Time Astra

Schematic plan · Franco-Spanish War

Battle of the Dunes (1658)

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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, Bare, Dunes groundHorseHorseHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserve01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army, 15,000 men under Turenne) attacked Spain (Sp Army, 12,000 men under Don Juan) in Spanish Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 4 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 2,000 (13%), Spain 7,000 (58%).

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

Turenne

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry2,160
France centreInfantry2,880
France right wingInfantry2,160
France reserveInfantry1,800
France cavalry of the leftCavalry3,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry3,000
TurenneCommander—
In this plan15,000

Spain

Don Juan

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry1,440
Spain centreInfantry1,920
Spain right wingInfantry1,440
Spain reserveInfantry1,200
Spain cavalry of the leftCavalry3,000
Spain cavalry of the rightCavalry3,000
Don JuanCommander—
In this plan12,000

What the sources report

FranceSpain
Strength, this plan15,00012,000
Losses, this plan2,0007,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 30, “The Dunes”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
4 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Bare, Dunes
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 4.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker15,0002,0006,000—Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Spaindefender12,0007,0007,0000Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · combat effectiveness +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.