Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Turkish Fronts 1915)

Landing at Suvla Bay

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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.
Rugged, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Great Britain (Br 7th, 10th, 11th, & 12th Divs, 25,000 men under Lg Stopford) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk 7th & 12th Divs, 15,800 men under Gen Liman von Sanders) in Turkey. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 4.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Ottoman Empire held. Losses: Great Britain 9,000 (36%), Ottoman Empire 750 (5%).

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

Lg Stopford

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry5,798
Great Britain centreInfantry7,731
Great Britain right wingInfantry5,798
Great Britain reserveInfantry4,832
Great Britain artillery (56 guns)Artillery840
Lg StopfordCommander—
In this plan24,999

Ottoman Empire

Gen Liman von Sanders

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry3,720
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry4,960
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry3,720
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry3,100
Ottoman Empire artillery (20 guns)Artillery300
Gen Liman von SandersCommander—
In this plan15,800

What the sources report

Great BritainOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan25,00015,800
Losses, this plan9,000750

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 301, “Suvla Bay”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
72 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rugged, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4.8 km (attacker), 4.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker25,0009,000056Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Ottoman Empiredefender15,800750020Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages surprise +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.