Cavalry tactics
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For much of history, humans have used some form of cavalry for war and, as a result, cavalry tactics have evolved over time. Tactically, the main advantages of cavalry over infantry were greater mobility, a larger impact, and a higher riding position.
History
Chariots
War elephants
Elephant cavalry first appeared three thousand years ago, simultaneously in India's
The psychological effect of war elephants was often their main tactical use.
Horse cavalry developed tent pegging tactics to deal with elephant cavalry. If they maintained their nerve in the face of the larger mounts, horse cavalry could rout elephant cavalry, especially by moving into close quarters and attacking the elephants' vulnerable feet.[6] The Mongols would loose arrows at their enemy elephants' feet and legs until the elephants ran and trampled over their own army.
Dromedary and camel cavalry
Next to elephants, camels were the tallest and heaviest animals available for cavalry. They are neither as agile nor as fast as
Riding and fighting on horseback
At first it was not considered effective to use weapons on horseback, but rather to use the horse as transportation. "Mounted infantry" would ride to battle, and then dismount to fight. For a long time, riders and charioteers worked alongside each other in the cavalry. Early domesticated horses were smaller and shorter than the warhorses of later history. Combined with a lack of developed cavalry tactics and the skittish nature of an untrained horse, fighting on horseback was unintuitive at first.
The first recorded instance of
An example of
Tactics of light cavalry using bows
Armies of
Another fairly popular tactic was known as "shower shooting". The
The great weakness of mounted archers was their need of space and their light equipment (compared to contemporary heavy cavalry). If they were forced to fight in close combat against better armoured enemies, they usually lost. Furthermore, they were not suited for participating in
The
Tactics of heavy cavalry using lances
Medieval European
The Persians deployed their
Many knights during Medieval battles fought on foot.[citation needed] Attacks would be carried out on horseback only under favorable conditions. If the enemy infantry was equipped with polearms and fought in tight formations it was not possible to charge without heavy losses. A fairly common solution to this was for the men-at-arms to dismount and assault the enemy on foot, such as the way Scottish knights dismounted to stiffen the infantry schiltron or the English combination of longbowmen with dismounted men-at-arms in the Hundred Years' War. Another possibility was to bluff an attack, but turn around before impact. This tempted many infantrymen to go on the chase, leaving their formation. The heavy cavalry then turned around again in this new situation and rode down the scattered infantry. Such a tactic was deployed in the Battle of Hastings (1066).
A further improvement of fighting ability was the use of well-armed infantry reserves during knightly battles on horseback. After some time, the battle would often split into several small groups, with space in between, and both sides would become exhausted. Then, an infantry rush could concentrate on selected targets and rout the enemy. Infantry also helped knights to remount in battle and aided the wounded.
The
Tactics of heavy cavalry using bows and javelins
Attempts at integrating ranged weapons and heavy cavalry were, for example, made by the
An enemy who could suddenly strike and retreat using
As mentioned earlier, heavy cavalry with lances were always supported by ranged combat units. They could be heavily armoured archers, like cataphracts or clibanarii with bows, advancing together with the charging cavalry. This bow-armed cavalry could loose their arrows as they advanced in the early stages of their charge with the intention of weakening and demoralizing the enemy formation prior to the moment of shock, possibly in shower shooting style. While the enemy was usually capable of countering with equal measures of ranged combat, the horse archers often wore protective equipment, so the changeover from light to heavy cavalry is not always clear and it seems in cases they formed the second charging rank. A similar tactic of heavy skirmishers developed in Late Medieval Europe, employing the easier to handle crossbow. Frontal assaults of heavy cavalry became considered ineffective against formations of spearmen or pikemen combined with crossbowmen or longbow archers. Most of the cavalrymen wore armour that could be penetrated by contemporary crossbows at close ranges. It resulted in the development of new cavalry tactics, whereby knights and mounted mercenaries, deployed in deep triangular wedges, with the most heavily armoured men (especially those able to afford armoured horses) being deployed in the front ranks. To increase its effect, part of the formation would carry small, powerful all-metal crossbows of their own. These mounted crossbowmen could sally out from the rear ranks to provide a skirmish screen or a preliminary barrage of bolts.
Later on, the tactical landscape featured
Modern historians regard the caracole as a tactical system that ultimately proved ineffective.[
Some historians associate the demise of the caracole with the name of
Infantry countertactics
Against light cavalry with bows and javelins
It was impossible for infantry to engage light cavalry with bows and javelins in close combat on ground that did not seriously hinder cavalry movement. The only resort for engagement were missile weapons in ranged combat. In this case both cavalry and infantry fought only in a missile exchange. While the infantry can be considered static in comparison to the cavalry, their own protection, the damage their missiles would cause and the hit rate were important.
For example, in the prelude to the Battle of Mohi, crossbowmen protected by pavises sniped at the Mongol light cavalry, resulting in a tactical defeat of this Mongol unit, although the Mongols did go on to win the overall battle.[16]
The defence of such ranged combat units was important, for cavalry could always switch roles and engage the ranged combat infantry (often lightly armored skirmishers) in close combat.
Against heavy cavalry with lances
The
The long spears (
New tactics of light cavalry and mounted infantry
With increasing firepower and no sufficient protection, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was slowly reduced. Light cavalry with firearms could return fire, but the aim from a moving platform was not as good as for infantry. So most important for cavalry was the ability to quickly attack enemy cavalry or scattered infantry with lances and sabres. Speed reduced the time vulnerable to gunfire, but still closed formations became impossible to defeat. This tactic was a striking surprise of Mongolian light cavalry in the battle of the Kalka River. The alternative was to use them as dragoons, reaching their positions quickly, dismounting, and fighting like infantry, often with projectile weapons. Such a way of fighting had started in Europe at least in the mid-13th century with mounted longbow and crossbow archers, but was also employed by the Mongols with their Buryatian longbows.
Cavalry in modern warfare
Cavalry is featured in modern warfare with cavalrymen retaining the light cavalry missions, albeit the missions of reconnaissance and security remain the same. Heavy cavalry, as such, has its role of shock effect fulfilled by tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.
Land cavalry
Since the early 20th century, the use of horses and other animals for frontline cavalry has been largely supplanted by infantry fighting vehicles and armored cars. The first regular cavalry unit to mechanize was the 11th Hussars of the British Army, switching from horses to armored cars in 1928. Since then, many cavalry units have mechanized and switched to armored vehicles and armed helicopters, with horses only being used for ceremonial purposes, if not phased out of service entirely. However, some modern units, such as the Indian Army's 61st Cavalry and some People's Liberation Army's border units in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, continue to use horses on deployments.
Examples of modern military vehicles built specifically for the cavalry role include the
Air cavalry
Air cavalry, originally sky cavalry[17] is a United States Army term that refers to helicopter-equipped units that perform reconnaissance, screening, security, and economy-of-force missions. The term and unit designation properly only refers to those squadrons (i.e., battalion-level organizations), and some independent troops (i.e., companies), affiliated with historical U.S. cavalry regiments, that perform the traditional cavalry mission. After the Vietnam War, there also existed one independent brigade-sized air cavalry organization, the 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade.[18]
U.S. air cavalry squadrons consisted of three air cavalry troops, one armored cavalry troop, and a headquarters and headquarters troop. The air cavalry troops consisted of an aero-scout platoon, an aero-weapons platoon, an aero-rifle platoon, a service platoon, and a headquarters and operations platoon. The troop was commanded by a major, with a captain as executive officer, and a troop first sergeant. Each platoon was commanded by a captain with a lieutenant as assistant platoon commander/section leader and a sergeant first class as platoon sergeant.[citation needed]
References
- ^ War Elephants in Ancient and Medieval China, Edward H. Schafer, Oriens, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1957)
- ^ Chau Ju-kua, Travels in Chola (F Hirth & W W Rockhill, St Petersburg, 1912)
- ^ John C. Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus (Harvard University Press, 1956)
- ^ JFC Fuller, The Generalship of Alexander the Great (Da Capo Press, 1989)
- ^ Flavius Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (Loeb Classical Library translation, 1912)
- ^ A Maharaj, Tent Pegging with Unicef Team Canada Archived 2007-02-06 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 30 January 2007)
- ^ "Saddle, Lance and Stirrup". Archived from the original on 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
- ^ Bloch, Marc (1989). Feudal Society, Vol. 1. tr. L. A. Manyon. London: Routledge. p. 41.
- ^ History of the Wars, Books I and II (of 8) by Procopius - Project Gutenberg
- ^ a b History of Iran: Parthian Army
- ^ Brzezinski, Richard and Velimir Vukšić, Polish Winged Hussar 1576–1775, (Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2006), 6.
- ^ Polish armies 1569–1696. Richard Brzeziński
- ^ Notitia Dignitatum
- ISBN 1-85728-495-X.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-06. Retrieved 2006-11-20.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Verbruggen 1997.
- ^ p.73 Banks, Herbert C. editor 1st Cavalry Division: A Spur Ride Through the 20th Century From Horses to the Digital Battlefield Turner January 1, 2003
- ^ 6th Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat) (21 February 1975 - 16 June 2005) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/6cav.htm. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- Verbruggen, J.F. (1997). The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The Boydel Press. ISBN 0-85115-570-7.
- Polybius World History
- German Wikipedia, partly translated article
- Cavalry Tactics during the Napoleonic Wars