Country United Kingdom Branch British Army Size Corps | Allegiance British Crown Type Cavalry | |
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Active October 1914 – March 1916
September 1916 – 1919 | ||
The Cavalry Corps was a cavalry corps of the British Army in the First World War. The corps was formed in France in October 1914, under General Sir Edmund Allenby. It was later broken up in March 1916, but re-established in the following September. It served as part of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front throughout its existence.
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Formation
The Corps consisted of the three cavalry divisions serving in France, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd divisions.
The cavalry division consisted of cavalry regiments in brigades. They were armed with rifles, unlike their French and German counterparts, who were only armed with the shorter range carbine. The cavalry division also had a high allocation of artillery compared to foreign cavalry divisions, with 24 13-pounder guns organised into two brigades and two machine guns for each regiment. However, when dismounted, the cavalry division was the equivalent of two weakened infantry brigades with less artillery than the infantry division.