How Effective were Spears Against Cavalry?

[Michael Kerr]

Hi, in regards to cavalry attacking an infantry formation. I was reading a book "Alexander The Great Lessons in Strategy" by David J Lonsdale and he was crediting Alexander as the first ancient commander to utilize "Shock Cavalry" by use of a wedge formation. Here are a few lines from the book

"The usual tactical deployment for the cavalry was the wedge formation. Such a formation allowed the cavalry to shift its axis of advance rapidly, and was therefore crucial when seeking and exploiting a gap in the enemy's line. The wedge was ideally suited to penetrate a narrow breach in the enemy's front and widen it. In this sense, the wedge formation gave the cavalry mobility, flexibility and punching power."

Alexander was a genius at combined arms so he usually pinned his opponents front with his phalanx and then went to work with his cavalry to attack flanks and rear. I suppose they could have used echelon formations as well to exploit weaknesses. I doubt if wedge formations were tapered down to one lone rider at the front (popular in RTW etc) but maybe a wedge shape with blocks of cavalry formations timing their charge so that once the first block breached the line the second blocks would hit the flanks on either side of the first breach before the infantry had a chance to react and reform thus widening the gap.

Regards
Michael
Kerr