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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Aspern-Essling

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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.
Aspern-EsslingUrban groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGunsArchduke Charles02 km4 kmN

Austria (Aus Army, 99,000 men under Archduke Charles) attacked France (Fr Army, 66,000 men under Napoleon I) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 15.5 hours of fighting on a front of 7.5 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Austria won. Losses: Austria 23,000 (23%), France 21,000 (32%).

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

Austria

Archduke Charles

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry19,330
Austria centreInfantry25,773
Austria right wingInfantry19,330
Austria reserveInfantry16,108
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry7,250
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry7,250
Austria artillery (264 guns)Artillery3,960
Archduke CharlesCommander—
In this plan99,001

France

Napoleon I

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry12,682
France centreInfantry16,909
France right wingInfantry12,682
France reserveInfantry10,568
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,500
France artillery (144 guns)Artillery2,160
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan66,001

What the sources report

AustriaFrance
Strength, this plan99,00066,000
Losses, this plan23,00021,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 125, “Aspern-Essling”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
15.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Urban
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
7.5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker99,00023,00014,500264Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Stalemate
Francedefender66,00021,00011,000144Defensive plan; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages logistics +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +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.