Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the Second Coalition

Battle of Messkirch

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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.
Flat, Heavily wooded groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseKray05 km10 kmN

France (Fr Army, 60,000 men under Moreau) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 60,000 men under Kray) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 16 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 4,000 (7%), Austria 5,000 (8%).

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

France

Moreau

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry12,000
France centreInfantry16,000
France right wingInfantry12,000
France reserveInfantry10,000
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
MoreauCommander—
In this plan60,000

Austria

Kray

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry10,800
Austria centreInfantry14,400
Austria right wingInfantry10,800
Austria reserveInfantry9,000
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
KrayCommander—
In this plan60,000

What the sources report

FranceAustria
Strength, this plan60,00060,000
Losses, this plan4,0005,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 114, “Moeskirch”, 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
Flat, Heavily wooded
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
16 km (attacker), 16 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker60,0004,00010,000—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Penetration
Austriadefender60,0005,00015,000—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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, and which flank the envelopment fell on is a guess. 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.