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Who really said it

Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse

Attributed to Douglas Haig 1861–1928 · British field marshal
Attributed Free to reuse

The substance is genuine. Haig made the point in a speech to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons on 4 June 1925, and The Times reported it the next day as “they were only accessories to the man and the horse.” That report is in indirect speech, though, so the popular first-person wording (often dated 1926) is not a verbatim transcript. Quote Investigator suggests it may come from recasting that report in the first person (Quote Investigator ↗).

Last verified 1 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse” Douglas Haig, as reported in indirect speech in The Times (London), 5 June 1925, from his speech to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons on 4 June 1925. The popular first-person wording, often dated 1926, is not verbatim; Quote Investigator suggests it may be a recasting of this report. (Quotle.info; via Quote Investigator) · Verbatim: “He was all for using aeroplanes and tanks, but they were only accessories to the man and the horse, and he felt sure that as time went on they would find just as much use for the horse—the well-bred horse—as they had ever done in the past.”

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Evoking the world of Douglas Haig — British field marshal, commander of the BEF on the Western Front. Theme: "Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

What The Times actually printed

Report
“The Cavalry Arm: Lord Haig On Value in War”
Published
The Times (London), 5 June 1925, p. 8, col. 4
Occasion
Haig’s speech on receiving an honorary diploma at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, 4 June 1925
Form
Reported (indirect) speech with no quotation marks

Some enthusiasts to-day talked about the probability of horses becoming extinct and prophesied that the aeroplane, the tank and the motor-car would supersede the horse in future wars. … He was all for using aeroplanes and tanks, but they were only accessories to the man and the horse, and he felt sure that as time went on they would find just as much use for the horse—the well-bred horse—as they had ever done in the past. Let them not be despondent and think that the day of the horse was over. The Times, 5 June 1925

Text as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗ from the Times Digital Archive. The reporter wrote “he believed” and “he felt sure” rather than “I believe” and “I feel sure”, so parts may summarize what Haig said rather than record it word for word.

Quote Investigator: Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse

How the line traveled

  • 4–5 June 1925. Haig speaks to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and The Times reports the remarks the next day in indirect speech: “they were only accessories to the man and the horse” (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1966. Robert Debs Heinl’s Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (U.S. Naval Institute ↗) prints a first-person version (“I am sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horse”) and credits it to “Sir Douglas Haig: Interview, 1925”, according to Quote Investigator ↗.
  • 2006. Max Boot’s War Made New (Gotham Books ↗) says that “as late as 1926” Haig “would write” that “Aeroplanes and tanks…are only accessories to the man and the horse”, as quoted by Quote Investigator ↗.
  • 2012. Quote Investigator ↗ concludes the 1925 report is good evidence Haig made very similar remarks, and that later direct-quote versions were possibly derived by grammatically modifying the Times text.
Public domain

The wording traces to a report in The Times of 5 June 1925, which was published before 1931 and is in the public domain in the United States. The later first-person versions in Heinl’s 1966 dictionary and Boot’s 2006 book differ from that wording and appear in works still under copyright.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What the popular version gets wrong

Haig really did make this point. What drifted is the date, the medium, the grammar, and the half of the sentence that softens it.

“1926” Undocumented date

The common version is dated 1926, and Max Boot’s 2006 book says Haig wrote it “as late as 1926.” No 1926 source is documented, though; the earliest evidence Quote Investigator found is a speech on 4 June 1925, reported in The Times on 5 June 1925 (Quote Investigator ↗).

“I believe … I feel sure” Reworded

The Times wrote in reported speech (“he believed,” “he felt sure”) with no quotation marks. QI suggests the first-person versions were made by grammatically recasting that report. Heinl’s 1966 dictionary calls its version an “Interview, 1925”, but the documented event was a speech (Quote Investigator ↗).

The missing first half Trimmed

The Times sentence opens “He was all for using aeroplanes and tanks, but…”, and Haig was speaking to veterinary surgeons who had just honored him. Versions that start at “Aeroplanes and tanks” leave out both (Quote Investigator ↗).

Haig made the point, but not in these exact words. The Times of 5 June 1925 reported that “he was all for using aeroplanes and tanks, but they were only accessories to the man and the horse” (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why the line stuck

The remark is often used to show that First World War commanders held on to cavalry after machine guns and tanks had changed warfare. Max Boot, for example, puts it among the views of “purblind Colonel Blimps who continued to insist that tanks would never replace the good old horse” (as quoted by Quote Investigator ↗).

The 1925 report reads differently. Haig was speaking sympathetically to veterinary surgeons, and he argued that light mounted troops and horse artillery were needed to exploit what machine guns made possible. He was not rejecting aeroplanes and tanks; he called them accessories.

He was all for using aeroplanes and tanks, but they were only accessories to the man and the horse.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horsequoteinvestigator.com

The anchor research: transcribes The Times of 5 June 1925 and traces the later 1966 and 2006 versions
Quote Investigator: Douglas Haig tagquoteinvestigator.com

QI's index of its investigations into quotes credited to Haig
Wikiquote: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haigen.wikiquote.org

Haig's sourced quotations, including the 1918 'backs to the wall' order. This line is not listed
Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (Heinl, 1966)archive.org

Catalog record for the 1966 reference that printed a first-person version as 'Interview, 1925'
War Made New (Max Boot, 2006)archive.org

Catalog record for the 2006 book that dates the remark to 1926
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haigen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the field marshal

The author

About Douglas Haig

Douglas Haig

1861–1928 · British field marshal, commander of the BEF on the Western Front

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a Scottish senior officer of the British Army. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the First World War, including the Somme, Arras, Third Ypres and the Hundred Days Offensive. A former cavalry officer, he has become shorthand for generals who held on too long to the horse in an age of machine guns and tanks.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented

“The Cavalry Arm: Lord Haig On Value in War,” The Times (London), 5 June 1925, p. 8, col. 4 (reported speech of Haig’s address to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, 4 June 1925); transcribed in Quote Investigator, “Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse,” 30 November 2012.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/aeroplanes-and-tanks-are-only-accessories-to-the-man-and/

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