Time Astra

Schematic plan · Crimean War

Battle of Alma

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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, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGunsHorseHorseHorseHorse02 km4 kmN

Great Britain and France (Br, Fr & Turk Armies, 65,000 men under Raglan & Saint-Arnaud) attacked Russia (Russ Army, 36,400 men under Menshikov) in The Crimea. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 10 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Great Britain and France won. Losses: Great Britain and France 2,562 (4%), Russia 5,709 (16%).

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 and France

Raglan · Saint-Arnaud

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry14,870
Great Britain centreInfantry19,827
Great Britain right wingInfantry14,870
Great Britain reserveInfantry12,392
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry500
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry500
Great Britain artillery (136 guns)Artillery2,040
Raglan & Saint-ArnaudCommander—
In this plan64,999

Russia

Menshikov

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry7,495
Russia centreInfantry9,994
Russia right wingInfantry7,495
Russia reserveInfantry6,246
Russia cavalry of the leftCavalry1,700
Russia cavalry of the rightCavalry1,700
Russia artillery (118 guns)Artillery1,770
MenshikovCommander—
In this plan36,400

What the sources report

Great BritainRussia
Strength, this plan65,00036,400
Losses, this plan2,5625,709

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 165, “The Alma”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
10 km (attacker), 11 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britain & Franceattacker65,0002,5621,000136Frontal attack; Penetration
Russiadefender36,4005,7093,400118Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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.