Cavalry in WWI

almost all such stories are fabricated. many people think polish soldiers charged german armor on horseback as well.

Then what the hell did the lancers DO?

What about in theaters outside of Europe? Did cavalry actually do anything there?

pretty much immediately phased out

Cavalry was only really useful on the Eastern front and in the Middle East.

In Eastern Europe, cavalry was more useful because a static trench line never truly developed due to the massive distances involved; the front stretching from the Gulf of Riga down to the Black Sea. However, cavalry was still used more for reconnaissance (particularly important due to poor communications at the front) rather than flanking manoeuvres. As on the Western front, full-on cavalry charges usually resulted in massive casualties for the attackers due to, y'know, machine guns existing. German cavalry was occasionally successful in assaulting Russian forward positions due to their poorly-coordinated artillery and relative lack of machine guns early in the war.
I don't know much about lancers specifically, but I can tell you that Josip Broz Tito (yes, that Tito) was run down by two lancers in the Carpathians in 1915. He managed to unhorse and kill one with his bayonet but was eventually captured. (In case you were wondering, he fought for Austria-Hungary).
The nation arguably most effective with its cavalry in the Easter theatre was Bulgaria, due to the innovations of General Ivan Kolev (picture here), who was able to successfully coordinate his cavalry, infantry and artillery into hit-and-run attacks as well as larger offensives (especially in the Dobruja). Rather than using his cavalry for traditional charges, Kolev used them as highly mobile light infantry to devastating effect. Kolev was one of the true geniuses of the war, but his reputation was tarnished in Bulgaria when it became a Soviet satellite in the aftermath of WWII.

Contd. with info on the Middle Eastern theatre.

Only vaguely related but is there a reason why some (mostly German) WWI fighter pilots wore uhlan-style uniforms while others did not? Like in pic related.

In the Middle East (more specifically the Mesopotamian front), again horses (and camels) were more useful in the wide open spaces of the desert.

Side note: it is a common misconception that Mark IV tanks were effective for the same reasons; the sand fucked up their tracks and the heat was unbearable inside them, the former making them sitting ducks for Ottoman artillery and German-led stormtroops at the battles of Gaza. RNAS Armoured Cars were very useful though, Lawrence of Arabia said they were "more valuable than rubies". They were not especially fast by today's standards but were far less likely to break down and handled the rough terrain better.

For more on camels in the war, see the Imperial Camel Corps. This was a corps comprised of Indian and Australian troops created in 1916 and disbanded almost immediately when the war ended. The advantages of using camels for desert warfare are obvious. They are extremely durable, can carry more and go far longer without food or water than horses (especially the English thoroughbreds initially used before Australian-bred horses began to be imported en masse). Camel-cavalry (camelry?) were more like highly mobile and durable light infantry with the added bonus of a camel being able to carry a machine gun or its ammunition, something a horse would struggle with (especially in the desert). Attacks by troops while on camel-back were rare but did happen (usually if caught in an ambush)

As for a specific cavalry battle on this front, check out the Battle of Beersheba in 1917, where the Australian Light Horse successfully charged a fortified Ottoman position on horseback using their bayonets as improvised sabres.
Besides this, Lawrence of Arabia's Arab warriors were very effective in using their native-bred horses to outmanoeuvre and perform hit-and-run attacks in Ottoman outposts and supply lines. These men would have used rifles and perhaps pistols, but lances or sabres as we know them would have been rare.

Hope that answered your questions OP.
I know you were more curious about lancers but there's not much to be said that hasn't already been said ITT. They were phased out pretty quickly, but the Russian cossacks did use lances against Austrian stragglers as late as 1915 and the British actually kept a few in reserve for the Final Breakthrough(tm) at Cambrai in 1917. But they didn't do much else apart from pose for ebin pictures

Am curious about this now. The Red Baron wore an Uhlan uniform. Uhlan uniforms are way cooler than the standard uniforms the German Empire pilots had too.

Autistic roleplaying as knights of the sky

Richthofen was a cavalryman before a pilot.

Not OP but thanks for the neat info

Eastern front saw wide deployment of lancers by the Russians

So were many of the early German pilots, it makes sense that the tradition caught on in a new branch of the military

Not entirely true. Cavalry was used tactially on the Western Front to some good use, even during periods of static warfare. Whilst they weren't generally used in brigade or division strength squadrons of cavalry still managed to make some fairly successful attacks when the opportunity arose.
There's been some really good work done lately on their use in the West that starts to break down the myths surrounding them.

dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/3032/1/D%20Kenyon%20Thesis%20corrected.pdf

Stephen Badsey's Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry, 1880–1918 is also well worth a look.

because he was of noble blood... the tradition was that those of noble blood buy their own horses, which later became by their own planes

honestly, sometimes I think the Nazis should have utilized chariots on the Russian Pontic steppe given the number of horses they used.

I keep thinking about how they could simulate technicals.

Look up Tachankas. You are welcome :^)

chariots =/= wagons, thanks.

>use of tachankas reached its peak during the Russian Civil War (1917–1920s), particularly in the peasant regions of Southern Russia and Ukraine, where the fronts were fluid and mobile warfare gained much significance

>Nestor Makhno pioneered the use of the tachanka en masse. Makhno's forces relied so heavily upon the use of the tachanka that one Makhnovite referred to himself and his fellow troops as "a republic on tachanki".[8]

>it was adopted by a number of armies, notably the Polish Army which used it during the Polish-Soviet War. Initially mostly improvised, with time the Polish Army also adopted two models of factory-made taczankas, as they were called in Poland. They were used during the Invasion of Poland of 1939 to provide cavalry squadron support. They were attached to every cavalry HMG squadron and HMG company of infantry.

are you seriously telling me the Nazis didn't have enough horses to do this? wtf like they called themselves Aryans and shit.

Friend, I was merely refering to the fact that horse technicals existed at some point in time, don´t get all edgy about it.

>are you seriously telling me the Nazis didn't have enough horses to do this? wtf like they called themselves Aryans and shit.

We all know nazi weaonry tended to the autistic, but not even them would have dared to use such an obsolete concept.

>obsolete
what, like having a fuck ton of horses carting supplies and equipment instead of trucks?

What made the Polish think it was legit?

>what, like having a fuck ton of horses carting supplies and equipment instead of trucks?
As I mentioned: they where quite autistic

>What made the Polish think it was legit?
I Guess it was a cheap and simpe, quick and dirty fix. Higly mobile and reliable motor vehicles to which a machine gun could be strapped on where not yet availabe, especially in a country that just got it´s industry destroyed in WWI

They where also used in the Mexican Revolutionary wars by the way, and please stop bitchin, I just ment to provide you with an fun fact for our mutual enjoyment. You are sort of ruining the fun for both of us.

The term dragoon came to represent something else entirely in early 18th century onwards. Originally they were medium cavalry equipped with various weapons and firearms but by early 18th century they basically became heavy cavalry equipped mainly with swords.

>heavy cavalry
They were medium/light and fell between the lighter Hussars and heavy Cuirassiers.

Depends where you mean. English for example completely declassified and phased out Cuirassiers and only have dragoons. Similarly Austria-Hungary had dragoons as their heavy cavalry. French still used Cuirassiers as heavy cavalry.

>Kolev used them as highly mobile light infantry to devastating effec
that what my armchair general self have always thought would hav ebeen effective in wwi or in some cases in wwii even.
Youve got mobile infantry less dependent on fuel logistics. also bicycle infantry!!!

>Then what the hell did the lancers DO?
Sit in a trench like everyone else, was pretty funny really

The first British officer to kill a German in WW1 did so with his sabre. He ordered his squadron of the 4th dragoon guards to charge some German lancers north east of Mons. The ensuing battle was fought mostly mounted, with swords and lances, although as it continued I think both sides dismounted and used their rifles before the Germans were driven off.

There's another instance of the British 9th lancers driving off a German attack around Elouges with a cavalry charge, but then being beaten back themselves by rifle and artillery fire. Off the top of my head I think there was another charge where British cavalry attempted to overrun German machine gun and infantry positions but failed as you might expect, partly due to them being held up for a time by a metal fence. At the Battle of the Marne, too, the 9th lancers and the Prussian Dragoons of the Guard charged one another at a full gallop at Moncel.

In the first months of the war, small, localised cavalry charges did occur, but they were often short lived and the cavalry either retreated or began to fight dismounted following the initial melee

If you're so smart why do you choose to subject yourself to the mental retardation that is this board

seems to me like something quick and cheap might have been what they needed. Hell, just imagine what the SS would have been able to do with them.

...

>Similarly Austria-Hungary had dragoons as their heavy cavalry.
I'm fairly certain using dragoons as heavy cavalry is mostly a British thing. Most continental armies still fielded cuirassiers as heavy cavalry.

He was in the 1st Ulan Regiment at the start of the war before transferring to aviation.

There as an incident early in the war in which a French Dragoon squadron commanded by a Lt. Gaston de Gironde charged a German aerodrome and destroyed all 8 of its aircraft.
On the Western Front, the cavalry's traditional role became far more limited as trench warfare set in.