Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1914)

Ourcq I

5 September 1914
France
Draw

All battles First Battle of the Marne: engagement 1 of 7 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.

One of the 7 engagements of the First Battle of the Marne recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 1 in date order). France (Fr 6th Army, 100,000 men under Gen Mounoury) attacked Germany (Ger 4th Reserve Corps, 45,000 men under Gen Gronau) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 18 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: France 5,600 (6%), Germany 2,500 (6%).

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 Mounoury

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	24,000
France centre	Infantry	32,000
France right wing	Infantry	24,000
France reserve	Infantry	20,000
Gen Mounoury	Commander	—
In this plan		100,000

Germany

Gen Gronau

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	10,541
Germany centre	Infantry	14,054
Germany right wing	Infantry	10,541
Germany reserve	Infantry	8,784
Germany artillery (72 guns)	Artillery	1,080
Gen Gronau	Commander	—
In this plan		45,000

What the sources report

	France	Germany
Strength, this plan	100,000	45,000
Losses, this plan	5,600	2,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 270, “Ourcq I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 12 hours
Winner: the draw
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 18 km (attacker), 18 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	100,000	5,600	0	—	Frontal attack; Stalemate
Germanydefender	45,000	2,500	0	72	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 270 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, First Battle of the Marne · 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.