Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1914)

Petit Morin

All battlesFirst Battle of the Marne: engagement 3 of 7The event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveBuelow010 km20 kmN

One of the 7 engagements of the First Battle of the Marne recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 3 in date order). France (Fr 5th Army, 227,000 men under Gen Franchet D'esperey) attacked Germany (Ger 2nd Army, 82,000 men under Gen Buelow) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 37 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 45,000 (20%), Germany 19,000 (23%).

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 Franchet D'esperey

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry54,480
France centreInfantry72,640
France right wingInfantry54,480
France reserveInfantry45,400
Gen Franchet D'espereyCommander—
In this plan227,000

Germany

Gen Buelow

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry19,680
Germany centreInfantry26,240
Germany right wingInfantry19,680
Germany reserveInfantry16,400
Gen BuelowCommander—
In this plan82,000

What the sources report

FranceGermany
Strength, this plan227,00082,000
Losses, this plan45,00019,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 272, “Petit Morin”, 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 attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
37 km (attacker), 27.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker227,00045,0000—Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Penetration
Germanydefender82,00019,0000—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +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.