Cavalrymen resting in a shell hole on the Arras-Cambrai Road during the Battle of the Scarpe, April 1917

Photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1917.

It was hoped that once the enemy's front-line had been broken by artillery and infantry assault the cavalry would exploit the breach using their superior speed to reach the enemy's rear positions and destroy supply and communications lines. The static nature of much of the fighting on the Western Front meant that this did not occur and many cavalry soldiers ended up serving as infantrymen.

From an album of 76 official photographs.