British cavalry armed with both lances and rifles pass through an unidentified ruined village. Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. A soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman or trooper. In August 1914 all combatant armies still retained substantial numbers of cavalry and the mobile nature of the opening battles on both Eastern and Western Fronts provided a number of instances of traditional cavalry actions, though on a smaller and more scattered scale than those of previous wars. Once the front lines stabilized on the Western Front, a combination of barbed wire, machine guns and rapid fire rifles proved deadly to horse mounted troops. In 1914, lances were still being carried by regiments in the British, Indian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, Belgian and Russian armies. Seventeen Cavalry Reserve Regiments were formed by the British Army on the outbreak of the Great War in August, 1914. Many ended up being converted into infantry in order to satisfy the manpower demands of trench warfare.
