Millions of horses, mules and other beasts of burden were silent unsung casualties of the First World War.
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In such conditions, disease and sheer exhaustion accounted for a great number of war-related equine casualties.
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Horses remained crucial to the war effort and were transported in huge numbers to the front.
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Fresh horses skirt a huge shell crater on the way to the front in 1918. Almost half a million horses and mules were then serving in the British forces in France.
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