If you hearken back to the Duke of Wellington’s Peninsular campaign, the classic strategy of the maritime power against the land power becomes obvious. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_War)

The war began when French armies occupied Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808 and lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814. … Throughout the war, British and Portuguese armies defended Portugal and staged diversionary campaigns against French forces while guerrillas bled the occupiers. Together, the regular and irregular allied forces prevented Napoleon’s marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces. French units in Spain, forced to guard their vulnerable supply lines, were always in danger of being cut off and overwhelmed by the partisans, and proved unable to stamp out the Spanish army. In the final years of war, with France gravely weakened following Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, Wellington’s allied army pushed across Spain from Portugal, pursuing offensives that brought it past the Pyrenees and liberated the country.

Wellington’s Peninsular campaign is largely lost to modern memory, but it is remembered in this song, which many may know but whose connection they may not be aware of. The usual lyrics are:

Farewell and adieu unto you Spanish ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain;
For it’s we’ve received orders for to sail for old England,
But we hope very soon we shall see you again.

But I like the John Buchan version better.

Farewell and adieu unto you Spanish ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain;
For we’re bound beyond the bar of Cadiz
And we’ll never see you again.