Base of Operations

Base of Operations, in warfare, is the receiving depôt where everything required for prosecuting the campaign is collected and organised before being forwarded to the front, and to which the sick and wounded can be sent back for removal to their homes when opportunities occur. It is usually a port, a stretch of sea-coast, or a river, but may be a mountain-range or tract of country connected by a line of open communication with the army, and supplying it constantly with recruits, remounts, food, ammunition, &c.; so that, if cut from its base of operations, the army is completely paralysed. In the Crimean campaign, the sea-coast from Kamiesch to Balaklava was the base of operations for the allies. In the late Egyptian war, the British base was at first Alexandria and afterwards Ismailia. The German base of operations during the campaign against France in 1870-71 was the right bank of the Rhine, from Cologne to Karlsruhe, with its many fortresses.