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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Friedland

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 80,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Russia (Russ Army, 60,000 men under Bennigsen) in Prussia. The CAA Database of Battles records 5.5 hours of fighting on a front of 11 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 8,000 (10%), Russia 25,000 (42%).

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

Napoleon I

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry18,804
France centreInfantry25,072
France right wingInfantry18,804
France reserveInfantry15,670
France artillery (110 guns)Artillery1,650
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan80,000

Russia

Bennigsen

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry13,734
Russia centreInfantry18,312
Russia right wingInfantry13,734
Russia reserveInfantry11,445
Russia artillery (185 guns)Artillery2,775
BennigsenCommander—
In this plan60,000

What the sources report

FranceRussia
Strength, this plan80,00060,000
Losses, this plan8,00025,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 121, “Friedland”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
5.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
11 km (attacker), 11 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker80,0008,000—110Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Russiadefender60,00025,000—185Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +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.