Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Balkan Wars

Battle of Prilep

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.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns05 km10 kmN

Serbia (Serb 1st Army, 50,000 men under Gen Putnik) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk Army of Macedonia, 20,000 men under unrecorded commanders) in European Turkey. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 22 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Serbia won. Losses: Serbia 3,000 (6%), Ottoman Empire 6,000 (30%).

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

Serbia

Gen Putnik

UnitArmMen
Serbia left wingInfantry11,741
Serbia centreInfantry15,654
Serbia right wingInfantry11,741
Serbia reserveInfantry9,784
Serbia artillery (72 guns)Artillery1,080
Gen PutnikCommander—
In this plan50,000

Ottoman Empire

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry4,800
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry6,400
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry4,800
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry4,000
Ottoman Empire commandCommander—
In this plan20,000

What the sources report

SerbiaOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan50,00020,000
Losses, this plan3,0006,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 250, “Prelip”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width
22 km (attacker), 10 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Serbiaattacker50,0003,000072Frontal attack; Penetration
Ottoman Empiredefender20,0006,0000—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · morale +1 · 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.