Schematic plan · World War I (Eastern Front 1914)

Battle of Komarów (1914)

26 August 1914
Russian Poland
Victory for Austria

All battles 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.

Austria (Aus 4th Army(+), 300,000 men under Gen Auffenberg) attacked Russia (Rus 5th Army, 260,000 men under Gen Plehve) in Russian Poland. The CAA Database of Battles records 96 hours of fighting on a front of 72 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Austria won. Losses: Austria 40,000 (13%), Russia 90,000 (35%).

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 Auffenberg

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	69,300
Austria centre	Infantry	92,400
Austria right wing	Infantry	69,300
Austria reserve	Infantry	57,750
Austria artillery (750 guns)	Artillery	11,250
Gen Auffenberg	Commander	—
In this plan		300,000

Russia

Gen Plehve

Unit	Arm	Men
Russia left wing	Infantry	59,808
Russia centre	Infantry	79,744
Russia right wing	Infantry	59,808
Russia reserve	Infantry	49,840
Russia artillery (720 guns)	Artillery	10,800
Gen Plehve	Commander	—
In this plan		260,000

What the sources report

	Austria	Russia
Strength, this plan	300,000	260,000
Losses, this plan	40,000	90,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 283, “Komarov”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 96 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 72 km (attacker), 72 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Austriaattacker	300,000	40,000	0	750	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Penetration
Russiadefender	260,000	90,000	0	720	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. 283 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Komarów (1914) · 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.