Schematic plan · The Spanish Civil War

Battle of Guadalajara

11 March 1937
Spain
Victory for Spanish Republic

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.

Italy (It Vol Corps, 52,000 men under Gen Roatta) attacked Spanish Republic (Sp Republican Forces, 100,000 men under Gen Miaja) in Spain. The CAA Database of Battles records 96 hours of fighting on a front of 11 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Spanish Republic held. Losses: Italy 6,460 (12%), Spanish Republic 6,660 (7%).

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

Italy

Gen Roatta

Unit	Arm	Men
Italy left wing	Infantry	11,592
Italy centre	Infantry	15,456
Italy right wing	Infantry	11,592
Italy reserve	Infantry	9,660
Italy artillery (230 guns)	Artillery	3,450
Italy armour (50 tanks)	Armour	250
Gen Roatta	Commander	—
In this plan		52,000

Spanish Republic

Gen Miaja

Unit	Arm	Men
Spanish Republic left wing	Infantry	23,916
Spanish Republic centre	Infantry	31,888
Spanish Republic right wing	Infantry	23,916
Spanish Republic reserve	Infantry	19,930
Spanish Republic armour (70 tanks)	Armour	350
Gen Miaja	Commander	—
In this plan		100,000

What the sources report

	Italy	Spanish Republic
Strength, this plan	52,000	100,000
Losses, this plan	6,460	6,660

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 255, “Guadalajara-Brihuega”, 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 defender
Terrain: Flat, Bare
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 11 km (attacker), 11 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Italyattacker	52,000	6,460	0	230	Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
Spanish Republicdefender	100,000	6,660	0	—	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages surprise +2

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. 255 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Guadalajara · 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.