, more or less practical in their nature.

CHAPTER V

FIELD-SERVICE TRAINING AND MANOEUVRES

If in the above sections we have dealt almost exclusively with the
training of the Cavalry for actual combat, the cause lies in the
nature of things. Victory whether in the shock of 'Masses' or even in
the minor encounters of patrols, forms so much the foundation of every
possible success, whether strategical or otherwise, that training with
this end in view naturally comes first under our consideration.

But as the chief importance of Cavalry no longer lies in its
application on the battle-field, but rather in the solution of the
strategical problems encountered in the progress of operations, so its
training for battle is no longer the one aim and object, but only one
element of its whole preparation for the field. Field service, its
true duties in reconnaissance and strategic movements, must all be
taken into account as factors of equal importance.

I wish to bring this necessity most especially into the foreground,
since hitherto, and particularly in view of the changed conditions of
modern Warfare, it has not attracted anything approaching the
attention it deserves.

What do we practise in the field-service exercises and in the
manoeuvres beyond the normal Cavalry versus Cavalry encounters?
Principally, only formal outpost duties in combination with Infantry,
the smallest incidents of War on the smallest scaled tactical
scouting, and the participation of small Cavalry bodies in the
encounter between the combined Arms--all matters which nowadays come
within the sphere of the Divisional Cavalry; and, indeed, only then
when the divisions to which they belong, or even smaller bodies, are
operating independently, for the daily routine of the Divisional
Cavalry in the enormous Armies of the present day will be on a most
modest scale. At most in the Army Corps manoeuvres we may get as far
as the employment of Brigades, and perhaps to the shadowing of an
enemy's line of advance.

For the most important field of our enterprise, which is to be sought
in the activity of the Independent Cavalry, all this is of small
account. The real duties of Cavalry in War are only practised in peace
on the most confined scale, and often not at all.

Long marches of endurance, independent outposts, attack and defence of
localities, the forcing of defiles, passage of rivers, etc., which are
held by an enemy's dismounted men, reconnais