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Schematic plan · World War I (Turkish Fronts 1917)

Battle of Jerusalem (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 wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserve05 km10 kmN

Great Britain (Br Army of Egypt, 85,000 men under Gen Allenby) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk 8th Army, 15,500 men under Gen Kress von Kressenstein) in Palestine. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 24 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against prepared defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 4,000 (5%), Ottoman Empire 4,800 (31%).

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 Allenby

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry20,400
Great Britain centreInfantry27,200
Great Britain right wingInfantry20,400
Great Britain reserveInfantry17,000
Gen AllenbyCommander—
In this plan85,000

Ottoman Empire

Gen Kress von Kressenstein

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry3,720
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry4,960
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry3,720
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry3,100
Gen Kress von KressensteinCommander—
In this plan15,500

What the sources report

Great BritainOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan85,00015,500
Losses, this plan4,0004,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 329, “Junction Station”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
24 km (attacker), 24 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker85,0004,00000Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough
Ottoman Empiredefender15,5004,8000—Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · morale +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +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.