Offensive and defensive operations are nevertheless quite different, especially in two particulars, one being the use of the initiative or attack, and the other the distance to the home.  In offensive operations, the attack is made; in defensive operations, the attack is resisted; and even if the resistance takes an aggressive character, and drives the original attacker back to the place he started from, yet the side which has made the original attack has carried on offensive operations, and the other side defensive.  Offensive operations are, as a rule, carried on farther from home than defensive operations.  If A is carrying on offensive operations against B, A is usually farther away from his home than B is from his home.  We see from this that the offensive has the advantage of the initiative, of making an attack for which the enemy may be unprepared, and has the disadvantage of being far from its home bases; whereas the defensive has the disadvantage of not knowing when or where or whence an attack is to come, and the advantage of the support of various kinds given by home bases.  In other words, the offensive has the advantage except in so far as it is impaired by unfavorable conditions.

For this reason, every military nation at the outset of war desires to be able to assume the offensive; and only refrains from the offensive from motives of prudence or because, in a particular case, the distance between the adversaries is so great, that the lack of bases would be of greater weight than the advantage of the initiative—­or because the situations of the contending parties would be such that the side accepting the defensive role and staying near home, might be able to carry on aggressive attacks better than could the other.  An illustration of a mistake in taking the offensive, and the wisdom of the other side in accepting the defensive, may be seen in Napoleon’s expedition against Russia; for the Russians were able to repel his attack completely, and then to assume a terrible offensive against his retreating, disorganized, and starving army.  Another illustration was the expedition made by a weak Spanish fleet under Cervera to the Caribbean in 1898.  Another illustration was that of the Russians in the war of 1904; the practical disadvantages under which the Russian fleet operated at Tsushima were too great to be balanced by the advantage of the attack; especially as the situation was such that the Japanese were able to foretell with enough accuracy for practical purposes the place where the attack would be delivered, and the time.

Operations on the sea, like operations on the land, consist in opposing force to force, in making thrusts and making parries.  If two men or two ships contend in a duel, or if two parallel columns—­say of ten ships each—­are drawn up abreast each other, the result will depend mainly on the hitting and enduring powers of the combatants; the conditions of the “stand-up fight” are realized, and there is little opportunity for strategy to exert itself.