Better than horses?

[Coldshooter]

In these pre WWI photos I wonder if everyone was convinced these were better than horses. Less mobility more noise can't eat it in bad times.

 

[Roadtrash]

Couldn't mount a machine gun on a horse's back.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Caption to the 2nd Picture.......

"Sergeant..ah............ where's MY armor?"

 

[chaparrito]

Look like a couple of mules in the background on that first pic.

 

[shaggist]

This 'new' cavalry was a big change.

No more stall mucking out, no more brush and curry combing, no more water bucket, no more feed bag, no more horse shoeing, no more saber charges, no more massed formations, no more getting kicked or bitten, no more flies and poop.

All new smells and actions-leaking oil and water, backfiring, flat tires, won't start, frozen and cracked engine blocks, broken axles, stuck in the mud, no affectionate names. Calling a flivver 'Dobbin' just didn't sound right. They didn't whinny or eat apples and carrots.

The ro-mance was gone and the mainte-nance replaced it. Not an even trade.

 

[wogentry]

The horses probably reckoned it was a good deal. No more heavy loads....heck mine are happy as all get out when they see me on my bicycle...they prefer to see me pedaling instead of on their backs.

 

[wbraswell]

That Model T was the equivalent of a Jeep back in those days. If you got enough head start it would drive through almost anything.

 

[eyegots2no]

Is that a brewick?

 

[Chuck24]

Gotta start somewhere

 

[Cyrano]

Nice Benèt-Mercie machine rifle on that motorcycle.

 

[eveled]

That Model T was the equivalent of a Jeep back in those days. If you got enough head start it would drive through almost anything.

I've heard they tied heavy rope through the spokes on the wheels for traction, and actually could put the jeeps to shame.

 

[eliduc]

My granddad chased Pancho Villa around Mexico which was a military exercise in preparation for WWI. Both horses and mechanized vehicles were used. There were dead horses all over the place because the mechanized supply vehicles carrying the feed couldn't keep up. The whole thing was pretty much a fiasco. I think Granddad who must have been an adventurer had a good time until WWI. That was a different story. Even today horses are used on a limited basis. When I was in farriers school one student had been sent there by the Army Special Forces. He never talked much.

 

[cowart]

My granddad chased Pancho Villa around Mexico which was a military exercise in preparation for WWI.

George Patton participated in the first motorized attack in the history of American warfare on May 14, 1916, in which Villa's second-in-command and two of his guards were killed. Patton garnered headlines by ordering the three corpses strapped like trophy animals to the hoods of his unit's automobiles before driving back to base.