War Horse.

This is coolbert:

The current movie "War Horse" as directed by Steven Spielberg is getting very high marks, good ratings, reviewed as a must see!

I have not seen this film yet but plan to. YOU TOO!

"War Horse is a 2011 war epic motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. It is based on . . .  War Horse, a children's novel set before and during World War I, by British author Michael Morpurgo"
. . .

"The film is currently in contention for six Academy Awards and five BAFTAs. It was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards."

The horse at war during modern times. An epic [?] film taking place during the period of the Great War [WW1], at the time horses still an integral part of the military. Used as cavalry and as prime movers for artillery.

Horses it is reputed during WW1 the number of which dying from all causes at least in as great numbers as the number of human battlefield dead, about 10 million in either case!! Losses of a catastrophic nature human and equine both!! Exact figures not of course available, estimates that are "ballpark" as they say, probably pretty accurate, that wiki entry "Horses in World War I" INDEED making for very painful and sorrowful reading!!

"The use of horses in World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force, but over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern machine gun and artillery fire reduced their utility on the battlefield"

That war of movement as originally envisioned and planned for by the general staff officers of the various combatants during WW1 only occurring during the earliest stages of the war ["The Guns of August"] and during the very latter days of the war in the Middle East. ACCORDING TO DUPUY THAT AUSTRALIAN HORSE TROOP IN 1918 ADVANCING AT THE HIGHEST RATE OF ANY MILITARY FORCE IN MODERN TIME FOR WHICH THERE IS RECORD!

Horse deaths on the battlefield occurring primarily from artillery fire and overwork!! Horse basically driven to exhaustion and collapsing in their tracks dead and abandoned. Disease also taking a heavy toll, in some cases accusations of biological warfare being leveled against the Central Powers.

Comments:

* Even without a war of movement during WW1 as so desired by the senior commanders, cavalry units at divisional strength were maintained at the ready in case of a breakthrough in the traditional manner! Divisions in such numbers, the amount of acreage and cropland set aside in England for the growing of fodder for horses that the British population had to endure food rationing and malnutrition!

* That Australian horse troop in 1918 when finally on the offensive using Mus Mus pass as a means of bypassing Turkish positions as did the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose when waging his own war thirty-five-hundred [3,500] years earlier!!

* In the aftermath of the Great War, cavalry still used extensively and most successfully so by both sides during the Russian Civil War!

* The British Admiral Parry having predicted that if and when the world order as we know it begins to break down starting this year CERTAIN SPECIFIC PARTIES MAY RESUME THE USE OF CAVALRY AS A MEANS OF WAGING WAR! That remains to be seen!

coolbert.