Fighting Vichy from Horseback: British Mounted Cavalry in Action, Syria 1941

This book starts with the story of a division that was never intended to fight; the British I Cavalry Division in World War Two. It was composed almost exclusively of yeomanry horsemen from Britain's Territorial Army - a force that had been ignored by Whitehall's military reforms since 1920. One of their only upgrades in the 20th century had been the upgrade from leather saber grips to rubber. When war came in 1939 the only plans that existed for them were to duly mobilise with horses compulsorily purchased from the civilian population. This combination of territorials and civilian horses of unknown pedigree impressed no-one at first. Even today, outside regimental histories and war diaries, its fighting contribution is barely credited. Yet in May 1941, an incongruous saga of deception, desperation and reinvention, saw British horsemen advancing into Syria on Operation "Exporter", with each patrol's point man nervously clutching his rubber-gripped saber.