Charging machine guns with horses
Reading medal citations over the years, it has in the past struck me that some of the greatest bravery has arisen out of some of the most abysmal tactical and strategic blunders.
I wish I had more time to revisit some of our country's fading military history on this blog. Many thanks to Kate for the pointer to this one.
The worst slaughter was to the east. Moreuil Wood was triangular, a mile long on each side. Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew took his 75-strong squadron of Strathcona's Horse round the northern tip, only to gallop up out of a hollow and be confronted by two rows of machine guns. The Germans had rumours of a tank attack coming down from Villers-Bretonneux. Horses did not have a chance. "Sir," sobbed Sgt Watson when he finally crawled back with the news. "Sir, the boys is all gone."
Warrior and Seely were now in the wood and what they were seeing was war at its most bayonet-thrusting horrible. In the thick of it was Fred Harvey, a 6ft 2in rancher from Fort Macleod, Alberta, who had made his debut for Ireland 11 years earlier as a fly-half on the wrong end of a 29-0 thrashing by Wales at the Arms Park. In March 1917, he had won the VC for single-handedly charging a machine gun. He never wrote about it, but at a regimental dinner in Calgary many years later confided: "I don't know about 1917, but I think I did a VC's worth at Moreuil."
***
Though Moreuil Wood had been taken and the German advance had been checked, a quarter of the men and half of the horses had been lost.
I wish I had more time to revisit some of our country's fading military history on this blog. Many thanks to Kate for the pointer to this one.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 10:29 a.m.
2 Comments:
I've read Mr Scott's bio of Brig Seely, and unfortunately his story of the period 21-30 Mar is of greater interest, and accuracy, than the Telegraph account of the Battle. I'll send you a better "Battle of Moreuil Wood".
Cheers
That's an incredible story.
I'd previously thought that the 1896 British Army cavalry charge at Omdurman in the Sudan (one participant was young Lieutenant Winston Churchill) was the last great cavalry charge in battle.
(That war was against the forces of The Mahdi, that generation's Islamist terrorist orgaqnization/army, sort of the 19th century Taliban, but in the Sudan. Pretty nasty fellows. Plus ça change...)
I'd commented at SDA about this and I'll repeat that I think this piece of real history would make a helluva movie. True history can sometimes, like this story, be far more dramatic and compelling than any fiction.
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