Equine Warriors
By now, most readers of historical fiction are aware of and have probably read the 1982 best-selling novel, War Horse, and/or seen the critically acclaimed 2011 film, or attended a theater performance of the play employing amazing puppetry. The story is an emotional journey for both the main characters and readers/viewers. From our 21st century perspective, it may be hard to envision horses being important in waging war, but for the soldiers mired in mud at the front and in the trenches of WWI, moving men and supplies often required horse power of the non-motorized kind. Even today, horses still go where mechanized vehicles cannot. I am reminded of this every time Texas Equusearch Search and Recovery is in the news. If horses are still used in times of crisis when terrain is difficult, how much more important must they have been in WWI?
It is interesting to note that horses were still part of some nations’ cavalry units as late as WWII. On the first day of war in September 1939, a Polish cavalry unit charged German infantry on horseback during the Nazi invasion. Polish cavalry provided courageous support to other military units until Poland fell. Germany and Russia are reported to have used horses throughout the war. As a horse lover who once bred Quarter Horses, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for owners to relinquish their animals to the military, but at the beginning of WWI, that is exactly what they did.
When Britain declared war on Germany and her allies, there were approximately 25,000 horses in military service, soon to prove far short of what was needed to wage a war the magnitude of WWI. The War Office sent out an urgent request for at least 500,000 additional animals to fill in the equine ranks. Motorized transport was still in its infancy in 1914. While mechanized vehicles had been in use since the beginning of the century, they were not the terrain conquering, go-almost-anywhere, cannon firing machines we have today. Horses were still required to pull heavy guns, to transport weapons and supplies, to carry the wounded and dying to hospital and to mount cavalry charges.[1]
Sabers had rattled across Europe for decades before war actually became reality. The British military and diplomatic corps believed a fight was coming and made efforts to be prepared. Part of the preparedness was a census of the nation’s equine population. Government officials spread out across Great Britain and Ireland recording the location of every horse, its physical type, probable use by the military, and the nearest rail depot. Unless an owner could prove his/her animal was critical to transport and agricultural production, the animal was subject to being requisitioned. Beloved pets, well-bred hunters, expensive racing thoroughbreds, cart ponies, draft horses, basically any animal with four healthy legs that could pull or carry went into the census.
When war was declared, 120,000 British animals were called up for active duty. The government paid the owners for their animals, but the sales were not voluntary. It was believed the conflict would be a short one and this number would be sufficient. That figure and that assessment were tragically and astoundingly inaccurate. It is estimated that across all warring nations, 16 million animals served between 1914-1918. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) estimates that by war’s end approximately 500,000 British animals had died in service. They died from wounds, infection, and profound exhaustion. The scene in War Horse where an exhausted horse drops dead in his traces is neither hyperbole nor dramatic effect. It was heartbreaking reality.
With war underway, the collection of animals began in earnest in the fall of 1914. The Remount Department was charged with securing animals and its officials, often veterinarians, carried all of the equipment they needed with them. This included a checkbook, numerous official forms and labels, as well as a branding iron.
Fearing for their beloved family ponies, citizens wrote urging the War Office to spare the smallest of their stock. In response, criteria were established for height and size. A horse’s height is measured from the withers to the ground in a unit called a hand or 4 inches in width. It was decided no horses under 15 hands would be requisitioned for military use.
Once an animal had been procured, the process of getting it ready for war began. In Britain, this meant gathering the horses for shipment to France where they would be trained for the purpose for which they were bought and finally sent to the front. With the war extending far longer than predicted, the Remount Department looked abroad, primarily to the US, Canada, and Argentina, to fill the ever-growing need for horse power. Hundreds of thousands made the trip across the Atlantic before war’s end. The horses and mules arrived 600 to 800 animals per transport. Whether foreign bred or domestic, all of the animals faced the same conditions.
The animals at the front suffered the conditions of war without adequate shelter or food. They were usually picketed in open fields with all of the inherent dangers and misery that brings. Lieut-Colonel David Sobey Tamblyn, a veterinary surgeon with the Third Canadian Division, described the dire conditions in his book The Horse in War published in 1923. “Nothing more distressing could be witnessed than a concentration of transport animals, during wet seasons, in fields where the mud was over their knees and hocks…Horses were wet and cold for months at a time, grooming was out of the question, and where overhead hay-net lines were not brought into use, the hay was trampled into the mud. Under these conditions debilitated horses, which were propped up by the mud, died on their feet.”[2] The requirement that horses’ coats be clipped to fight lice and mange meant they had little protection from the elements, leading to death from exposure. Some horses died of starvation because feed was scarce. Tamblyn reported seeing starving horses trying to eat their blankets and hey nets to fill their bellies.
Tamblyn goes on to describe the mud that made movement so impossible. “The terrain over which [the horses] travelled [sic] can only be described as a quagmire…Horses became mired to such an extent that it was a case of being humane to destroy them, for it was impossible to extricate any horse without riding three or more.” [3] The horses at the front suffered the same dangers as the men: getting tangled in and/or injured by barbed wire, chemical gas exposure, gunfire, and artillery shelling. Life at the front was often short and brutal for man and beast alike.
As most people who have loved and cared for a horse know, one can become deeply attached to those beautiful, strong, personable beasts. Many of the grooms, caretakers, veterinarians, and soldiers who worked with and rode them were no different. Some battle-hardened men accustomed to losing friends were unfazed by the loss of a horse, but many would have been best represented by the painting shown below entitled “Goodbye Old Man” by Fortunio Matania. A young soldier is bidding farewell to his dying mount, his anguish clearly visible.
Through the mud, the hunger, the exposure to the elements, the terror, and the danger, the horses and mules of WWI served their masters with courage and faithfulness. Of those that survived the war, about 61,000 were sold for slaughter because they were deemed unfit for any other purpose. Approximately 500,000 were sold for work in Britain and in other nations. Due to public pressure, the British War Office promised that unwanted horses would be destroyed rather than sold to cruel owners. A small number that made it home to Britain to their original owners were greeted with joy and relief that a valued companion had returned from war.
Gallery
Notes and Sources
- https://www.history.co.uk/article/history-of-horses-during-wwi
- https://www.horsejournals.com/popular/history-heritage/real-war-horses-faithful-unto-death
- https://www.horsejournals.com/popular/history-heritage/real-war-horses-faithful-unto-death
https://www.thebrooke.org/get-involved/every-horse-remembered/war-horse-facts
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/horse-power-first-world-war
https://www.horsejournals.com/popular/history-heritage/real-war-horses-faithful-unto-death
https://www.army-technology.com/contractors/armoured/gm/pressreleases/history-of-armoured-vehicles/
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Fantastic newsletter. Made me cry. I’ve owned many horses & still have one th
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Thank you! I admit I cried as I wrote certain paragraphs and loaded some of the pictures for the post. The animals used in war zones are faithful unto death. It is heartbreaking.
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Equally fascinating and horrifying – a most informative read
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Thank you, Vicki!
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