Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of Lake Naroch

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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns05 km10 kmN

Russia (Russ 2nd Army, 350,000 men under Gen Smirnov) attacked Germany (Ger 10th Army, 180,000 men under Gen Eichhorn) in Russian Poland. The CAA Database of Battles records 192 hours of fighting on a front of 20 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Germany held. Losses: Russia 100,000 (29%), Germany 20,000 (11%).

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

Russia

Gen Smirnov

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry80,807
Russia centreInfantry107,742
Russia right wingInfantry80,807
Russia reserveInfantry67,339
Russia artillery (887 guns)Artillery13,305
Gen SmirnovCommander—
In this plan350,000

Germany

Gen Eichhorn

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry41,616
Germany centreInfantry55,488
Germany right wingInfantry41,616
Germany reserveInfantry34,680
Germany artillery (440 guns)Artillery6,600
Gen EichhornCommander—
In this plan180,000

What the sources report

RussiaGermany
Strength, this plan350,000180,000
Losses, this plan100,00020,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 310, “Lake Narotch”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
192 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
20 km (attacker), 20 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Russiaattacker350,000100,0000887Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate
Germanydefender180,00020,0000440Defensive plan; 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.