Altmayer and the 5th DLC in the Ardennes

At the outbreak of war, the French army still had 180,000 horses on active service — a figure barely changed since 1918. They fell into three main categories: the mounted cavalry, with 17 regiments of cuirassiers, hussars and chasseurs à cheval, about 28,000 sabres forming 7 brigades; the motorised cavalry, 5 regiments which nonetheless retained "horse-mounted squadrons" for reconnaissance; and horse-drawn artillery, accounting for 60% of the 5,700 guns of the divisional artillery, hauled by horses.

General Robert Altmayer, 49, commanded the 5th Light Cavalry Division — 5,200 men, 2,800 horses, 12 Hotchkiss H35 tanks and 16 25 mm anti-tank guns. His mission: reconnaissance in the Ardennes, an area held to be impassable to armour according to the Gamelin doctrine — hence the idea that cavalry was enough.

Through the winter of 1939-1940, the 5th DLC patrolled on foot and on horseback between Bouillon, in Belgium, and Sedan. No combat. The horses were trained to cross minefields, an impossible exercise. Altmayer reported to the General Staff: "Our horses are freezing at pasture. Our men wonder what they are doing here."

The General Staff had to decide how to modernise the use of the cavalry.