e far
from extreme. The cavalry spirit must be encouraged: but it must not
be permitted to overshadow that wider _camaraderie_ which is the Army
spirit. "It is not only possible but necessary," he says, "to preach
the Army spirit, or, in other words, the close comradeship of all arms
in battle, and at the same time to develop the highest qualities and
the special attributes of each branch. The particular spirit which we
seek to encourage is different for each arm. Were we to seek to endow
cavalry with the tenacity and stiffness of infantry, or to take from
the mounted arm the mobility and the cult of the offensive which are
the breath of its life, we should ruin not only the cavalry, but the
Army besides. Those who scoff at the spirit, whether of cavalry, of
artillery, or of infantry, are people who have had no practical
experience of the actual training of troops in peace, or of the
personal leadership in war. Such men are blind guides indeed."[19]

For cavalry, then, Sir John French sees a brilliant future. "The
opinion which I hold and have often expressed is that the _true role
of cavalry on the battlefield is to reconnoitre, to deceive and to
support_. If the enemy's cavalry has been overthrown, the role of
reconnaissance will have been rendered easier. In the roles of
deception and support, such an immense and fruitful field of
usefulness and enterprise is laid open to a cavalry division which has
thought out and practised these roles in its peace training, and is
accustomed to act in large bodies dismounted, that I cannot bring
myself to believe that any equivalent for such manifest advantages can
be found even in the most successful raid against the enemy's
communications by mounted troops."[20]

[Page Heading: A HISTORIC PHRASE]

How brilliantly Sir John French trained his men to accomplish these
multiple activities, recent history has shown. We may note in passing,
however, that mechanics have now divested the cavalry of one of their
chief functions. The aeroplane is now the eye of the army and the
strategical role of the cavalry is no more. The mounted arm will
almost certainly now be confined to screening operations and to shock
tactics, after the opposing armies have come into touch with one
another. History, therefore, has obviously justified Sir John French
in his championship of the cavalry spirit. Without it his horsemen
would have been no match for the German cavalry. Thanks to their
training, they