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Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1914)

Battle of St. Quentin (1914)

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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

Germany (Ger 2nd Army, 260,000 men under Gen Buelow) attacked France (Fr 5th Army, 200,000 men under Gen Lanrezac) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 14 hours of fighting on a front of 50 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: Germany 12,000 (5%), France 8,000 (4%).

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

Germany

Gen Buelow

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry62,400
Germany centreInfantry83,200
Germany right wingInfantry62,400
Germany reserveInfantry52,000
Gen BuelowCommander—
In this plan260,000

France

Gen Lanrezac

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry48,000
France centreInfantry64,000
France right wingInfantry48,000
France reserveInfantry40,000
Gen LanrezacCommander—
In this plan200,000

What the sources report

GermanyFrance
Strength, this plan260,000200,000
Losses, this plan12,0008,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 268, “Guise”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
14 hours
Winner
the draw
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
50 km (attacker), 50 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker260,00012,0000—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration; Repulse
Francedefender200,0008,0000—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack

Attacker’s advantages momentum +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.