The Warhorse in the Modern Era - The Boer War to the Beginning of the Second Millennium (Hardcover)

Equus caballus, the horse, has been among man's closest sentient partners on the fields of war. From ancient times on the plains of Mesopotamia, the warhorse has served gallantly right to modern times. Yet although descriptions abound of military actions in which cavalry have played a major part, little is said about the horse, without whom very little would have been achieved in the military sphere, in any era. Few military historians have recognised the wide-ranging role played by the horse in modern warfare; very often the contribution made by horses is underestimated or even dismissed altogether. This may be because, with rare exceptions, military historians are not horsemen or women, and the latter are seldom military historians. Ann Hyland is both of these things. In the last volume in her acclaimed Warhorse series, she draws on primary sources and first-hand accounts to give a comprehensive account of the horse in war from the Boer War to the beginning of the second millennium. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the horse was used in traction, in cavalry, and in pack, in ever increasing numbers. As war became ever more sophisticated with increasing mechanisation in transport to deliver soldiers and artillery to war zones, so the number of equids used increased enormously. Ships' carrying capacity grew, their speed and size ramped up under steam; railways could repeatedly haul hundreds of men and animals to areas of conflict; in Burma during the Second World War mules were often dropped from the air by means of a statichute , a solid based kind of parachute, which landed in jungle clearances. Once delivered to operation zones animals still had to cope with the elements and the debilitating results of the same: ferocious heat and extremes of cold, so cold that in Russia weapons froze. Contagious diseases took their usual toll, exacerbated as animals were packed together in insanitary conditions, their waning condition making them ever more susceptible to contagion. The veterinary profession entered into an era of major progression, much of its craft learnt on the battlefield and in the veterinary hospitals close to the scenes of action. Mules also continued to play their part in traction and pack, and in some areas the donkey too, as a water carrier in the Dardanelles, in the First World War. In the mud of the Western front in the First World War in 1914 to 1918, mechanical transport bogged down, so horse-drawn transport was often the only means of getting essential supplies to the front. Even in the Second World War (1939 to 1945) the horse was indispensable in Russia's frozen wastes, while in Afghanistan the use of horses and other equids among the military is ongoing. Using many eyewitness accounts by those who took part in these and other campaigns, as well as official sources, Ann Hyland gives us a moving picture of the sacrifices demanded of - and made by, with so little complaint - this most noble of creatures. In the midst of dreadful carnage and in often appalling conditions, we catch glimpses of the bond which existed between these horses of war and the men who rode and cared for them. The Warhorse in the Modern Era: The Boer War to the Beginning of the Second Millennium is a fascinating and readable book which will appeal to both military history buffs and horse lovers alike.