Time Astra

Schematic plan · Franco-Prussian War

Battle of Mars-la-Tour

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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 wingReserveGunsHorseHorseHorseHorseGuns02.5 km5 kmN

Germany (Ger 1st & 2nd Armies, 63,000 men under Moltke) attacked France (Fr Army of Lorraine, 113,000 men under Bazaine) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 12 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 16,000 (25%), France 14,000 (12%).

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

Germany

Moltke

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry10,730
Germany centreInfantry14,307
Germany right wingInfantry10,730
Germany reserveInfantry8,942
Germany cavalry of the leftCavalry5,500
Germany cavalry of the rightCavalry5,500
Germany artillery (486 guns)Artillery7,290
MoltkeCommander—
In this plan62,999

France

Bazaine

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry22,939
France centreInfantry30,586
France right wingInfantry22,939
France reserveInfantry19,116
France cavalry of the leftCavalry7,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry7,000
France artillery (228 guns)Artillery3,420
BazaineCommander—
In this plan113,000

What the sources report

GermanyFrance
Strength, this plan63,000113,000
Losses, this plan16,00014,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 223, “Mars La Tour”, 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 attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
12 km (attacker), 10 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker63,00016,00011,000486Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration
Francedefender113,00014,00014,000228Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; 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.