THE HORSE AND THE WAR CAPT. SIDNEY GALTREY uc 605 G7G34- I fj^ - 1 Hi. \' Iju^^x^jZ^ THE HORSE AND THE WAR Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/horsewarillustraOOgalt On the Road to Victory. The Horse and The War By CAPTAIN SIDNEY GALTREY ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY CAPTAIN LIONEL EDWARDS AND I ROM PHOTOGRAPHS WITH A NOTE JJV Field-Marshal Sir DOUGLAS HAIG, K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O. LONDON PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF "COUNTRY LIFE," 20 TWISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, \V.C.2, AND BY GEORGE NEWNES, LTD., 8-11 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 2. .MCMWIII NOV 03 198] 'im OF TO'^'iSi^ lie fpOS To nil': OUARTERMASTER-GEMCKAI. OF THK FORCES (Lieut.-Genf.ral Sir John Cowans, ("..C.M.C,., K.C.H., ]\I.\ .0. ()I- WHOSE IMMENSE DEPAllTMEXT or OUR ARMY ORGAXIZATIOX THE REMOUNT AND VETERINARY SERVICES ARE BRANCHES. CONTENTS CHAP PAGE War-Horses (by C. yi. Jeiulwine) 12 I. IXTrWDUCTORV .......... 13 II. The R.wv Material ......... 19 TTI. Buying British Remounts in America (by Brig.-Gcn. T. K. I . I'.utc) 27 IV. The Finished Article ........ 36 V. Tiir: ("iAllaxt IMule ........ 43 \'\. The Crossing Overseas ........ 54 Vn. B.\si; .'61 Ri'MouxT Depots in France— I . Mil. I1\SE Remount Depots in France— II ..... 70 IX. On Active Service ......... 76 X. Work at ihI'; Front ......... N3 XI. Triumphs of the Army \'eterinary Service . qn XII. Horses and Mules in Sickness 96 XIII. TRE.Vr.MENT in THE \'eTERINARY HOSPITALS . • K'4 (.\N.M)IANS (Ity W. H. O.^ihir) .... .II., XIV. "Cast and Sold" . .111 X\'. Perchekon Horses in England. ...... 122 Tin: RiMdUNT Train (Itv \V. [t. Ogilvk) ..... 131 ILLUSTRATIONS \'.\r.K On tlic road to victory ...... Frontispiece Landinj^' of American horses at an English Port 21 From till' sliij) to the Remount Depot Tlic Field ("lUii Horse from America. -.5 Testing an aheged riding-horse before a British Governmen t purchase! Branding a British Government purchase in N. America ^,1 Method of loading a remount train in America Picketed in the ojien and fully exposed to the weatliiT " " " The " iMnisIied Article recognizes Feed 41 The right-shaped and wrong-shaped mule 44 The wrong and the right way of leading a mule 47 Often a little more serious than "a certain liveliness" 48 r\ing a bucking mule close to the head of a quiet mult 5<J Mules in their paradise ...... 33 Top deck passengers ...... 55 to France A quiet crossing ..... !^7 The trans])(irt saleh' docked ..... 50 A scene in the Indian Base Remount Depot <\3 First prize winners at a divisional horse show 65 New issues at a Remount Depot .... 66 Watering at a base Remount Depot in France ^>7 Remounts trekking from a base depot 71 A winter's scene on the road to the Front /- A summer's scene off the road .... 73 Crossing the Yser ....... 77 The phlegmatic nuile is imjxrvious to adjacent shell bursts 70 An old trench will niaki' a capital stabk when the sun shines 81 Ca\ah"\" in nio\-eiuent ....... 85 9 10 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Packhorses carrying ammunition «7 Heavy draught horses bringing up reinforcements ^7 Horses being treated for mange 91 A ghmpse of a Veterinary Hospital in France . 91 A victim of sarcoptic mange .... 92 The same horse two months after the dip treatment 92 The mange patient ...... 93 The pack mule getting on with his job . 97 A team of gallant American greys charging through the mud 97 Experiences in mud ..... 99 An operation in a \Vterinary Hospital lOI A long range of warm stabling in an old brickyard 105 The uses of camouflage at a tented Veterinary Hospital in France 107 Branding cast horses with a " C " on the near shoulder 112 On the road to the place of sale .... 113 " " Who'll give me another half-guinea ? . 114 Good enough looking and well enough bred, but 115 The start for the "Caster's" new home . 117 To celebrate the bargain or to effect a quick re-sale 119 An American Percheron sire ..... 123 A grey French Percheron mare, now in England 125 A second example of the grey Percheron from France r2j An inspection of newly-landed Percheron mares in England 129 From the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in France Tho power of an army as a striking weapon depends on its mobility. Mobility is largely dependent on tho suitability and fitness of animals for army work. I hope that this account of cur anny horsec and mules will bring home to the peoples of the British Empire and the United States the wisdoi^. of breeding animals for the two military virtues of hardinecs and activity , and T would add that the best animals for army purposes are also the most valuable for agriculture, commerce and sport. WAR-HORSES By G. M. JEUDWIXE 1A/E combed you out from happy silences ''^ On thymey downs; From stream-veined rneadowlands alight with crowns Of buttercups, where, for you, sJiapely trees Made spacious canopies. Xoic (day and night) unsheltered, in the mud You droop and ache ; ]]'hilc ruthless hands, for human purpose' sake, Fashion the complex tools which spill your blood And ours in rising flood. Xo deputation (yet) your wage controls. Vngauged, unpaid Your overtime. The war blast leaves no blade Of green for you—poor ghosts of happy foals !— Munching your minished doles In ravages by human frenzy made. CHAPTER I Introductory It was a pleasure tu me tu find from the admirable condition of the horses and mides of the various units I inspected that the new Armies fully uphold our national reputation as ^ood horse-masters. — H.]\I. the King in his letter to Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, dated France, August 13, 1918. THIS volume is not the outcome of a solemn and \irtuous resolve to write a book. It was not started with any idea that it would one day be a volume. It had modest beginnings even though it was concei\'ed of a great subject such as no other writer in the fascinating history and lives of horses has had to comtemplate. It was just the writer's great good fortune, since war had to be. Those modest beginnings took the form of a contributed article, then another, and so on, until the sequence seemed to insist on being shaped into a coherent whole, which now emerges as a book on the hundreds of thousands of horses and mules that have been gallantly aiding the Empire's Cause. As I glance through the pages now I experience a sense of satisfaction that its original character remains. It was intended to be, and, indeed, could be no other than, a fleeting narrative of the \'ast and wonderful part played by our war-horses without which our Armies of millions would have been immobile and impotent. The self-appointed task was not without its diffi- culties and could have been approached in no other spirit than that of diffidence. The former were made less difficult by reason of the writer's own war service, which brought him to terms of easy intimacy with the subject ; the latter simply had to be o\'ercome with a consciousness that there might perhaps be too much diffidence in continuing to ignore this important aspect of our making of war. For it is certain IhaL the people of this country, of our Empire, and of the countries of our Allies know little or nothing of what this book professes to tell—of the hor.se and nuile that help to mo\-e the gun. the transport wagon loaded with food, amnumition or stores, and in hundreds of ways keep Armies mo\ing and make them formidable in offence and suri' in defence. Surely the volume needs no better justification than this ignorance of the people. They could not well be otherwise, for I ha\e failed to notice that our war-horses ha\e had their agents of propaganda. The people only learn when failures are ex])osed and things are revealed. Our war-horse- and nuiles have been bought, literally. b\- the million, and the taxpayer has contributed, and will contribute, to the many millions they luue cost the State. Infonna- 14 THE HORSE AND THE WAR tion and publicity bureaus have cau ed even the Silent Navy to break its silence so that the people should know of its existence and history-making doings. Land and Air Forces have wisely been exploited by experts and laymen appointed for the purpose, and one cannot doubt that every one is better for the little knowledge thereby imparted. But the silent, plodding, uncomplaining horse or mule, each bearing the brand of national ownership, have never yet failed, and so the}' have never been heard of outside the Armies. May I hope this volume will bring them some little credit, some little gratitude for the debt, ever mounting higher and higher, we may never pay, simph^ because we may never realize how great it is. I wonder if people understand that in order to keep pace with the require- ments of our Armies we have had to buy horses and mules running well into seven figures. I wonder ! Can you, for instance, imagine that whereas the Army possessed about 25,000 horses on August 4, 1914, we must now own at least a million ? And in the interval of four years that milHon and many more—for, of course, we must allow for the heavy wastage from death and disease which has gone on in all the theatres of war from day to day—ha\'e had to be bought in all parts of the world and brought by our ships to Europe and the East.