Not only, also, do the various types operate separately, but often the necessities of a case demand that a certain number—­say of battleships—­be sent away from the main body on some mission; or that a certain number of destroyers be sent away from the main body of destroyers.

Any such diversion entails a danger that is sometimes great, and sometimes small; but such diversions and risks cannot be avoided, and should not be avoided when they are necessary, any more than a man should avoid going out of doors, though that act always entails some danger.  Suppose, for instance, that in the operations of a war carried on in the Caribbean, the Navy Department should get trustworthy information that the enemy had detailed 3 battle cruisers to speed north and bombard New York.  The department would probably have to detach a force from the fleet and send it north, to prevent the bombardment.  Yet not only would the force so sent be in danger until it returned of an attack by a superior force, but the main body from which it was detached would be thereby weakened; furthermore, the information might have been incorrect—­it might have been originated and given out by the enemy, in the hope that it would cause such a diversion of force.

Every operation in war entails a risk more or less great; and if no risks were to be taken, it would be better not to go to war.  It is true that some wars have been undertaken in which the preponderance of force was so great that there was very little doubt of the actual outcome, and very little risk taken by one of the two parties.  Such wars, however, have been very few; and they were hardly wars in the usual sense, any more than the beating of a little boy by a big boy could properly be called a “fight.”

Reference may again be made here to Table I on next page, which shows the way in which fights between unequal forces proceed, and the advantage of fighting the separated parts of an enemy rather than the united force.  We can see this clearly if we note that, if two forces each aggregating 1,000 were in each other’s vicinity, and if the entire force A was able to engage half of B, or 500, it would whip half of B, and have 841 remaining, with which to engage the other half (500) of B.  Reference to the end of the third period in this table shows also that if a force of 789 engages a force of 523, it will have 569 left, after the other has been reduced to zero.  So, a force of 1,000 that engages two forces of 500 separately, will have more than 500 left, after the others have both been reduced to zero:  whereas, if it engages both, when they are united, both sides will be gradually reduced to zero, remaining equal all the time.