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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Hanau

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army, 60,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Bavaria (Bav Army, 40,000 men under Wrede) in Hesse. The CAA Database of Battles records 12.5 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 5,000 (8%), Bavaria 15,000 (38%).

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 wingInfantry11,016
France centreInfantry14,688
France right wingInfantry11,016
France reserveInfantry9,180
France cavalry of the leftCavalry6,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry6,000
France artillery (140 guns)Artillery2,100
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan60,000

Bavaria

Wrede

UnitArmMen
Bavaria left wingInfantry7,423
Bavaria centreInfantry9,898
Bavaria right wingInfantry7,423
Bavaria reserveInfantry6,186
Bavaria cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
Bavaria cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
Bavaria artillery (138 guns)Artillery2,070
WredeCommander—
In this plan40,000

What the sources report

FranceBavaria
Strength, this plan60,00040,000
Losses, this plan5,00015,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 139, “Hanau”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 3.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker60,0005,00012,000140Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Bavariadefender40,00015,0007,000138Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · momentum +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.