Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of the Somme

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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, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGunsArmour010 km20 kmN

Great Britain (Br 4th & 6th Armies, 600,000 men under Gen Rawlinson & Gen Fayolle) attacked Germany (Ger 2nd Army, 300,000 men under Gen Below) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 2,736 hours of fighting on a front of 62.4 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Germany held. Losses: Great Britain 670,000 (112%), Germany 500,000 (167%).

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 Rawlinson · Gen Fayolle

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry138,408
Great Britain centreInfantry184,544
Great Britain right wingInfantry138,408
Great Britain reserveInfantry115,340
Great Britain artillery (1,537 guns)Artillery23,055
Great Britain armour (49 tanks)Armour245
Gen Rawlinson & Gen FayolleCommander—
In this plan600,000

Germany

Gen Below

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry70,560
Germany centreInfantry94,080
Germany right wingInfantry70,560
Germany reserveInfantry58,800
Germany artillery (400 guns)Artillery6,000
Gen BelowCommander—
In this plan300,000

What the sources report

Great BritainGermany
Strength, this plan600,000300,000
Losses, this plan670,000500,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 304, “First Somme”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
2736 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
62.4 km (attacker), 62.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker600,000670,00001,537Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Germanydefender300,000500,0000400Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages technology +1 · air superiority +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.