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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Vimeiro

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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 wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseGunsGunsHorseHorse01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army, 13,050 men under Junot) attacked Great Britain (Br & Port Army, 19,600 men under Wellesley) in Portugal. The CAA Database of Battles records 9.5 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against prepared defense, and that Great Britain held. Losses: France 1,800 (14%), Great Britain 750 (4%).

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

Junot

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry2,581
France centreInfantry3,442
France right wingInfantry2,581
France reserveInfantry2,151
France cavalry of the leftCavalry975
France cavalry of the rightCavalry975
France artillery (23 guns)Artillery345
JunotCommander—
In this plan13,050

Great Britain

Wellesley

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry4,582
Great Britain centreInfantry6,109
Great Britain right wingInfantry4,582
Great Britain reserveInfantry3,818
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry120
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry120
Great Britain artillery (18 guns)Artillery270
WellesleyCommander—
In this plan19,601

What the sources report

FranceGreat Britain
Strength, this plan13,05019,600
Losses, this plan1,800750

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 122, “Vimiero”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
9.5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker13,0501,8001,95023Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Repulse; Withdrew
Great Britaindefender19,60075024018Defensive plan

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. 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.