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Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1914)

Battle of the Ardennes

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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, Heavily wooded groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserve010 km20 kmN

France (Fr 3rd & 4th Armies, 360,000 men under Gen Joffre) attacked Germany (Ger 4th &5th Armies, 400,000 men under Gen Moltke) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 100 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Germany held. Losses: France 17,196 (5%), Germany 12,720 (3%).

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

France

Gen Joffre

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry86,400
France centreInfantry115,200
France right wingInfantry86,400
France reserveInfantry72,000
Gen JoffreCommander—
In this plan360,000

Germany

Gen Moltke

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry96,000
Germany centreInfantry128,000
Germany right wingInfantry96,000
Germany reserveInfantry80,000
Gen MoltkeCommander—
In this plan400,000

What the sources report

FranceGermany
Strength, this plan360,000400,000
Losses, this plan17,19612,720

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 264, “The Ardennes”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rolling, Heavily wooded
Weather
Wet, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
100 km (attacker), 100 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker360,00017,1960—Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Germanydefender400,00012,7200—Defensive plan; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.