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Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Wittstock

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundHorseHorseHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns01 km2 kmN

Sweden (Sw Army, 22,000 men under Baner) attacked Holy Roman Empire and Saxony (Imp & Saxon Army, 30,000 men under Hatzfeld and John George) in Brandenburg. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 4.4 km, a single envelopment, right flank against prepared defense, and that Sweden won. Losses: Sweden 7,000 (32%), Holy Roman Empire and Saxony 18,000 (60%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Sweden

Baner

UnitArmMen
Sweden left wingInfantry2,640
Sweden centreInfantry3,520
Sweden right wingInfantry2,640
Sweden reserveInfantry2,200
Sweden cavalry of the leftCavalry5,500
Sweden cavalry of the rightCavalry5,500
BanerCommander—
In this plan22,000

Holy Roman Empire and Saxony

Hatzfeld and John George

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry3,689
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry4,918
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry3,689
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry3,074
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry7,000
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry7,000
Holy Roman Empire artillery (42 guns)Artillery630
Hatzfeld and John GeorgeCommander—
In this plan30,000

What the sources report

SwedenHoly Roman Empire
Strength, this plan22,00030,000
Losses, this plan7,00018,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 11, “Wittstock”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
4.4 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Swedenattacker22,0007,00012,000—Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Holy Roman Empire & Saxonydefender30,00018,00014,00042Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.