My Spirit Fruit

M1983 Cavalry Lance

From FB:

“World War I era German soldier carrying the M1983 cavalry lance.

It’s hard to believe that any army was still carrying this archaic weapon in the era of modern firearms, but it took until WWI for the generals to ditch their romantic notions of knights in shining armor charging across the battlefield on their frothing stallions.

I’m reading a book about the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and the lance was used quite effectively in the beginning against the Boer guerrillas, particularly when the British had the Dutch farmers on the retreat across the open plains of the South African Veld. The wounds from the lances were so ghastly that the Boers could not understand how a civilized nation could still continue to use them.”