Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Salamanca

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Great Britain (Br Allied Army, 46,000 men under Wellington) attacked France (Fr Army, 42,000 men under Marmont) in Spain. The CAA Database of Battles records 3.8 hours of fighting on a front of 6.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 6,000 (13%), France 13,000 (31%).

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

Great Britain

Wellington

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry9,384
Great Britain centreInfantry12,512
Great Britain right wingInfantry9,384
Great Britain reserveInfantry7,820
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry3,000
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry3,000
Great Britain artillery (60 guns)Artillery900
WellingtonCommander—
In this plan46,000

France

Marmont

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry8,839
France centreInfantry11,786
France right wingInfantry8,839
France reserveInfantry7,366
France cavalry of the leftCavalry2,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry2,000
France artillery (78 guns)Artillery1,170
MarmontCommander—
In this plan42,000

What the sources report

Great BritainFrance
Strength, this plan46,00042,000
Losses, this plan6,00013,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 132, “Salamanca”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3.8 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
6.4 km (attacker), 6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker46,0006,0006,00060Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Francedefender42,00013,0004,00078Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +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.