"Traditional cavalry was bound to be phased out. With the advancement of military weapons—for instance, the use of machine guns, which had been tested in the South African War—how cavalry could break through a network of machine-gun fire coverage had become a major problem. Given enough machine guns, infantry could deal effectively with the threat of cavalry. Therefore, our cavalry forces had to keep pace with the times and take the road of motorized cavalry," Lieutenant General Mars said.
Mars had been promoted after the South African War. The 221st and 222nd Cavalry Divisions he had established before the war had both achieved respectable results, especially the 221st Division, which had fought through nearly the entire war in the Mozambique Region.
The East African Cavalry had neither a long history nor much of a record to speak of. After all, the earliest East African cavalry forces had been created solely to suppress East Africa's indigenous powers—using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken.
The East African Cavalry's moments of glory had come in the Boer War and the South African War. During the First East Portugal War, East Africa had not even needed to deploy cavalry to bring Portugal's homeland to ruin. At the time, Portugal's two colonies lay too close to East Africa's core territory. East African border troops alone had been enough to deal with the Portuguese. In fact, East Africa's border forces had not even fully mobilized, instead using black troops to fight Portugal.
With the end of the South African War, the East African Army had naturally not been idle over the years. First and foremost, research into traditional weapons such as rifles and artillery had continued to advance.
After the South African War, greater importance had been placed on new weapons, new technologies, and new