Despite the British Army being mechanised, there developed a pressing need to raise horse-transport companies in 1944-45 to ease the strain on motor transport. These companies were raised entirely from captured German horses who had been vetted by the RAVC. #WarHorseWednesday
📸IWM H 16067
British governments making silly decisions to help other nations who are clearly not allies is not a new thing.
In 1939 there were calls for an inquiry in parliament into the sale of trained remounts to Germany...
#WarHorseWednesday
📸IWM HU 75875
It's been cold here in the UK so this photo of men of the King's Dragoon Guards exercising their horses in the snow in Feb 1945, seems fitting. Though officially mechanised, the KDG continued to carry out mounted patrols in both Italy and Greece during the SWW #WarHorseWednesday
📸IWM NA 22532
A belated #WarhorseWednesday …
When I think about the reliance of the German army on horsepower during the SWW, I always think of the Falaise pocket where some estimates place the number of horses killed at a staggering 10,000. I find this (rather famous) photo particularly moving 🥺
📷 IWM B 9668
'The importance of being a good horsemaster should be impressed on every mounted soldier. He should be taught to look upon his horse as his best friend, to study it, to take a pride in its appearance and look after its wants before his own'.
📸IWM Q 10605 #WarHorseWednesday
Soldiers help to get a pack horse back on his feet near the Albert-Amiens road during the Battle of the Somme, September 1916.
#WarhorseWednesday
📷 IWM Q4332 🗂️
Transport drivers in the #FirstWorldWar often put their horses needs and safety before their own, forming strong bonds between man and beast. Here a driver weeps for his three animals killed in a shell blast, somewhere on the Western Front. #WarHorseWednesday
📷 Animal Heroes of the Great War, 1925
To water their horses while at the front, the British were equipped with long stretches of canvas which,by means of two rows of wooden stakes, could be quickly converted into troughs, rolled up when finished and moved to the next location. #WarHorseWednesday #FirstWorldWar
📷 Carnoy 1916. IWM Q1102.
There's a common misconception that the (British) cavalry were useless & vulnerable on the Western Front. In fact, they were a doctrinally advanced & highly adaptable force that played an important role as the army's most mobile arm. #WarHorseWednesday #FWW
📷 IWM Q9310, 7th Cavalry Brigade
Is this the last Cavalry manual of the British Army? Printed in 1937 it is how the Cavalry units of the army were trained and it details the doctrine and the logistics particular to their role.
Currently being scanned in on #WarHorseWednesday and will be on Patreon soon.
#WarHorseWednesday myth busting:
''The British Army stripped the countryside of its horses & sent them to war' - FALSE
Horses vital to work on the land or in transport were exempt from impressment & heavily feathered breeds disliked by the British Army anyway!
📷 Mary Evans Picture Library
Horses on the Home Front for #WarHorseWednesday this week. 'By #WW2 the horse had been replaced in warfare' = Fake News! Equines continued to play an important role both on the battlefield & at home. Here a member of the Women’s Land Army harrows a field with two heavy horses, 1941.
📷 IWM HU 63823
The terrible cost of war. Dead equines being transported for disposal, Oise, 1917.
📸 Centre historique des archives Vincennes.
#WarHorseWednesday #FirstWorldWar #WW1
This R.A.F. Station in Southern England (does anyone know which one?!) ran its own farm, providing food for the entire camp. Here, station horse Dobbin is getting ready to start his shift ploughing!
📸 IWM CH 5742 #WarHorseWednesday
Pencil sketch portrait of a dark coloured horse looking in the views direction with ears pricked
Viola was the charger of Lt-Col T.C. Evans M.C. A.D.V.S. 2nd Canadian Div. Her long service in France saw her carry Evans across many famous battlefields to tend to the needs of wounded animals. After the war she was one of the few horses repatriated to Canada.
#WarHorseWednesday
Army Veterinary staff operate on a horse
'War as such is a stern and remorseless tyrant, and the toll it exacts is reflected in the temporarily 'broken' animals that are humanely evacuated with the utmost speed' - Sidney Galtrey
📷@IWM Q 560 No. 5 Veterinary Hospital; Abbeville, 3 March 1916. #WarHorseWednesday
Two men cross a river on ponies
Bit late today but here is a cracker for #WarHorseWednesday:
Chinese Hui muslims, members of Ma Bufang's cavalry, fighting as part of the NRA during the Second World War.
📸WikiCommons
Horses relax in a sad school
One of the reason equine deaths were kept relatively low by the British Army in the FWW is the fact that animals were not immediately returned to duty after treatment, but were first sent to convalescent depots such as this one at Naufchatel
📷 IWM Q11353 #WarHorseWednesday #WW1
It's #warhorsewednesday, and it's almost as though Ernest Brooks could see us coming.
#OnThisDay in 1918, he took several photos of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, observing a review of the British troops, 27 November 1918.
Imperial War Museum photographs Q 26773, 26779, 26787 & 26792.
Soldiers of the International Brigades and their horses during the Spanish Civil War. 📷 by Elkan Vera. #WarHorseWednesday IWM: HU 71523
Black and white lantern slide depicting a convoy of horse-drawn wagon ambulances heading to a field hospital in the Sinai Desert which can be seen in the background.
Just discovered #WarHorseWednesday. Horse-drawn wagon ambulances headed to a field hospital in the Sinai Desert, 1916. From the photographic archive of the #WW1 Scottish Horse Mounted Field Ambulance. Digitised & online here: archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll... #militaryhistory #histmed
Myths of mechanisation: ‘the #FirstWorldWar marked the end of horses in warfare’
Horse drawn guns of the German Field Artillery in retreat between Ozorków and Zgierz. Battle of Bzura, 9-11 September 1939.
📷 IWM HU 5259 #WarHorseWednesday #WW2 #SecondWorldWar #AnimalHistory
Scottish soldier sits on a grey mount whilst on manoeuvres , pre-1914
It's #WarHorseWednesday and today we're talking about remounts in #WW1. 🧵
On the outbreak of war the British Army had 25,000 on their books (a peace time establishment because y'know, horses 💸 to look after). Fortunately they had some savvy procurement plans including boarding out 1/n
📸IWM Q72109
Gas wasn’t a huge problem for horses in the #FWW #WW1 (they were rarely in front lines, could move pretty quick & breathe above the gas line) but it did occasionally cause skin damage. Here horses receive experimental treatment at No5 Veterinary Hospital, Abbeville. #WarHorseWednesday
📸 IWM Q 25115
Maybe I should resurrect #WarHorseWednesday which I left to die in the bad place.
#WarHorseWednesday Italian cavalry during an exercise near Rome, circa 1940.
L'Illustrazione Italiana 1940 n.1
#RegioEsertico #Cavalry #WW2
Italian cavalry crossing a river during an exercise, circa 1915.
Source: La cavalleria italiana nella I Guerra Mondiale - Cernigoi
#WarHorseWednesday #RegioEsercito #WW1
#WarHorseWednesday: Postcard depicting the 3o Gruppo Squadroni Savoia Cavalleria after their charge at Izbushensky (24.08.1942).
#RegioEsercito
