Dutch plans drew a sharp distinction between the fleet's ideal employment and its likely wartime use. In theory, battleships and escorts would concentrate into a powerful force able to strike an attacker. The empire contained too many possible objectives for all of its destroyers and torpedo boats to remain together in practice. Ships would instead form dispersed resistance packets and tripwires. Strong secondary batteries and a degree of battleship self-protection were therefore operational necessities.
Notable Point · 23:39-24:21
A concentrated fleet plan faced a dispersed imperial reality
Dutch planners expected distant defensive demands to disperse their fleet even though doctrine favored concentrating it as a single powerful hammer.