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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Laon

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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 wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 47,600 men under Napoleon I) attacked Prussia (Allied Army of Silesia, 85,000 men under Bluecher) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 25 hours of fighting on a front of 6.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Prussia held. Losses: France 6,000 (13%), Prussia 4,000 (5%).

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 wingInfantry11,064
France centreInfantry14,752
France right wingInfantry11,064
France reserveInfantry9,220
France artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan47,600

Prussia

Bluecher

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry19,860
Prussia centreInfantry26,480
Prussia right wingInfantry19,860
Prussia reserveInfantry16,550
Prussia artillery (150 guns)Artillery2,250
BluecherCommander—
In this plan85,000

What the sources report

FrancePrussia
Strength, this plan47,60085,000
Losses, this plan6,0004,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 141, “Laon”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
25 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
6.4 km (attacker), 10.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker47,6006,000—100Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
Prussiadefender85,0004,000—150Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration

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.