Time Astra

Schematic plan · Austro-Prussian (Seven Week's) War

Battle of Königgrätz

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns05 km10 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army Group, 220,000 men under Moltke) attacked Austria (Aus & Sax Army, 215,000 men under Benedek) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 8 hours of fighting on a front of 12 km, a double envelopment, frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 9,200 (4%), Austria 44,300 (21%).

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

Prussia

Moltke

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry43,512
Prussia centreInfantry58,016
Prussia right wingInfantry43,512
Prussia reserveInfantry36,260
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry13,500
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry13,500
Prussia artillery (780 guns)Artillery11,700
MoltkeCommander—
In this plan220,000

Austria

Benedek

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry43,068
Austria centreInfantry57,424
Austria right wingInfantry43,068
Austria reserveInfantry35,890
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry12,000
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry12,000
Austria artillery (770 guns)Artillery11,550
BenedekCommander—
In this plan215,000

What the sources report

PrussiaAustria
Strength, this plan220,000215,000
Losses, this plan9,20044,300

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 169, “Sadowa (Koeniggratz)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
8 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
12 km (attacker), 24 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker220,0009,20027,000780Double envelopment; Frontal attack; Penetration
Austriadefender215,00044,30024,000770Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.