ABSTRACT

Amphibious warfare has ever been difficult and complex and although it has a Jong history of many attempts, it was never successful until World War II. What is politically and strategically desirable is not necessarily physically and technically feasible. Witness the problems in Napoleonic times. Thus the British Army was reduced to amphibious warfare. It had no secure bases in Europe where it could land and organize for operations; no prearranged supply system; no friendly army to fight alongside it. Intervention on the continent now meant landing across open beaches in country occupied by the enemy. Amphibious operations as we know them are a product of 20th-century technology. In the Napoleonic period everything was different. It suited Napoleon's purposes to ignore not only the cost in shipping of maintaining an amphibious force, but also the complexities of planning and organization required to launch an amphibious invasion from sailing ships.