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Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of the Lys (1918)

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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.
Flat, Mixed groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveArmourArmour010 km20 kmN

Germany (Ger 4th & 6th Armies, 500,000 men under Gen Ludendorff) attacked Great Britain (Br 1st & 2nd Armies, 400,000 men under Fm Haig) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 504 hours of fighting on a front of 32 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 175,000 (35%), Great Britain 152,500 (38%).

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 wingInfantry119,989
Germany centreInfantry159,986
Germany right wingInfantry119,989
Germany reserveInfantry99,991
Germany armour (9 tanks)Armour45
Gen LudendorffCommander—
In this plan500,000

Great Britain

Fm Haig

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry95,784
Great Britain centreInfantry127,712
Great Britain right wingInfantry95,784
Great Britain reserveInfantry79,820
Great Britain armour (180 tanks)Armour900
Fm HaigCommander—
In this plan400,000

What the sources report

GermanyGreat Britain
Strength, this plan500,000400,000
Losses, this plan175,000152,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 332, “Lys”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
504 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
32 km (attacker), 32 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker500,000175,0000—Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Great Britaindefender400,000152,5000—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +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.