Jutland: The Naval Staff Appreciation

Naval warfare has only four principal aspects, viz:

Invasion, and counter invasion;

Attack of trade, and defence of trade.

These ends, which loom behind every naval operation, can only be completely achieved by the destruction of the enemy’s forces. The struggle may be spread over long years of suffering and uncertainty, or it may be greatly abbreviated by battle.

There has been a tendency in recent years to depreciate the function of the battle in naval strategy, but it must always play an essential part in the economy of war, for it embodies two great principles of war – concentration, and the economy of the decisive blow.