All The Queen’s horses, of course, and in 2013 there were still 501 of them in the British army. More than there are tanks, only 227.
The last cavalry charge is usually thought to have taken place in the Soviet Union in August 1942 when 600 Italian cavalry charged 2,000 Soviet soldiers armed with machine guns and mortars. The previous year in Eritrea an Italian officer, Amedeo Guillet, led a charge by Eritrean horsemen against British army units. Amedeo was a remarkable man, ending the war fighting alongside the British and after the war entering the Italian diplomatic service. He eventually retired to Ireland living in Co. Meath for the hunting and, incidentally, giving my sister lessons in dressage. His biography, Amedeo, by Sebastian O’Kelly is well worth reading.
Isn’t it encouraging to know that the British army could still mount a cavalry charge if its supply of tanks proves inadequate to match the 22,000 tanks in the Russian army? Only let’s hope history does not repeat itself if we decide to honour our treaty obligation and re-take the Crimea.