INTRODUCTION

In the beginning it is necessary to define two terms: “Britain” and “defensive”. Britain was, naturally, the focus of the Eurocentric war, but it was also at the centre of the British Empire, which took in nations in all significant continents and consequently brought huge resources of manpower, food and raw materials to bear on the conflict. To be sure these also implied commitments too, but these were not fully called in until late in 1941 with the entry of Japan into the war. Much, if not most, of this strength was accessed by the sea.

The main meaning given to “defensive” in the Oxford English Dictionary is “Having the quality of defending against attack or injury; serving for defence; protective”. On land, its campaigns and warfare, this lends itself to easy comprehension. Broadly “I want to keep this piece of ground”(defensive): “my enemy wants to take it”(offensive). The fluid nature of the sea, both literally and conceptually, renders such easy definition diffuse at best. This is further muddied by the nature of maritime operations and warfare. One aspect of this is the differing outcomes of offensive and defensive events at different levels of warfare, and, indeed, the possibility of differing perceptions by the participants. Thus the German invasion of Norway in 1940 was fairly clearly offensive and the British(and French) reaction to it was obviously defensive at the strategic level.