Time Astra

Schematic plan · Egypt and the Sudan

Battle of Omdurman

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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.
Flat, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns01 km2 kmN

Mahdists (Mahdists, 55,000 men under Abdullahini) attacked Great Britain (Br Army, 25,800 men under Kitchener) in The Sudan. The CAA Database of Battles records 5 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Great Britain held. Losses: Mahdists 30,700 (56%), Great Britain 482 (2%).

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

Mahdists

Abdullahini

UnitArmMen
Mahdists left wingInfantry13,200
Mahdists centreInfantry17,600
Mahdists right wingInfantry13,200
Mahdists reserveInfantry11,000
AbdullahiniCommander—
In this plan55,000

Great Britain

Kitchener

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry5,904
Great Britain centreInfantry7,872
Great Britain right wingInfantry5,904
Great Britain reserveInfantry4,920
Great Britain artillery (80 guns)Artillery1,200
KitchenerCommander—
In this plan25,800

What the sources report

MahdistsGreat Britain
Strength, this plan55,00025,800
Losses, this plan30,700482

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 234, “Omdurman”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Flat, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 4.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Mahdistsattacker55,00030,700—0Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Great Britaindefender25,800482—80Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.