Polish Uhlans

[gebhk]

Top be a bit controversial while clearly effective this was not because Polish cavalrymen were supermen or because their initial human material was necessarily better, but they did have a number of substantial advantages when compared with their counterparts in the infantry or even more so the artillery. Firstly if you look at the officer to man ratio which was about 3 times higher in the cavalry than the infantry - in effect when dismounted the equivalent of an infantry section was led by an officer. Looking at it another way, a cavalry platoon leader led 17 men while his infantry colleague led 60 - an unmanageable number. Secondly, when you look at supporting crewed weapons - MMGs, anti-tank rifles etc, the allocation per capita of cavalryman tended to be more generous than in the infantry. Thirdly, training for cavalrymen was substantially longer than for other branches. Fourthly, being a much smaller 'family' the cavalry branch esprit the corps almost had to be greater. Finally and fifthly, the generous allocation of grooms (1 in 3 riders or more) who as a rule did not take part in the fighting, allowed a great deal of mobility to the mounts while their riders were dismounted for action. Thus when a cavalry unit was defeated it nearly always managed to remount, withdraw and fight another day. Their infantry colleagues when defeated were usually overrun and taken prisoner.

However all these advantages came, as I am sure you can imagine, with a very high price tag (both in peacetime and war - during wartime operations well over 1/3 of the manpower was non-combatant but still had to be fed and mounted). Thus the debate on whether the money and resources expended on the cavalry could have been more usefully employed elsewhere, such as motorisation has some merit.

[Ibor]

..... hahahaha ...... it can be seen around the world this stereotype lingers continue walking with Polish cavalry saber on German tanks ..... hahahah
To be precise ...... this myth was introduced by the Italian war correspondent Indro Montan, adjusted by the Germans at the carnage It was launched September 2, 1939 year.
TOTAL Wrong!