Schematic plan · World War I

Brusilov Offensive

4 June 1916
Austrian Galicia
Victory for Russia

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

Russia (Russ Southwest Army Group, 600,000 men under Gen Brusilov) attacked Austria (Aus 2nd, 4th & 7th, & Sud Armies, 500,000 men under Gen Conrad) in Austrian Galicia. The CAA Database of Battles records 792 hours of fighting on a front of 400 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Russia won. Losses: Russia 495,000 (83%), Austria 260,000 (52%).

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 Brusilov

Unit	Arm	Men
Russia left wing	Infantry	137,023
Russia centre	Infantry	182,698
Russia right wing	Infantry	137,023
Russia reserve	Infantry	114,186
Russia artillery (1,938 guns)	Artillery	29,070
Gen Brusilov	Commander	—
In this plan		600,000

Austria

Gen Conrad

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	113,354
Austria centre	Infantry	151,139
Austria right wing	Infantry	113,354
Austria reserve	Infantry	94,462
Austria artillery (1,846 guns)	Artillery	27,690
Gen Conrad	Commander	—
In this plan		499,999

What the sources report

	Russia	Austria
Strength, this plan	600,000	500,000
Losses, this plan	495,000	260,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 311, “1916 Brusilov Offensive”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 792 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 400 km (attacker), 400 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Russiaattacker	600,000	495,000	0	1,938	Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Austriadefender	500,000	260,000	0	1,846	Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages logistics +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 311 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Brusilov Offensive · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.