Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Turkish Fronts 1917)

First Battle of Gaza

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserve05 km10 kmN

Great Britain (Br Army of Egypt, 25,000 men under Gen Murray) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk 8th Army, 26,000 men under Gen Kress von Kressenstein) in Palestine. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.8 hours of fighting on a front of 12 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Ottoman Empire held. Losses: Great Britain 4,000 (16%), Ottoman Empire 2,450 (9%).

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 Murray

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry6,000
Great Britain centreInfantry8,000
Great Britain right wingInfantry6,000
Great Britain reserveInfantry5,000
Gen MurrayCommander—
In this plan25,000

Ottoman Empire

Gen Kress von Kressenstein

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry6,240
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry8,320
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry6,240
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry5,200
Gen Kress von KressensteinCommander—
In this plan26,000

What the sources report

Great BritainOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan25,00026,000
Losses, this plan4,0002,450

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 326, “Gaza I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11.8 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
12 km (attacker), 19.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker25,0004,0000—Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
Ottoman Empiredefender26,0002,4500—Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +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.