Headquarters stayed close to the Nile because gunboats could provide fire support, secure an exposed flank, and move upstream or downstream to threaten an attacker. Modern maneuver doctrine warns that dependence on roads or rivers can make a force predictable. On the Nile, however, the gunboats' mobility and firepower outweighed that vulnerability. The river was both a constraint and a ready-made route for support and countermaneuver. A fixed line of movement could become an advantage when mobile firepower controlled it.
Notable Point · 11:18-12:26
When dependence on the Nile became an operational advantage
Gunboat firepower and mobility made an army's normally risky dependence on a river advantageous during the Nile campaigns.