178 GARRISON ARTILLERY WARFARE. 
important operation of ‘clearing the sea of the opposing ships of war. 
Consequently we may imagine that an attack on a Coast Fortress will 
be an affair of some importance and every available warship will be 
collected for the purpose. 
When the object of the attack is the capture of the fortress, wemay 
assume that a land force will undertake the operation, assisted by the 
fire of the fleet. The attack of the fleet will then only be of secondary 
importance, its duties being the destruction of the batteries bearing on 
the land attack and the engaging of as many other batteries as will 
compel the defender to employ a large part of his force in replying to 
the fire of the fleet, thus weakening the main defence. 
It will hardly be possible for a fleet to so silence all the fire of a well 
garrisoned fortress as to be able to land sufficient men to capture it 
against the wishes of that portion of the garrison (1.e. the infantry) who 
have hitherto been merely spectators unless the strength of the fleet is 
overwhelming in comparison to that of the fortress. There would also 
be the risk of dangerously undermanning the fleet, should sufficient 
men be detached to hold the fortress when captured; a serious con- 
sideration if the flect has to return probably some considerable distance 
to replenish its stock of ammunition, which will be much depleted, if 
the defence has been at all vigorous and tenacious. 
In a word a Coast Fortress per se would never be attacked by a 
hostile fleet, there would be nothing gained by doing so. 
- But Coast Fortresses are built for some well defined purpose, either 
to protect a fleet while repairing or refitting, or to afford it a refuge 
from a hostile fleet, or to protect stores of coal, &c. which are essential 
to the efficiency of a fleet. 
_. A Coast. Fortress therefore may expect attack when there is a fleet 
under the protection of its guns, or it may be attacked by a fleet having 
local supremacy, even when no ships of war are in the defended 
area, either to possess itself of the stores, &c. protected by the fortress, 
or to destroy them and thus impair the efficiency of the opposing fleet. 
If the object of the attack then be the destruction or capture of 
matériel or ships defended by the guns of the fortress, it will be suffi- 
cient for the purpose of the attack, if the fire of the defence is either 
‘silenced, kept under or avoided sufficiently, to enable that purpose to 
be carried out and the fleet withdrawn. 
The raison d’étre of the fortress and arrangement of the defences 
will serve then as a guide to anticipating the nature of the attack to 
which it will be exposed on the sea side ; while the general dispositions 
of the fleet wiil depend on the amount of sea room at the disposal of 
the attackers and the conception of the Admiral in command, of the 
manner in which the defences are able to interfere with his own plan 
of operations. The attack of the fleet on a sea fortress, therefore, may 
assume two phases :— - 
The secondary attack—The artillery duel. 
The primary attack—Torpedo or boat attacks. 
As regards the secondary attack—This -attack will be made either 
‘at “long range,” from 5,000 to 8,000 yards; at “medium range,” 
