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Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of Loos

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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.
Flat, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserve02 km4 kmN

Great Britain (Br 1st Army, 298,437 men under Gen Haig) attacked Germany (Ger 6th Army(-), 75,000 men under Cr Pr Rupprecht) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 456 hours of fighting on a front of 7.2 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Germany held. Losses: Great Britain 61,713 (21%), Germany 19,836 (26%).

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

Great Britain

Gen Haig

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry71,625
Great Britain centreInfantry95,500
Great Britain right wingInfantry71,625
Great Britain reserveInfantry59,687
Gen HaigCommander—
In this plan298,437

Germany

Cr Pr Rupprecht

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry18,000
Germany centreInfantry24,000
Germany right wingInfantry18,000
Germany reserveInfantry15,000
Cr Pr RupprechtCommander—
In this plan75,000

What the sources report

Great BritainGermany
Strength, this plan298,43775,000
Losses, this plan61,71319,836

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 293, “Loos”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
456 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
7.2 km (attacker), 7.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker298,43761,7130—Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Germanydefender75,00019,8360—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate

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.