What happen to the former calvary units during WW1?

Answer 1

The Poles did employ cavalry in World War 2 and they were highly effective elite units that operated as mounted infantry. They did not charge tanks as is often stated. This myth comes about from an Italian news report at the time where it said they had done this. What really happened was that a group of Polish Cavalry came across unsuspecting German infantry in a field and successfully charged them. While the Poles were regrouping German armoured cars showed up and defeated them. The Germans (and other nations for sure) still used cavalry during the Second World War often to secure supply lines. Also the German army though it is portrayed as being mostly mechanized had most of it's supplies and weapons pulled by horses.

Answer 2

Hi Jason,

Nothing happened to the cavalry units. They were deployed and fought the war as cavalry units. Only after the war were they modified. During the 1920s and 1930s, the idea of horse cavalry was increasingly viewed as a waste in the age of modern mechanised warfare.

Thus the cavalry units were retained, but they were now associated with tanks and armoured attack vehicles like helicopters, rather than horses. Armored Cavalry regiments are still very much alive today,

Cheers, mate.

Answer 3

Cavalry played a huge role - the terrain got so convoluted and torn up that no motorized vehicles could really get around. At Verdun, there were nearly as many horse corpses as human - they would get trapped and drown in shell holes, etc.

As late as WW2, Poland employed cavalry divisions against German panzer divisions in 1939. As isnane as that sounds, they did quite impressively considering how antiquated their "technology" was. Cavalry actually attacked tanks. Would have been something to see.

Answer 4

Very little strategic manuever occurred during World War One. It was the only war in modern history that was fought over the same (entrencehed) battlefiels for a period of years (about three). By far the most amazing aspect of WWI was the huge scale of killing during the trench warfare period. For example, at least twice, at Passendale and during one of the Battles of the Somme, twenty thousand Allied troops were killed - I repeat KILLED, not wounded - in one day. By comparison, on the bloodiest day of the Americn Civil War, perhaps five thousand men were killed in one day (at Antietam). There are several excellent books about WWI - mainly the books by John Keegan and Barbara Tuchman. The most important concept to understand about WWI is that warfare had become so dangerous because the side that was DEFENDING had so much fire power available, that an enemy that tried to leave the protection of entrenchments quickly became exposed to massive firepower (machineguns and especially artillery) and suffered horrendous losses. WWI was characterized by medicre generalship on both sides - both Allied and German generals repeatedlly failed to appeciate the extraordinary difficulty of attacking an enemy trenchline, thus resulting in the slaughter of a whole generation of European males.d in World War One. The use of poison gas, starting in 1915, added a whole other murderous aspect to WWI trench warfare. The Russians did not have gas masks and suffered one million casualties killed by German poison gas.

Answer 5

I believe they disbanded and became the air Calvary in Viet Nam. Choppers are tougher than horses.

Answer 6

They became armored car and armored tank units.