Page:Aircraft in Warfare (1916).djvu/237

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THE N2 LAW. PARTIAL CONCENTRATION.
§ 116

to 34 of the enemy ship to ship, and the remaining 6 British would have been opposed to 12 of the enemy, these conditions are represented graphically in Fig. 19. Thus it will be seen that the numerical surplus is reduced to 10.4 ships, the case being one of partial concentration. Of course in actuality the scheme, however carefully planned, would never result in the perfectly well ordered doubling of the excess of one fleet on the rear ships of the other; the construction, however, given in Fig. 19 is quite elastic, and any departure may be readily dealt with. Thus Fig. 19 may be taken as the

Fig. 19.

appropriate general graphic construction for the representation of any case of partial concentration in accordance with the n-square law.

It is worthy of remark that in cases of partial concentration there may always be a second or after phase in the battle when the residue of the superior force concentrated on the "tail" of the enemy having done its work, will throw its weight into the main combat, the final conditions will then be more nearly the same as if the initial concentration had been complete, as assumed in § 42.

§ 117. Air Raids: The Value of Numbers. The importance of numbers in duties other than actual fighting does not, generally speaking, follow the n-square law; it is nevertheless by no means negligible.

The reason here is that the object attacked is, ordinarily speaking, not an actively hostile force. Thus

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