ighting, they have still to be looked after, and this
takes many men away from the fighting line. A cavalry division
consists ordinarily of three brigades, but when employed in the
trenches they get little more than half that number into the firing
line. They have nothing like the same "gun power" as an
infantry division. But the mobility of the cavalry arm will always be
found to compensate in large degree for these manifest disadvantages.
Taking into account the losses they had suffered, they can hardly have
opposed 2,000 rifles to the onslaught of what has been computed at
more than two German Army Corps.

Of late years our custom has been to train our cavalry to fight on
foot, and in the present war we have reaped the fruit of this wise
policy. But the instinct which must be inculcated in the horse soldier
to regard his horse as his chief reliance, must always disqualify him
to some extent for the _role_ which our cavalry were called upon to
fulfil throughout the momentous issues in the history of the war of
which this chapter treats. I may mention in passing that it was this
same cavalry spirit, or instinct, with which the British cavalry is so
strongly imbued, which enabled them to show to such splendid advantage
in the mounted combats of the earlier phases of the war.

I must add a few words as to the fine part played in the fighting of
November 1st by the Oxfordshire Hussars and the London Scottish. They
were the first Territorial troops who fought in the war.

After disembarking at Dunkirk the Oxfordshire Hussars took part in the
important operations connected with the Belgian retreat from Antwerp, and
rendered most valuable aid in the defence of the Wytschaete--Messines
ridge when that piece of ground was held with such marvellous tenacity
by the Cavalry Division against overwhelming odds.

As for the London Scottish, their services on these two days are well
summarised in a memorandum sent in to me by Allenby.

"The London Scottish," he wrote, "came under my orders on the evening
of October 30th, 1914, and were detailed to the support of
the 2nd Cavalry Division on the following morning. They went into
action at 10 a.m., October 31st, with a strength of 26 officers and
786 men, and occupied trenches in conjunction with the 4th Cavalry
Brigade. They held these trenches throughout the day, being subjected
from time to time to heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. From 9 p.m.
onwards during the night Octobe