Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Picardy 1918, I

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 wingReserveLeft wingRight wingGunsReserveGunsArmour010 km20 kmN

USA (Br 1st, 3rd, 4th Armies, 225,000 men under Fm Haig) attacked Germany (Ger 2nd & 18th Armies, 170,000 men under Cr Pr Rupprecht) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 70 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 10,000 (4%), Germany 30,000 (18%).

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

Fm Haig

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry46,246
USA centreInfantry61,661
USA right wingInfantry46,246
USA reserveInfantry38,538
USA artillery (2,000 guns)Artillery30,000
USA armour (462 tanks)Armour2,310
Fm HaigCommander—
In this plan225,001

Germany

Cr Pr Rupprecht

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry35,400
Germany centreInfantry47,200
Germany right wingInfantry35,400
Germany reserveInfantry29,500
Germany artillery (1,500 guns)Artillery22,500
Cr Pr RupprechtCommander—
In this plan170,000

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan225,000170,000
Losses, this plan10,00030,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 362, “Picardy 1918, I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
72 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
70 km (attacker), 70 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker225,00010,00002,000Frontal attack; Breakthrough
Germanydefender170,00030,00001,500Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages morale +2 · momentum +1 · intelligence +1 · technology +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.