The latest 'high tech' find from alpine hunters
(B2, in Varces) The 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade is experimenting with the mule as a means of all-terrain logistics transport. Back to an old practice
The 'Alpins' are full of praise for their mules. A tough, loving animal, sometimes adapted to mountain terrain. It can easily carry its 80 kg load (to which must be added the 40 kg of the packsaddle) for several hours, on the steepest terrain. Equipped with carbon tips on the hooves to avoid slipping on the ice, it goes almost anywhere. And he can walk 5-6 hours on 800-1000 meters of elevation for several days. Compared to its successor, the helicopter, it is more discreet and can evolve in all weathers.
Being stubborn has some advantages in the mountains
A cross between a mare and a donkey, the mule could have a drawback: it is a bit stubborn, not to say difficult in character. A bit like its ascendant. But, in the mountains, it is an advantage. Faced with a sudden noise (artillery), or an attack (from a raptor for example), the horse will tend to flee. Which, in the mountains, presents a risk for the animal. The mule on the contrary will freeze. A saving reflex. Another advantage over a horse is that he walks with his feet one behind the other, and not in parallel, which on narrow mountain paths is very useful.
Withdrawn from service then reintroduced
The mules, after having rendered good and loyal service to the French army, particularly in the campaigns of North Africa, during the first or the second world war (1), were withdrawn from service after 1975. Ditto in the Italian Alpine troops in 2002. But across the Rhine, the German mountain infantry brigade still has around fifty mules, used in Afghanistan or Kosovo, to provide transport to less accessible places. For the French, this very recent reintroduction, within the 7th battalion of alpine hunters (7th BCA), has test value.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
- Read for example the role of mules in themountain artillery and in particular during the 1939-1940 war within the 93rd RAM (mountain artillery regiment)