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Show CAVALRY IT USED OH WESTERN FRONT French Troopers Take Their Turn in Doing Duty in the Trenches. ! NO FLANKS TO TURN Continuous Battle Line and Broken Ground Bar Use of Horses. i I'RKXClf KKOXT, Df. 0. Just fif- . tei'ii mouths Imve passed since .French cavalry Ima appeared on tho battlefields of the FnuuoUii man front as a mounted fon-e. Tho last occasion of their employment in their real work was September 2o, 1913, when a single squadron of hussars crossed the German Ger-man lines in Champagne and brought back some prisoners. The, French general staff, however, has not permitted tho splendid horsed reuiments (composed of cuirassiers, dni".jons, hussars and mounted rifles) to remain idle. They take their turn with tho infantry regiments iu the treuches, where they do exactly tho same arduous dutv as the foot soldiers for a period and then return far behind tho front to exercise with their mounts. Earlier in the war, when 'fighting was severe on the Yser, the French cavalry caval-ry eamo into touch with the Germans on several occasions anrl generally with buccoss. Treuch warfare along the continuous con-tinuous line reaching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, with no flanks to turn, has rendered their employment on horseback impossible. Report Is Erroneous. Kxtnu'ts from German newspapers , describing the battlo around Sailly- Saillisel on November 5 and 6 this year declare large bodies of French cavalry and field artillery were massed immediately imme-diately behind the front Hue in the ex-s ex-s pectatinn that the German positions were alout. to be pierced and that they " could then dash through the breach. The Associated Press correspondent was present diu.iig the whole or the fighting fight-ing on those days, and the only mounted mount-ed men seen anywhere near the field wero military policemen directing direct-ing the supply columns and drivers of the horsed transport wagons. Even the German prisoners who surrendered sur-rendered as a result of the attacks on Saillisel and tho Saint Pierre Vaast wood wero placed uuder the guard of infantrymen, for the ground in the vicinity vi-cinity is so much broken up that horses could not march over it. In Good Condition. Tho correspondent later had an opportunity op-portunity of seeing the cantonments of some French cavalry two days' march from tho battlefield. Tho chargers were in excellent condition and the veterinary vet-erinary surgeons themselves expressod surprise at the small percentage of sickness sick-ness among them since the beginning of the campaign. This is the result ot the constant caro giveu them by the detachment of men left behind when the remainder of the regiment goes into in-to the trenches. One squadron of each unit is detailed for duty in the cantonment canton-ment while their comrades are engaged in tho fighting zone. F.ven the officers leave their mounts behind. This system of utilizing the cavalry has been employed for over a year and it is unlikely that any change will occur oc-cur unless a" forward 'move on a grand scale should he anticipated. |