The Forgotten Campaign, The Last Cavalry Regiment, Palestine 1940–1942

William Crawford and Jonathan Hunt (SSAFA, £25)

THE lazy view of history has it that horsed cavalry was superseded by tanks and aircraft halfway through the First World War, but it continued to have an effective role on an all-arms battlefield for another generation. The last mounted action—involving the youngest-ever Grand Nationalwinning jockey, Capt Bruce Hobbs Mc—was not until July 1941 against the Vichy French in Syria by the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Dragoons Yeomanry (QOYDY), the last cavalry regiment in the British Army to hand in its horses.

William Crawford provides a first-hand report of the QOYDY’S deployment, literally from the hunting field to Palestine. It’s followed by a scholarly review from Jonathan Hunt of the Yeomanry’s sterling service, from Allenby’s brilliant campaign in the Middle East (1916–18), won primarily by horsed Yeomanry regiments (not, as is popularly supposed, by Lawrence of Arabia), through El Alamein in tanks, where, tragically, many were wiped out in the first echelon, to the end of the war. The extraordinary feats of horsemanship will be of interest to anyone with a love of horses and ex-servicemen of every generation will appreciate the timeless, often humorous, vignettes of campaigning, vividly brought to life by Rosemary Coates’s drawings. For every book sold, £10 will be credited to the reader’s local SSAFA (orders through South Yorkshire, julia.rouse@syorks.ssafa.org.uk). Jamie Blackett

One of the many vivid illustrations by Rosemary Coates