Tyrwhitt commanded the force at sea, while Rear Admiral George Cuthbert Cayley commanded the Harwich base and dockyard for part of the war. Giving the base commander equivalent rank made it possible to resist operational demands that exceeded maintenance space, stores, or repair time. The arrangement resembled the paired operational and landing-force authority used in amphibious command. Sustained light-force aggression depended on a logistics organization able to state what the base could actually support.
Notable Point · 35:22-37:32
Harwich needed both an operational commander and a dockyard commander
The growth of the Harwich base produced a command arrangement that balanced the demands of an aggressive light force with the realities of repair, stores, and dockyard capacity.