Cavalry Exploitation

[Guest Tom Brearley]

Reading recently about the Battle of Cambrai has made me wonder how exactly cavalry 'exploitation' would have worked had the Cavalry Corp had been brought up in time to capitalize on the breach of the Hindenburg Line. As I understand it, Byng's plan was for the Corps to push south and east of Cambrai, allowing it to be enveloped and then taken.

I realise cavalry was the only arm of exploitation available at the time (tanks being limited to about 4 mph), but how viable was it on a modern battlefield? Would casualties have been very high? Was it ever used in this role on the Western Front?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Tom

[Bryn_Hammond]

There's some useful stuff in:

Stephen Badsey, "Cavalry and the Development of Breakthrough Doctrine" in Paddy Griffith's British Fighting Methods in the Great War, (Frank Cass, 1996).

Stephen is a Sandhurst lecturer and did his PhD on the cavalry in the war.

Hope this helps.