Corbett and war plans that educate rather than predict

The Ballard Committee developed a planning exercise around a possible German occupation of Belgium or the Netherlands and favoured distant economic blockade. A German invasion of France was outside the stated grounds for British intervention used in that exercise. Lambert disputes later criticism that plans completed in 1907 should have anticipated the naval balance of 1914: Germany's submarine force was then tiny and its battle fleet much weaker than Britain's. Fisher intended the plans and Corbett's preface to educate officers about doctrine and the considerations governing operations. Their value lay in explaining the choices available under contemporary conditions. Cabinet would decide whether Britain went to war and how it would be waged, so naval planning had to remain flexible. Corbett supplied the doctrinal context for officers who might later have to conduct that war.