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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Vittoria

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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 wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Great Britain (Br Allied Army, 79,062 men under Wellington) attacked France (Fr Army, 68,024 men under Joseph Bonaparte & Jourdan) in Spain. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 11 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 5,148 (7%), France 7,000 (10%).

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 wingInfantry16,655
Great Britain centreInfantry22,206
Great Britain right wingInfantry16,655
Great Britain reserveInfantry13,879
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry4,159
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry4,159
Great Britain artillery (90 guns)Artillery1,350
WellingtonCommander—
In this plan79,063

France

Joseph Bonaparte · Jourdan

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry13,410
France centreInfantry17,881
France right wingInfantry13,410
France reserveInfantry11,175
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,001
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,001
France artillery (143 guns)Artillery2,145
Joseph Bonaparte & JourdanCommander—
In this plan68,023

What the sources report

Great BritainFrance
Strength, this plan79,06268,024
Losses, this plan5,1487,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 133, “Vittoria”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 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
Great Britainattacker79,0625,1488,31790Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough; Pursued
Francedefender68,0247,00010,002143Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +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.