Time Astra

Schematic plan · Franco-Prussian War

Battle of Sedan (1870)

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseGunsGunsHorseHorse02.5 km5 kmN

Germany (Ger 2nd & 3rd Armies, 200,000 men under Moltke) attacked France (Fr Army of Alsace, 120,000 men under Macmahon (Wimpfen)) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 13 hours of fighting on a front of 13 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 9,000 (5%), France 38,000 (32%).

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 wingInfantry39,716
Germany centreInfantry52,955
Germany right wingInfantry39,716
Germany reserveInfantry33,097
Germany cavalry of the leftCavalry12,000
Germany cavalry of the rightCavalry12,000
Germany artillery (701 guns)Artillery10,515
MoltkeCommander—
In this plan199,999

France

Macmahon (Wimpfen)

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry23,890
France centreInfantry31,853
France right wingInfantry23,890
France reserveInfantry19,908
France cavalry of the leftCavalry6,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry6,000
France artillery (564 guns)Artillery8,460
Macmahon (Wimpfen)Commander—
In this plan120,001

What the sources report

GermanyFrance
Strength, this plan200,000120,000
Losses, this plan9,00038,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 225, “Sedan”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
13 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
13 km (attacker), 13 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker200,0009,00024,000701Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Francedefender120,00038,00012,000564Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · logistics +1 · momentum +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.