Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1914)

Ourcq II

6 September 1914
France
Draw

All battles First Battle of the Marne: engagement 2 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 2 in date order). France (Fr 6th Army, 198,000 men under Gen Maunoury) attacked Germany (Ger 1st Army(-)(+), 157,000 men under Gen Kluck) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 32 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: France 40,000 (20%), Germany 39,000 (25%).

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 Maunoury

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	47,520
France centre	Infantry	63,360
France right wing	Infantry	47,520
France reserve	Infantry	39,600
Gen Maunoury	Commander	—
In this plan		198,000

Germany

Gen Kluck

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	37,680
Germany centre	Infantry	50,240
Germany right wing	Infantry	37,680
Germany reserve	Infantry	31,400
Gen Kluck	Commander	—
In this plan		157,000

What the sources report

	France	Germany
Strength, this plan	198,000	157,000
Losses, this plan	40,000	39,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 271, “Ourcq Ii”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 72 hours
Winner: the draw
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 32 km (attacker), 32 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	198,000	40,000	0	—	Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender	157,000	39,000	0	—	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; 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. 271 · 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.