Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of St. Mihiel

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 wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmour010 km20 kmN

USA (US 1st Army, 400,000 men under Gen Pershing) attacked Germany (Ger Army Det C, 100,000 men under Gen Fuchs) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 72 km, a single envelopment, left flank against fortified defense and delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 7,000 (2%), Germany 20,000 (20%).

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

Gen Pershing

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry84,844
USA centreInfantry113,125
USA right wingInfantry84,844
USA reserveInfantry70,703
USA artillery (3,010 guns)Artillery45,150
USA armour (267 tanks)Armour1,335
Gen PershingCommander—
In this plan400,001

Germany

Gen Fuchs

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry20,400
Germany centreInfantry27,200
Germany right wingInfantry20,400
Germany reserveInfantry17,000
Germany artillery (1,000 guns)Artillery15,000
Gen FuchsCommander—
In this plan100,000

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan400,000100,000
Losses, this plan7,00020,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 364, “St. Mihiel”, 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, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense, Delaying action
Front width
72 km (attacker), 72 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker400,0007,00003,010Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration; Pursued
Germanydefender100,00020,00001,000Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

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