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Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Jankau

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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.
Rugged, Mixed groundHorseHorseHorseHorseCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Holy Roman Empire (Imp Army, 15,000 men under Hatzfeld) attacked Sweden (Sw Army, 15,000 men under Torstensson) in Bohemia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 3.1 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Sweden held. Losses: Holy Roman Empire 8,500 (57%), Sweden 2,000 (13%).

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

Holy Roman Empire

Hatzfeld

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry1,706
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry2,275
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry1,706
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry1,422
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry3,750
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry3,750
Holy Roman Empire artillery (26 guns)Artillery390
HatzfeldCommander—
In this plan14,999

Sweden

Torstensson

UnitArmMen
Sweden left wingInfantry1,512
Sweden centreInfantry2,016
Sweden right wingInfantry1,512
Sweden reserveInfantry1,260
Sweden cavalry of the leftCavalry3,750
Sweden cavalry of the rightCavalry3,750
Sweden artillery (80 guns)Artillery1,200
TorstenssonCommander—
In this plan15,000

What the sources report

Holy Roman EmpireSweden
Strength, this plan15,00015,000
Losses, this plan8,5002,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 16, “Jankau”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
3.1 km (attacker), 3.1 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Holy Roman Empireattacker15,0008,50010,00026Frontal attack; Repulse; Annihilated
Swedendefender15,0002,0009,00080Defensive plan; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · surprise +3

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.