nostalgia -- of romance and valor. It is a sense of proud men fighting a proud cause with both dash and distinction." Then, as the story unfolds it becomes clear that the Cavalry's historic role in the defense of this country is one of the Army's most illustrious chapters and is well told on THE BIG PICTURE.' The Big Picture episode TV-382 Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry Cavalry (from French cavalerie, cf. cheval 'horse') or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms. An individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon, or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military force that used other animals, such as camels or mules. Infantry who moved on horseback, but dismounted to fight on foot, were known in the 17th and early 18th centuries as dragoons, a class of mounted infantry which later evolved into cavalry proper while retaining their historic title... A man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, and inertial mass over an opponent on foot. Another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. The speed, mobility and shock value of the cavalry was greatly appreciated and exploited in armed forces in the Ancient and Middle Ages; some forces were mostly cavalry, particularly in nomadic societies of Asia, notably the Mongol armies. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured (heavy), and eventually became known for the mounted knights. During the 17th century cavalry in Europe lost most of its armor, ineffective against the muskets and cannon which were coming into use, and by the mid-19th century armor had mainly fallen into disuse, although some regiments retained a small thickened cuirass that offered protection against lances and sabres and some protection against shot. In the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. However, some cavalry still served during the World War II, notably in the Red Army, the Mongolian People's Army, the Royal Italian Army and the Polish Land Forces. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, or as mounted infantry in difficult terrain such as mountains or heavily forested areas. Modern usage of the term refers to specialist units equipped with tanks ("armored cavalry") or aircraft ("air cavalry")... Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots. The chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The chariot was quickly adopted by settled peoples both as a military technology and an object of ceremonial status, especially by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom of Egypt as well as the Assyrian army and Babylonian royalty. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, but was offset by the difficulty of raising large forces and by the inability of horses (then mostly small) to carry heavy armor. Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians...