CHAPTER VI

TACTICAL WORK

I. Commissioned to develop the tactics of the High Sea Fleet. My preparatory school for this in the study of torpedo-boat tactics. The "black company."—2. Training the High Sea Fleet. Line tactics. The squadron principle. The English in arrears.

I

WHEN I was appointed Chief of Staff to the Executive Command in January 1892, and was personally commissioned by the Emperor to develop the strategy of the High Sea Fleet, I had behind me a more thorough schooling in tactics and strategy than any officer in the navy. I was always attracted by historical studies; I was soon conversant with the ancient and •modern history of naval warfare, and, as a matter of fact, the insipidity of modern accounts generally sent me back to the original writings for my information. I also continued to study the history of land warfare, not from mere inclination, but in order to obtain, a deeper psychological knowledge of my own subject I should think I have read everything of any importance that has been written upon Frederick the Great, and the Wars of Liberation of 1866 and 1870.

When I was a young gunnery-officer on board H.M.

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