Tactical means and the danger of assuming equal competence

The 1925 Naval War Manual states that a strategic plan will fail unless it provides the means for tactical success. Admiral Chatfield's claim that a formal staff appreciation would have predicted defeat at Trafalgar exposes another planning problem: the method assumes an opponent of comparable skill. That assumption would overstate the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, while Germany in the First World War required greater respect for technical seamanship. Technical skill does not guarantee sound naval strategy. The comparison ends with the Second World War judgment that the Italian fleet posed a more serious threat than Germany's surface fleet. Plans therefore have to test both material means and the competence of the people expected to use them.