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Schematic plan · World War I (Eastern Front 1914)

Battle of Kraśnik

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns010 km20 kmN

Austria (Aus 1st Army, 350,000 men under Gen Dankl) attacked Russia (Rus 4th Army, 260,000 men under Gen Salza) in Russian Poland. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 64 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that Austria won. Losses: Austria 50,000 (14%), Russia 50,000 (19%).

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

Austria

Gen Dankl

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry80,850
Austria centreInfantry107,800
Austria right wingInfantry80,850
Austria reserveInfantry67,375
Austria artillery (875 guns)Artillery13,125
Gen DanklCommander—
In this plan350,000

Russia

Gen Salza

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry59,916
Russia centreInfantry79,888
Russia right wingInfantry59,916
Russia reserveInfantry49,930
Russia artillery (690 guns)Artillery10,350
Gen SalzaCommander—
In this plan260,000

What the sources report

AustriaRussia
Strength, this plan350,000260,000
Losses, this plan50,00050,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 282, “Krasnik”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
48 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
64 km (attacker), 64 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker350,00050,0000875Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Penetration
Russiadefender260,00050,0000690Defensive plan; 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

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.