391 
THE ATTACK OF A COAST FORTRESS. 
BY 
LIEUTENANT C. KENNY, R.A. 
LABOR OMNIA YINCIT.” 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1 8 9 3, 
PART I. 
General Discussion of the Subject. 
A Coast Fortress has been defined as “ an area of land and sea provided, 
at certain important points, or along tactically selected lines, with an 
artillery armament, partly fixed and partly movableits area being 
the amount of land and water covered by the fire of its guns. 
An attack may be made on a coast fortress with any of the following 
objects:— 
(1.) Conquest and occupation. 
(2.) Destruction of forts, ships, stores, or other materiel. 
(3.) Passage to some objective beyond. 
(4.) Covering some other operation. 
(5.) Moral effect. 
The attack may be carried out by :— 
(1.) A naval force. 
(2.) Combined naval and military forces. 
A naval attack might be made with any of the above objects, but it 
is unlikely that a serious combined attack will be attempted except 
with a view to conquest and occupation, though troops might be em¬ 
ployed in connection with ships in cases (2) and (3). 
Naval Attacks. 
(a.) With a view to conquest and occupation . 
These have been few in number, and only successful where the 
armament of the ships was decidedly superior to that of the fortress, 
or the ships’ crews infinitely better than the garrisons both in skill and 
courage. The combat has always been an unequal one. Attacks, in 
the old days, were sometimes successful when the ships were able to 
get close in and bring half-a-dozen or so of their guns to bear on one 
of those of the fortress, and crush the latter by sheer superiority of 
7. YOB. XX. 
