Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Breuil

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 28th Inf Rgt(+), 5,039 men under Col Babcock) attacked Germany (Ger 22nd Bav Inf Rgt(+), 2,663 men under Col Carl) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.4 hours of fighting on a front of 0.8 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 448 (9%), Germany 1,243 (47%).

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 Babcock

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,095
USA centreInfantry1,460
USA right wingInfantry1,095
USA reserveInfantry913
USA artillery (29 guns)Artillery435
USA armour (8 tanks)Armour40
Col BabcockCommander—
In this plan5,038

Germany

Col Carl

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry543
Germany centreInfantry724
Germany right wingInfantry543
Germany reserveInfantry453
Germany artillery (48 guns)Artillery399
Col CarlCommander—
In this plan2,662

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan5,0392,663
Losses, this plan4481,243

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 354, “Breuil”, 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
0.8 km (attacker), 0.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker5,039448029Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender2,6631,243048Defensive 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.