General Chat

oh I'm glad you found it Jean :)

Ed, I think you have hit the nail on the head! Omdurman sounds the one. I knew it was a familiar battle name, Shades of Corporal Jones, Dads Army!

It's a shame people's memories can't remember the exact details or people don't think to ask the relevant questions at the right time. Not a comment on you Jean :) I'm thinking of myself here.

Had another look on the web and apparently the only attempt in the Second Boer War at a "classic" cavalry charge with drawn sabres and lances was at Elandslaagte on 21st October 1899. This was conducted by the Dragoon Guards and the 10th Lancers.

I thought maybe there was some cavalry action during the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, but I couldn't find anything definitive.

Checked out the Zulu War of 1879 too, but it appears that the only battle where cavalry played a significant part was Ulundi, and the only regular cavalry regiment there was the 17th Lancers - the sword would be a secondary weapon to them.

You could always look at this website I found:

http://www.britishbattles.com/index.htm

It lists many of the battles fought by the British up to 1900. They say they are regularly adding new battles.

EDIT: Just had a thought, what about the Mahdist Wars? They lasted from 1881-1899. This would fit quite nicely with the time period. You've got about 15 battles in the wars, including Omdurman in 1898. This was a typical Colonial War as such, with British and colonial Indian forces allied with the Egyptian army against the Mahdist Sudanese. This would have seen a wide range of forces arrayed from your regular infantry, cavalry and artillery units, alongside the likes of the camel corps, Maxim guns, possibly the small mountain guns carried broken down on mules, as well as the Egyptian army - some of their cavalry would not look out of place on the European battlefields of the 16th Century! Arrayed against them would be the Mahdist forces, including Dervishes and the Hadendoa or "Fuzzy Wuzzies" as the popular culture of the day called them. Plenty of scope for swords to be used there. The cavalry would probably still be "traditional", i.e. armed with the sword as a primary weapon for close combat.

Yes my bet would be the Mahdist Wars.

Ed

Back again! He was talking pre- 1914. My Dad was in 1914 war, this man wasa generation older at least.

It looks as if I am looking at the 2nd Boer war, as he wasnt 90. I think we would have made more fuss of him if e had been 90!
The only other clue that is very vague, I thought he was referring to a European war.

I'm sure swords were used in WW1. I suppose it comes down to what the Pensioner meant by regular.

Say it was 1951 that Jean looked after the Pensioner and say he fought in WW1. Say he was 20 when war broke out, that would have made him 57.

Say he fought in the 2nd Boer war (1899-1902) and he was 20 when war broke out. that would have made him 72

Say it was the 1st Boer war (1880-81) and he was 20 when war broke out, that would have made him 91.

He may have been older or younger when war broke out but it gives an indication (if I've done my sums correctly-which I may not have done lol) that it could have been any of these wars he had been referring to.

Me Again


Eastern Front, World War II, (August 23, 1942): The last cavalry charge in Italian history is mounted against a Soviet artillery position along the River Don by 600 men of the Italian Savoia Cavalry regiment. This is often reported as "the last successful cavalry charge in history".[5


Battle of Mount Tumbledown (June 13–14, 1982): British infantry charge Argentine positions in the Falklands War. The last successful bayonet charge until 2004

Bataan Peninsula (January 16, 1942): US 26th Cavalry Regiment makes a mounted pistol charge against Japanese positions, the last mounted charge in battle by United States troops


DL

Hello All

Charge of the 7th Dragoons, November 11, 1918: British cavalry make an opportunistic charge on German infantry to capture Lessines and the Dender crossings in Belgium. The last cavalry charge of World War I, with the action completed as the clocks were striking 11 o'clock to mark the end of hostilities.[3][4]

The last British army's cavalry charge by a complete regiment was executed in Turkey during the 1920 Chanak crisis, when the 20th Hussars successfully charged a body of Turkish infantry.[7]

No mention of swords though

DL

My father who was born in 1910 in N.Z. remembered a man from the first world war who lived in his home town who lost an arm and a leg on the same side from a sabre cut. He could still ride a horse even with one arm and one leg and lived a long time afterwards..

Hi Jean, so how old was the Chelsea pensioner when you met him in the early 50s? That may give us some clue when he fought?

Remember he said it was the last battle in which swords were used as a REGULAR weapon which makes me think it was earlier than WW1 where they mostly used guns. But I could be wrong. I suppose it depends on how old the Pensioner was.

(not shouting by the way lol - just trying to emphasise regular)

I found the last British Army cavalry action was in WW2 when a British Officer in charge of 60 Sikh horsemen blundered across a force of Japanese soldiers and were repulsed after taking heavy losses. The British officer, Captain Sandeman, was killed with his sabre in his hand by all accounts, but whether the rank and file were still being issued with swords I don't know.

Ed

There it is then Ed, World War one it was.

Unless someone comes up with a candidate from WW2.

I found this on the web:

The last British Army cavalry charge was at the Battle of El Mughar, near Jerusalem, on 13 November 1917. The Buckinghamshire Hussars, supported by the Dorset and Berkshire Yeomanry Regiments, overran a Turkish position, taking several hundred prisoners.

The first Boer War, also known as the Transvaal Rebellion, lasted from 1880-81.

Swords were actually used during World War 1. In her excellent book of the first year of WW1, titled "1914", Lyn MacDonald describes the cavalry charge, with drawn sabres, of the British Cavalry against the Germans at the Battle of Mons in late August 1914. This author has written the most comprehensive accounts of WW1 that I have ever read. All her sources are soldiers, sailors, Airmen and nurses and medical staff who actually served. Other sources give the following facts:

Drummer Edward Thomas fired the first British rifle shot of the war and Captain Hornby killed the first German with his sword.

I have also read that cavalry charges took place, albeit very rarely up to the end of the war.

I am not sure whether it was the Boer war. Unfortunately I dont remeber his name, It was 58 yrs ago!. The Polish cavalry in the 2nd war, I should think someone on here would Know more about that.DID charge the German tanks

I don't suppose you remembered his name? (not asking you to reveal it if you do) However, you may be able to do some research & find out more about his life and the battle he fought in.

Wow Jean.

Was it the Boer war?

By the british army. As a very young nurse I looked after a Chelsea Pensioner on our ward at Millbank Military hospital. He was fond of telling us that he fought in the last war in which swords were used as a regular weapon during hand to hand fighting. I cant remember which battle he said it was, but it would have been around 1880-90. Makes me think how short a century is in real time because in the 2009th year I can say I have spoken to a man who served in the forces that long ago.