Time Astra

Schematic plan · Boer War

Battle of Modder River

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, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Great Britain (Br Army, 8,000 men under Methuen) attacked South African Republic (Boer Army, 3,500 men under Cronje & de la Rey) in South Africa. The CAA Database of Battles records 10 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 468 (6%), South African Republic 150 (4%).

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

Methuen

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry1,862
Great Britain centreInfantry2,483
Great Britain right wingInfantry1,862
Great Britain reserveInfantry1,552
Great Britain artillery (16 guns)Artillery240
MethuenCommander—
In this plan7,999

South African Republic

Cronje · De la Rey

UnitArmMen
South African Republic left wingInfantry808
South African Republic centreInfantry1,077
South African Republic right wingInfantry808
South African Republic reserveInfantry673
South African Republic artillery (9 guns)Artillery135
Cronje & de la ReyCommander—
In this plan3,501

What the sources report

Great BritainSouth African Republic
Strength, this plan8,0003,500
Losses, this plan468150

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 236, “Modder River”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
10 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 4.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker8,000468016Frontal attack; Repulse
South African Republicdefender3,50015009Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · morale +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.