The Horse in War

For some forty centuries the horse has played an important and faithful role for mankind in warfare, upto and including World War II. Julius Caesar's first attempt to land in Britain was a failure because the ships carrying his cavalry were blown off course and the Roman legions were helpless in the faceof the Britons' devastating chariot arm. This account begins with the evolution of the horse and surveys its employment in warfare from the times of Xenophon, Darius and Alexander through medieval and modern history up to World War II, when the Russians and Germans in particular, still used great numbers of horses, mostly but not only, for transport. It includes biographies os some celebrated horses such as Alexander's Bucephalus, Napoleon's Marengo and Wellington's Copenhagen, and veterans of World War I. He analyses schooling and veterinary care from the earliest days of the use of the horse in warfare, together with the development of horsemanship and saddlery. Lavishly illustrated and with a panoramic narrative, The Horse in War fills a gap in military history...