Military Use Of Horses Analysis
The Past and Present Society
Britain's Military Use of Horses 1914-1918 Author(s): John Singleton Source: Past & Present, No. 139 (May, 1993), pp. 178-203 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/651094 Accessed: 28/07/2009 08:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. …show more content…
Since such huge numbers of horses and mules were required, the British operated through firms of dealers. Animals were collected together at large inland depots before being sent by train to convenient ports such as New Orleansfor embarkation.On this occasion, there appearto have been no allegationsthat British officershad dealt corruptly. When the Americansentered the war in 1917 a joint committee was set up with the British to co-operate in the purchasingand shipping of animals. Between 1914 and 1918 a cargo of between 500 and 1,000 animalsleft for Europeevery one-and-a-halfdays, and the Britishspent a total of £36.5 million on animalpurchasing and administrationin North America.34However, the United States had a stock of approximately21 million farm horses and could easily absorbthese large Britishpurchases.Moreoveragricultural horses were facing growing competition from tractors. The Great War had no appreciable effect on American horse prices, which fell slightly between 1914 and 1918.35 Shipping these animalscould be a dangerousand costly business. A handfulof horse transports were attackedby the Germans. On the Atlanticrun 6,600 horses and mules were sunk and sixtythree killed by enemy shell-fire in the course of the war. But the overallrate of loss in transitwas less than it had been in the Boer War, largely as a result of the use of ships which had been specially converted for carrying animals, and better veterinary and feeding arrangements.The main problem was one of space in this period of acute shipping shortage. Horses and mules needed to stretch their legs and, if conditionswere too cramped, as they had been on many of the vessels taking horses to South Africa, they were liable to injure themselves. Officials of the American ExpeditionaryForce calculated that animals took up almost seven times as much
Britain's Military Use of Horses 1914-1918 Author(s): John Singleton Source: Past & Present, No. 139 (May, 1993), pp. 178-203 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/651094 Accessed: 28/07/2009 08:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. …show more content…
Since such huge numbers of horses and mules were required, the British operated through firms of dealers. Animals were collected together at large inland depots before being sent by train to convenient ports such as New Orleansfor embarkation.On this occasion, there appearto have been no allegationsthat British officershad dealt corruptly. When the Americansentered the war in 1917 a joint committee was set up with the British to co-operate in the purchasingand shipping of animals. Between 1914 and 1918 a cargo of between 500 and 1,000 animalsleft for Europeevery one-and-a-halfdays, and the Britishspent a total of £36.5 million on animalpurchasing and administrationin North America.34However, the United States had a stock of approximately21 million farm horses and could easily absorbthese large Britishpurchases.Moreoveragricultural horses were facing growing competition from tractors. The Great War had no appreciable effect on American horse prices, which fell slightly between 1914 and 1918.35 Shipping these animalscould be a dangerousand costly business. A handfulof horse transports were attackedby the Germans. On the Atlanticrun 6,600 horses and mules were sunk and sixtythree killed by enemy shell-fire in the course of the war. But the overallrate of loss in transitwas less than it had been in the Boer War, largely as a result of the use of ships which had been specially converted for carrying animals, and better veterinary and feeding arrangements.The main problem was one of space in this period of acute shipping shortage. Horses and mules needed to stretch their legs and, if conditionswere too cramped, as they had been on many of the vessels taking horses to South Africa, they were liable to injure themselves. Officials of the American ExpeditionaryForce calculated that animals took up almost seven times as much