Correcting the Corps History – The 1 in 4 Horse Holding Myth

The next point that I need to address from Chapter 16 of the Corps History is that the Author attributes the lack of available manpower available for tasking is the fact that the majority of the Squadron’s personnel were occupied with looking after the horses when dismounted.

Blogger’s Note – In cavalry terms – a section relates to 4 mounted riders and a half section is 2 mounted riders, mounted units would move either by section or half section columns.

In the previous post https://horsebacksapper.co.uk/2023/04/15/correcting-the-corps-history-re-field-sqn-manning/ I looked at the Manning numbers and where these numbers are wrong or where they are correct to explain how they are put together and and explaining where the other manpower was being used.

This post is linked with the numbers of 70 NCOs and Sappers being available for working in the Trenches. The author has picked on the fact that when a mounted unit dismounts 1 man in every 4 would remain mounted, gather up the reins of the other 3 horses and lead them away to a safe point/ safe area. This is the comment from Chapter 16:

“Acting as field companies when their divisions were dismounted and sent into the the line. A cavalry division could produce about 1200 rifles and a field squadron at most seventy men to go with them. Small though these numbers may appear, they meant that each man left behind had at least four horses to look after.“

I have already justified the 70 men number but I want to look specifically at the “1 in 4” misconception. As stated above it was true that when a Mounted unit dismounts 1 man of each Mounted section (a 4 man team) would stay mounted and ride away with the horses. This is described clearly in the Cavalry Training Manual of 1915, Section 153 and Section 213, this states that the No3 Rider of the section would remain mounted, take the reins of the other 3 horses (2 on his left and one on his right) and lead them to a specified rear area. It is also stated in the Cavalry Regulations of 1907 (Sect 106).

To make this even more RE Field Squadron specific, Mounted Sappers were required to be trained to Mounted Infantry Standards and the governing manual was the Yeomanry and Mounted Rifle Training Manual of 1912 and the relevant sections for dismounted action and leading horses was Section 108 and Section 149. These regulations all match.

So the Chapter 16 Author is right?…..Err….No, no he isn’t, he completely has misunderstood the 1 in 4 rule.

Everything that is quoted above related to riding into combat (advance to contact if you will) and then the unit dismounts to fight. This isn’t about going into the trenches (into the line). If the squadron was going into the Trenches then the horses would be back with the Echelon and in Horse Lines – I’ll talk about this later in this post.

But coming back to the dismounted combat, with the horses ridden back to safe area the No 3 rider would dismount and manage the horses dismounted. If more men were required on the firing line then the man of every second section would go forward, leaving one man with 8 horses (possibly bringing forward the extra ammunition bandoliers that were hanging round each horses neck). So in theory for a full strength Field Troop of 1 officer and 23 Sappers (remember that 7 drivers are with the Troop GS wagon and Troop Tool Cart) would only require 3 horse holders not the 6 suggested.

So that is in the field, under fire, so what about when the unit went forward into the Trenches?

Well the unit horses would be held at the Echelon location or at a Brigade Cavalry Lines and these locations would not require the loss of a man in every 4. Horses that are held in a rear area would be held on a picqueted line or in more formal horse lines and this would allow for the horses to be tied onto the horse line and then managed by a small number of men. the management of picqueted horses and horse lines is very clearly laid out in the horse management manuals and the Light Horse Pocket Book of the Australian Light Horse (ALH) explains the horse lines duties very clearly:

Page 49 – Day Stable Picquet 

1 man per half Squadron (ALH Squadrons are only slightly smaller than an RE Field Squadron at 150 men) will start duty at “Morning Stables” until relieved by the Night Stable piquet. 

Duties –

At night time this picquet is increased to a Section (NCO plus 3 men).  These individuals are on one at a time on a 2 hour shift/ stag with very similar duties as the day stable piquet.  The only difference is that they are to make sure that men of the squadron do not loiter around the horse lines. 

These duties and details are standard for British and Imperial mounted units. 

Therefore it can be seen that when a RE mounted unit has it’s horses in the horse lines then you are looking at 2 men during the day from the Squadron total,( field Troops and echelon) and then at night this would go upto 8 men.  In all of these situations these are the maximum figures and even with the Field Troops in the trenches it is manageable from those troops of the Echelon as they would have to do these duties for their own horses anyway. 

So we can see that the author of Chapter 16 is wildly incorrect in the statement that “man had become the slave of horse”. 

My view is that the author has not spent time with horses but has latched onto the view that all horse management when the unit dismounts requires 1 Sapper out of 4 men to be fully employed to look after the horses, The suggestion from the author would be that the horses would require 48 men to look after them (that is almost all of the Echelon or 2 Field Troops).  Hopefully I have shown that this is not the case and again I feel that the lack of actual knowledge or research by the author has allowed the Mounted Sappers of the Field Squadrons to be unfairly characterised as being inefficient and/or ineffective. 

The question to ask of the Author, if the RE Field Squadrons were so inefficient and ineffective why were they expanded from one Field Squadron to five Field Squadrons (not including the Australian Field Squadrons)?

Bloggers Note – I want to just add that Horse and Mule Management was taken incredibly seriously by the British Army, it had learned hard lessons from the Boer War and looking after the equines was an important task. The RE Mounted Units were an important part of that process be that creating wind breaks and shelters for the temporary Horse lines in the Cavalry Holding areas or for the construction of better horse lines in the rear areas.

Please go back over this post and have a look at all of the Horse line images and look at how few men are with the horses on the line. This was a routine duty and had little impact on the manpower or effectiveness of the Field Squadrons.

In one of the future blog posts I will look at dispelling the myth that the Mounted sappers could not carry out engineering when mounted.