</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Ron Wood:
<strong>Thank you Mauro, always a pleasure to hear from you and learn something new. I was not aware that the early pilots were drawn from the Cavalry. I guess that with the advent of aircraft into warfare, the pilots had to come from somewhere, and I am sure those young daredevils were happy to swap a horse for an airplane!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Dear Ron:

Freiherr von Richtofen was a very fine Cavalry officer before he became the "Red Baron".

Sleeping in a warm bed and staying out of knee deep mud sounds like a pretty good alternative to me!!

Bob

Thank you Ron,
it is interesting to analyse the Cavalry evolution. As you know one of the Cavalry tasks was the observation. Using horses it was easier to go inside enemies fields in order to spy the enemy deployment. With the aircraft this task becomes more and more easier. For the Army Staff it makes sense to give the first aircrafts to the Cavalry. In the modern armies the Cavalry uses helicopters with the same purposes of the first aircraft in the WWI. It uses also light and fast tanks to break into enemy position, look and eventually fire.

Ciao

...And do not forget that those guys used to "thin air" up on horses would have been a natural to go up higher...just joking , of course... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Really interesting readings from you guys !

Regards,

Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />

Prior to WWI the Cavalry was the "elite" branch of the monolithic militaries if the time. They had the dash, the elan, the daring to charge forward in the face of overwelming odds to destroy the enemy by a gallant surprise attack on the flank or on the baggage train. Also this was the perfect military occupation for the upper class and their polo fixation. Thanks to Mr Maxim and barbed wire this proved no longer sane. The natural progression of the now obsolete dare devils who no longer had a glorious charge to make tended to gravitate toward the air corps. The next progression of this elite warrior class was the armored corps in WWII (Patton).