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Description
The U.S. Cavalry, which began in the nineteenth century as little more than a mounted reconnaissance and harrying force, underwent intense growing pains with the rapid technological developments of the twentieth century. From its tentative beginnings during World War I, the eventual conversion of the traditional horse cavalry to a mechanized branch is arguably one of the greatest military transformations in history. This book recounts the evolution and development of the U.S. Army's modern mechanized cavalry and the doctrine necessary to use it effectively. It also explores the debates over how best to use cavalry and how these discussions evolved during the first half of the century. During World War I, the first cavalry theorist proposed combining arms coordination with a mechanized force as an answer to the stalemate on the Western Front. The book brings the story through the next fifty years, when a new breed of cavalrymen became cold war warriors as the U.S. Constabulary was established as an occupation security-police force. Including analysis based on reviews of thousands of official records and manuals, military journals, personal papers, memoirs, and oral histories—many of which were only recently declassified—it presents a detailed study of the doctrine, equipment, structure, organization, tactics, and strategy of U.S. mechanized cavalry during the changing international dynamics of the first half of the twentieth century.
Publication Date
2006
Publisher
The University Press of Kentucky
Place of Publication
Lexington, KY
ISBN
978-0-8131-2403-2
eISBN
978-0-8131-7142-5 (pdf version)
eISBN
978-0-8131-3757-5 (epub version)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813124032.001.0001
Keywords
U.S. Cavalry, World War I, U.S. Constabulary, Strategy, Tactics, Equipment
Disciplines
Military History | United States History
Recommended Citation
Hofmann, George F., "Through Mobility We Conquer: The Mechanization of U.S. Cavalry" (2006). Military History. 50.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_military_history/50
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