Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Missy Aux Bois Ravine

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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGunsArmour0200 m400 mN

USA (US 26th Inf Rgt(+), 5,004 men under Col Smith) attacked Germany (Ger 13th Bav Res Inf Rgt(+), 3,013 men under Lg Kneussl) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.4 hours of fighting on a front of 0.7 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 393 (8%), Germany 1,853 (62%).

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

USA

Col Smith

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,085
USA centreInfantry1,446
USA right wingInfantry1,085
USA reserveInfantry904
USA artillery (29 guns)Artillery435
USA armour (10 tanks)Armour50
Col SmithCommander—
In this plan5,005

Germany

Lg Kneussl

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry626
Germany centreInfantry835
Germany right wingInfantry626
Germany reserveInfantry522
Germany artillery (27 guns)Artillery405
Lg KneusslCommander—
In this plan3,014

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan5,0043,013
Losses, this plan3931,853

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 353, “Missy Aux Bois Ravine”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11.4 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
0.7 km (attacker), 0.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker5,004393029Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender3,0131,853027Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages morale +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · 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.