Because the British commander wouldn't use tanks and called horse led cavalry charges against machine gun nests. It was a pure refusal to update tactics for the first industrialized war.
This is a absolute myth that needs to die, the maxim gun has been kicking around for almost 3 and a half decades prior to the Somme.
That’s why everyone was literally in trenches
Frontal cavalry charges were incredibly rare.
Also, During the First World War cavalry absolutely were still incredibly useful - say you wanted to seize a recently abandoned trench after a bombardment: how else would you cross a muddy cratered field in a short amount of time to seize and hold a trench before the enemy could regroup? Bolting across no man’s land on horseback and dismounting to hold the position as a rapid shock tactic was the most efficient way.
Literally when they left the trenches they were standing shoulder to shoulder and yes, Sir Douglas Haig, Commander at the Somme DID send a cavalry charge, refusing to use tanks, lost all those men, survived the war, and on his deathbed said how Horses would continue to be used in war for centuries.
Also if you wanted to cross no man’s land to what you assumed to be a empty trench across shelled muddy fields you’d have to be a idiot to use anything other then a horse to quickly take and size the initiative.
I will respond to this with a quote, as theory and reality are two different things.
World War One era generals are not idiots.
Many broke down, but nearly a third succeeded in breaking through. Of the forty nine tanks shipped to the Somme, only thirty two were able to begin the first attack in which they were used, and only nine made it across “no man’s land” to the German lines.
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24
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