Schematic plan · Egypt and the Sudan

Battle of Tel el-Kebir

13 September 1882
Egypt
Victory for Great Britain

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.

Great Britain (Br Army, 17,401 men under Wolseley) attacked Egypt (Eg Army, 20,000 men under Arabi) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 2.1 hours of fighting on a front of 6.4 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 469 (3%), Egypt 2,500 (13%).

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

Great Britain

Wolseley

Unit	Arm	Men
Great Britain left wing	Infantry	3,288
Great Britain centre	Infantry	4,384
Great Britain right wing	Infantry	3,288
Great Britain reserve	Infantry	2,740
Great Britain cavalry of the left	Cavalry	1,393
Great Britain cavalry of the right	Cavalry	1,393
Great Britain artillery (61 guns)	Artillery	915
Wolseley	Commander	—
In this plan		17,401

Egypt

Arabi

Unit	Arm	Men
Egypt left wing	Infantry	4,530
Egypt centre	Infantry	6,040
Egypt right wing	Infantry	4,530
Egypt reserve	Infantry	3,775
Egypt artillery (75 guns)	Artillery	1,125
Arabi	Commander	—
In this plan		20,000

What the sources report

	Great Britain	Egypt
Strength, this plan	17,401	20,000
Losses, this plan	469	2,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 233, “Tel El-Kebir”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 2.1 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Tropical
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 6.4 km (attacker), 6.4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Great Britainattacker	17,401	469	2,785	61	Frontal attack; Penetration; Pursued
Egyptdefender	20,000	2,500	—	75	Defensive plan; Withdrew

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 233 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Tel el-Kebir · 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.