Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Eastern Front 1914)

Battle of Rawa

All battlesThe 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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveGunsGuns010 km20 kmN

Austria (Aus 2nd, 3rd & 4th Armies, 900,000 men under Gen Conrad) attacked Russia (Rus 3rd, 5th & 8th Armies, 936,000 men under Gen Ivanov) in Austrian Galicia. The CAA Database of Battles records 168 hours of fighting on a front of 160 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Russia held. Losses: Austria 180,000 (20%), Russia 82,000 (9%).

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 Conrad

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry208,800
Austria centreInfantry278,400
Austria right wingInfantry208,800
Austria reserveInfantry174,000
Austria artillery (2,000 guns)Artillery30,000
Gen ConradCommander—
In this plan900,000

Russia

Gen Ivanov

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry217,440
Russia centreInfantry289,920
Russia right wingInfantry217,440
Russia reserveInfantry181,200
Russia artillery (2,000 guns)Artillery30,000
Gen IvanovCommander—
In this plan936,000

What the sources report

AustriaRussia
Strength, this plan900,000936,000
Losses, this plan180,00082,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 285, “Rava Russka”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
168 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
160 km (attacker), 160 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker900,000180,00002,000Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Russiadefender936,00082,00002,000Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration

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.