Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of Arras (1917)

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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 wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmour05 km10 kmN

Great Britain (Br 1st, 3rd & 5th Armies, 276,000 men under Fm Haig) attacked Germany (Ger 6th Army, 120,000 men under Gen Falkenhausen) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 336 hours of fighting on a front of 32 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that neither side won. Losses: Great Britain 83,379 (30%), Germany 75,000 (63%).

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

Fm Haig

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry56,246
Great Britain centreInfantry74,995
Great Britain right wingInfantry56,246
Great Britain reserveInfantry46,872
Great Britain artillery (2,817 guns)Artillery41,400
Great Britain armour (48 tanks)Armour240
Fm HaigCommander—
In this plan275,999

Germany

Gen Falkenhausen

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry25,150
Germany centreInfantry33,533
Germany right wingInfantry25,150
Germany reserveInfantry20,958
Germany artillery (1,014 guns)Artillery15,210
Gen FalkenhausenCommander—
In this plan120,001

What the sources report

Great BritainGermany
Strength, this plan276,000120,000
Losses, this plan83,37975,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 316, “Arras”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
336 hours
Winner
the draw
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
32 km (attacker), 32 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker276,00083,37902,817Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Germanydefender120,00075,00001,014Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · surprise +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.