The horse and the war (1918) (14591024397)

Identifier: horsewar00galt (find matches)

Title: The horse and the war

Year: 1918 (1910s)

Authors: Galtrey, Sidney, 1878-1935

Subjects: Horses

Publisher: London : "Country life"

Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine

Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

Text Appearing Before Image:

can be no fair comparison between 1914 and 1918. For one thing,numbers have vastly increased ; so much so, indeed, that since the first ofour war-horses stepped ashore in France something like a total of three-quartersof a million animals must have passed through France. That is a stupendousfigure. Then, while the first hundred thousand had to be dumped any-where —literally anywhere—in the region of the long line of battle, othersthat followed have had the better conditions resulting from valiant effortsto improve stabling and shelters. Time and experience have come to therescue, just as one would have expected them to do. But a factor of whichtoo much cannot be made has been the very real concern of the Field-MarshalCommanding-in-Chief (Sir Douglas Haig). His influence has been great and has penetrated from the vast users ofanimals—the heavy and field artillery—to the smallest unit employing horsesor mules. He is known to be a sincere lover of the horse, and I am perfectly 76

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y8 THE HORSE AND THE WAR sure that the Quartermaster-General of the Forces (who is primarily responsiblefor the feeding of our war-horses), the Director of Remounts at the War Office(who is responsible for meeting the demands of the armies in France and allthe theatres of war), and the Director of the Veterinary Service in France willbear eloquent testimony to the incalculable good which is the outcome ofthe Chiefs personal interest. That is why I say there can be no fair comparison between then and now.I will go further and congratulate myself that I am writing in 1918, and nottwelve months earlier ; for one must have been depressed at that time bythe heavy wastage caused by the extraordinarily hard winter of 1916-17.First, there were weeks on end of rain, then weeks of rigorous cold and icywinds, and then rain again with the thaw. The greatest care could not over-come the evils that followed on those dreadful conditions. Flanders and theSomme country are appalling areas in such circ

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1918

Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine

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