the roads are badly cut up, horse transport is not
only desirable but essential. Of course, the motor is absolutely
invaluable for speedy transport. But on the whole one can say
that, except for motor-buses, which sometimes take the men right
up close to the trenches, and except for the ammunition park--a
collection of powerful and very speedy lorries loaded up with
munitions, which has always to be in readiness to dash up to the
front in view of an emergency--except in these cases, it is safe
to say that motor transport ends some miles from the actual
fighting-line, and all the remaining transport is horsed. True,
motor-cars containing Generals on inspection, Supply officers,
etc., go all over the place, often right up behind the
firing-line. Also there are the motor machine-gun cars, and the
armoured cars, which are fighting units proper. But don't for
goodness' sake imagine that the horse is done with in modern war
because of the advent of the motor.

What the motor has done is to alter the whole face of things
because of the extraordinary rapidity with which it enables you
to fling troops or supplies up to the Front or transport them
from point to point. But for the effective use of motor vehicles
you need pretty good roads. You will remember how in the earlier
months of the War, ourselves, the Germans and the French effected
big troop movements simply by motor transport. You will recall
the occasion on which the French flung a force across the suburbs
of Paris and attacked the Boches on the right, thus beginning the
movement known as the Battle of the Marne. Then there was the
occasion when Hindenburg attacked the Russians in October, 1914,
feinting at their left and striking at their right at Tannenberg
with a force of armoured cars, cavalry, and infantry conveyed in
motors. Neither of these movements could have been achieved
before the advent of motor transport. As this war progresses, the
need for really capable and cool-headed motor drivers will
steadily increase. But it will be none the less invaluable to
know how to manage a horse--whether to ride it, drive a wagon, or
ride-and-drive in a limber. One of our limber horses is a grey
captured from the Germans last year. He is a very good worker and
doesn't seem to mind being a prisone