Schematic plan · Russo-Japanese War

Battle of Liaoyang

25 August 1904
Manchuria
Victory for Japan

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.

Japan (Jap Army Group, 135,000 men under Oyama) attacked Russia (Russ Army Group, 150,000 men under Kuropatkin) in Manchuria. The CAA Database of Battles records 216 hours of fighting on a front of 42 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Japan won. Losses: Japan 17,500 (13%), Russia 16,500 (11%).

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

Japan

Oyama

Unit	Arm	Men
Japan left wing	Infantry	29,213
Japan centre	Infantry	38,950
Japan right wing	Infantry	29,213
Japan reserve	Infantry	24,344
Japan cavalry of the left	Cavalry	2,500
Japan cavalry of the right	Cavalry	2,500
Japan artillery (552 guns)	Artillery	8,280
Oyama	Commander	—
In this plan		135,000

Russia

Kuropatkin

Unit	Arm	Men
Russia left wing	Infantry	30,449
Russia centre	Infantry	40,598
Russia right wing	Infantry	30,449
Russia reserve	Infantry	25,374
Russia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	7,500
Russia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	7,500
Russia artillery (542 guns)	Artillery	8,130
Kuropatkin	Commander	—
In this plan		150,000

What the sources report

	Japan	Russia
Strength, this plan	135,000	150,000
Losses, this plan	17,500	16,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 244, “Liaoyang”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 216 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width: 42 km (attacker), 42 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Japanattacker	135,000	17,500	5,000	552	Frontal attack; Penetration; Pursued
Russiadefender	150,000	16,500	15,000	542	Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 244 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Liaoyang · 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.