Though the use of an actual war horse's perspective keeps War Horse from ever reading as a rote history lesson, Morpurgo's novel is in many ways an accurate reflection on the uses of animals in World War I (July 1914-November 1918). Horses were not the only creatures to aid the military efforts of the belligerent countries: messenger dogs, homing pigeons, and (when other animals were unavailable for labor) zoo elephants were all put to use. These animals do not appear in War Horse, a book which instead ties the wartime roles of a single species to the evolution of new kinds of combat.
Towards the beginning of the war, horses were used in the kind of cavalry missions that Captain Nicholls and Captain Stewart lead in the novel. There were still roughly 75,000 British cavalry horses in 1918, near the end of the hostilities. However, by this time a series of technological advances and common tactics—machine guns, barbed wire, tanks, trench warfare—had limited the viability of a cavalry-based approach. Horses were instead, as Joey was, used for labor. The British army was using 220,000 to move supplies near the war's end, with an additional 111,000 horses used primarily for riding.
This change in roles did not by any means diminish the importance of horses to the war effort. According to historian Emma Mawdsley, "A new type of war saw men live for months in trenches instead of fighting on the move. Often the mud was so thick motor vehicles could not drive through it. It was left to horses to pull the large artillery guns and ambulances, and bring in supplies of medicine, food, and ammunition." Even today, when they are no longer required to assist in transporting men and goods, horses continue to play important military-related roles. The British army still uses horses for ceremonial duties and for helping veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder; indeed, the idea in War Horse that horses can offer comfort and friendship to soldiers lives on in a new century.
