Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Tenth Battle of the Isonzo

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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 wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingGunsReserveGuns05 km10 kmN

Italy (It 2nd & 3rd Armies, 280,000 men under Gen Cadorna) attacked Austria (Aus 5th Army, 165,000 men under Gen Borojevic) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 576 hours of fighting on a front of 25 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Italy won. Losses: Italy 157,000 (56%), Austria 75,700 (46%).

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

Italy

Gen Cadorna

UnitArmMen
Italy left wingInfantry59,280
Italy centreInfantry79,040
Italy right wingInfantry59,280
Italy reserveInfantry49,400
Italy artillery (2,200 guns)Artillery33,000
Gen CadornaCommander—
In this plan280,000

Austria

Gen Borojevic

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry34,560
Austria centreInfantry46,080
Austria right wingInfantry34,560
Austria reserveInfantry28,800
Austria artillery (1,400 guns)Artillery21,000
Gen BorojevicCommander—
In this plan165,000

What the sources report

ItalyAustria
Strength, this plan280,000165,000
Losses, this plan157,00075,700

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 322, “Tenth Isonzo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
576 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
25 km (attacker), 25 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Italyattacker280,000157,00002,200Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Austriadefender165,00075,70001,400Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages initiative +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.