on of his whole Army.

If an Infantry Brigade, one of a force of ten Army Corps, is
annihilated, the effect is not nearly so far-reaching as if this
Brigade formed part of an Army of two or even three Corps.

If in these changed relations there are obviously factors which
materially limit the tactical importance of Cavalry, and which must
make the solution of their strategical tasks far more difficult, on
the other side we find opportunities in the probable phenomena of a
future War which, though less obvious, nevertheless on investigation
lead us to the conclusion that the importance of the Arm is even
greater than formerly, opening for it a wider sphere of activity, and
even on the battle-field revealing new chances of success.

Let us consider these opportunities more closely. The greater the
pitch of nervous tension to which men are wrought up in battle, the
greater the pitch of excitement reached, the more decisive will be the
reaction when the flood-tide of defeat overwhelms them.

Now that all European States are straining every nerve to employ
enormous masses of men from the first moment of hostilities, in order
thus to gain an advantage whilst their enemy is still concentrating,
and when we further consider how these exertions must increase the
strain throughout the nation to the very utmost, it must be apparent
that the first great decision of Arms must be of overwhelming
importance. Not only the troops directly concerned, but the 'masses'
behind them, find themselves for the moment involved in the
consequences of victory or defeat. Hence the reaction in either
direction, owing to the lower average quality of the troops, their
greater numbers, the increased difficulties of moving them, and the
susceptibility to congestion of their rearward communications, must be
far greater and far more disastrous than hitherto under similar
tactical conditions.

The more important it is to secure a favourable decision, the more
difficult with growing masses to divert an operation once commenced,
to give it a new direction or assign it a new objective, the less
possible it becomes to alter dispositions which may have been issued
on false premises; hence again _the greater grows the value of
thorough and active reconnoitring_.

If this holds good, more especially for the first great collision, it
remains also a guiding principle for all future operations; for, on
the one side, it is probable that even in its later stage