Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0116Description
Black and white stereograph. Image is of a herd of horses swimming across a river, a group of men are on the opposite side with a pull boat. Above the image "W19 (Star)" is printed, below the image "18744 French Cavalry Horses Swimming River in Northern France" is pritned, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
18744
FRENCH CAVALRY HORSES SWIMMING RIVER
To save time a detachment of men is sent across the river on the ferry drawn up near the opposite bank, while the horses are made to swim. This river, like so many in France, is narrow, but deep in the middle - thoe hroses naearest us already have their feet on the bottom. The Meuse, the Marne, the Aisne, the Oise and the Somme are the principal rivers of northern France. None are great streams, like our Hudson or Mississippi. In America they would, for most of the length, be called creeks. All are narrow and deep. During the World War great battles were fought along the banks of all of them. All will be famous in history. Without a doubt French cavalry and German Uhlans have swum their horses across them time and again.
During four years of trench warfare, beginning when the Germans dug themselves in on the north bank of the Aisne after their disastrous defeat on the Marne, and continuing until the battle of Soissons, July, 1918, there was little that cavalry could do. They could be used neither for attack nor reconnoissance - modern artillery and the trenches extending across the whole width of France prevented either. In July and August, 1914, both armies used cavalry to "feel out" the enemy to disover where his line was strong and where weak. Thereafter, for four years, this service was performed by airplanes and observantion ballons. But when, with sledgehammer blows, Marshal Foch in the last four months of the war broke the Germans loose from their trenches and brought the war into the open, cavalry came inot its own again, harassing the retreating foe, preventing the concentration of gufitives, captureing whole companies at a time.
Copyright by Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection