Time Astra

Schematic plan · Franco-Prussian War

Siege of Belfort

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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 wingReserveGunsHorseHorseHorseHorseGuns05 km10 kmN

France (Fr Army of the East, 110,000 men under Bourbaki) attacked Germany (Ger Army of the South, 40,000 men under Werder) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 7.5 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Germany held. Losses: France 8,000 (7%), Germany 2,000 (5%).

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

France

Bourbaki

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry23,714
France centreInfantry31,619
France right wingInfantry23,714
France reserveInfantry19,762
France cavalry of the leftCavalry4,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry4,500
France artillery (146 guns)Artillery2,190
BourbakiCommander—
In this plan109,999

Germany

Werder

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry7,210
Germany centreInfantry9,613
Germany right wingInfantry7,210
Germany reserveInfantry6,008
Germany cavalry of the leftCavalry2,250
Germany cavalry of the rightCavalry2,250
Germany artillery (364 guns)Artillery5,460
WerderCommander—
In this plan40,001

What the sources report

FranceGermany
Strength, this plan110,00040,000
Losses, this plan8,0002,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 229, “Belfort”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
7.5 km (attacker), 15 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker110,0008,0009,000146Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Germanydefender40,0002,0004,500364—

Attacker’s advantages 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.