Schematic plan · Franco-Prussian War

Second Battle of Orléans (1870)

2 December 1870
France
Victory for Germany

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

Germany (Ger 2nd Army, 86,000 men under Friedrich Karl) attacked France (Fr Army of the Loire, 116,000 men under Aurelle) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 60 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 6,300 (7%), France 28,000 (24%).

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

Friedrich Karl

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	15,436
Germany centre	Infantry	20,581
Germany right wing	Infantry	15,436
Germany reserve	Infantry	12,863
Germany cavalry of the left	Cavalry	7,400
Germany cavalry of the right	Cavalry	7,400
Germany artillery (459 guns)	Artillery	6,885
Friedrich Karl	Commander	—
In this plan		86,001

France

Aurelle

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	22,445
France centre	Infantry	29,926
France right wing	Infantry	22,445
France reserve	Infantry	18,704
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	8,000
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	8,000
France artillery (432 guns)	Artillery	6,480
Aurelle	Commander	—
In this plan		116,000

What the sources report

	Germany	France
Strength, this plan	86,000	116,000
Losses, this plan	6,300	28,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 227, “Orleans”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 48 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 60 km (attacker), 60 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	86,000	6,300	14,800	459	Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Francedefender	116,000	28,000	16,000	432	Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages training +2 · initiative +1 · combat effectiveness +2

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 227 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Second Battle of Orléans (1870) · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.