ABSTRACT
A fleet can lend the greatest assistance in the strategical concentration of armies by taking charge of large convoys of transports. The Turkish Empire would never have been able to get its armies together in 1877 without such help. During this war the revival of the summer campaign in the Balkan Peninsula was due to the fleet, which brought Suleiman Pasha's army across from the Albanian to the Thracian coast. How useful the co-operation of sea forces can be in advancing a base and forming new communications when the land operations happen to be in proximity to the coast, we have seen from the example of the war between China and Japan. The command of the sea, which enables the land army to rest on the coast at any point where there is a good harbour, is no less valuable for the defender than for the assailant. A glance at the map is enough to show how important it is for Germany to have sure command of the Baltic Sea in the event of a war in the East and West.
