Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Second Somme-Phase II (Somme-Montdidier)

All battles
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 wingReserveReserveGunsGunsArmour010 km20 kmN

Germany (Ger 2nd, 17th & 18th Armies, 700,000 men under Gen Ludendorff) attacked Great Britain (Br 1st(-), 3rd & 5th (4th) Armies, 600,000 men under Fm Haig) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 312 hours of fighting on a front of 140 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense and prepared defense, and that neither side won. Losses: Germany 133,000 (19%), Great Britain 140,000 (23%).

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

Germany

Gen Ludendorff

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry144,960
Germany centreInfantry193,280
Germany right wingInfantry144,960
Germany reserveInfantry120,800
Germany artillery (6,400 guns)Artillery96,000
Gen LudendorffCommander—
In this plan700,000

Great Britain

Fm Haig

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry129,360
Great Britain centreInfantry172,480
Great Britain right wingInfantry129,360
Great Britain reserveInfantry107,800
Great Britain artillery (4,000 guns)Artillery60,000
Great Britain armour (200 tanks)Armour1,000
Fm HaigCommander—
In this plan600,000

What the sources report

GermanyGreat Britain
Strength, this plan700,000600,000
Losses, this plan133,000140,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 331, “Second Somme-Phase Ii (Somme-Montdidier)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
312 hours
Winner
the draw
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense, Prepared defense
Front width
140 km (attacker), 140 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker700,000133,00006,400Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Great Britaindefender600,000140,00004,000Defensive plan; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +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.