Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Balkan Wars

Battle of Lule Burgas

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserve010 km20 kmN

Bulgaria (Bul Army Group, 140,000 men under Gen Dimitriev) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk Army of the East, 110,000 men under Abdalla Pasha) in European Turkey. The CAA Database of Battles records 96 hours of fighting on a front of 32 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Bulgaria won. Losses: Bulgaria 20,000 (14%), Ottoman Empire 30,000 (27%).

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

Bulgaria

Gen Dimitriev

UnitArmMen
Bulgaria left wingInfantry33,600
Bulgaria centreInfantry44,800
Bulgaria right wingInfantry33,600
Bulgaria reserveInfantry28,000
Gen DimitrievCommander—
In this plan140,000

Ottoman Empire

Abdalla Pasha

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry26,400
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry35,200
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry26,400
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry22,000
Abdalla PashaCommander—
In this plan110,000

What the sources report

BulgariaOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan140,000110,000
Losses, this plan20,00030,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 249, “Lule Burgas”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
96 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
32 km (attacker), 40 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Bulgariaattacker140,00020,0000—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration
Ottoman Empiredefender110,00030,0000—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +1 · 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

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.