Time Astra

Schematic plan · Russo-Japanese War

Battle of Shaho

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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 wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGunsHorseHorseHorseHorse010 km20 kmN

Russia (Russ Army Group, 210,000 men under Kuropatkin) attacked Japan (Jap Army Group, 145,000 men under Oyama) in Manchuria. The CAA Database of Battles records 312 hours of fighting on a front of 64 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Japan held. Losses: Russia 46,000 (22%), Japan 17,000 (12%).

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

Russia

Kuropatkin

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry42,739
Russia centreInfantry56,986
Russia right wingInfantry42,739
Russia reserveInfantry35,616
Russia cavalry of the leftCavalry9,000
Russia cavalry of the rightCavalry9,000
Russia artillery (928 guns)Artillery13,920
KuropatkinCommander—
In this plan210,000

Japan

Oyama

UnitArmMen
Japan left wingInfantry30,917
Japan centreInfantry41,222
Japan right wingInfantry30,917
Japan reserveInfantry25,764
Japan cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
Japan cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
Japan artillery (612 guns)Artillery9,180
OyamaCommander—
In this plan145,000

What the sources report

RussiaJapan
Strength, this plan210,000145,000
Losses, this plan46,00017,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 245, “The Sha-Ho”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
312 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
64 km (attacker), 64 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Russiaattacker210,00046,00018,000928Frontal attack; Stalemate
Japandefender145,00017,0007,000612Defensive/offensive plan

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.