The Offensive must not be confused with the Initiative. It is possible to seize the Initiative, under certain conditions, by taking a defensive position from which the enemy is bound to dislodge us or abandon the operation.
In most cases where the weaker side successfully assumes the offensive, it is due to his doing so before the enemy's mobilization or concentration is complete, whereby the attacking force is able to deal in succession with locally inferior forces of the enemy.
The advantages of the Offensive are well known.
Its disadvantages are:—
(1) That it grows weaker as it advances, by prolonging its communications.
(2) That it tends to operations on unfamiliar ground.
(3) That it continually increases the difficulty of retreat.
The advantages of Defence are chiefly:—
(1) Proximity to base.
(2) Familiar ground.
(3) Facility for arranging surprise by counter attack.
NOTE.—In modern Naval warfare these advantages—that is, the advantages of fighting on your own ground—are specially high as giving greater facility for the use of mine and torpedo.
The disadvantages are mainly moral or when the enemy's objective or line of operations cannot be ascertained, but this disadvantage can be neutralised when it is possible to secure an interior position.