Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Meuse-Argonne I

26 September 1918
France
Victory for USA

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.

USA (US 1st Army(+), 300,000 men under Gen Pershing) attacked Germany (Ger 3rd Army(+), 190,000 men under Gen Einem) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 168 hours of fighting on a front of 53 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 22,128 (7%), Germany 21,448 (11%).

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

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	62,053
USA centre	Infantry	82,738
USA right wing	Infantry	62,053
USA reserve	Infantry	51,711
USA artillery (2,700 guns)	Artillery	40,500
USA armour (189 tanks)	Armour	945
Gen Pershing	Commander	—
In this plan		300,000

Germany

Gen Einem

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	45,600
Germany centre	Infantry	60,800
Germany right wing	Infantry	45,600
Germany reserve	Infantry	38,000
Gen Einem	Commander	—
In this plan		190,000

What the sources report

	USA	Germany
Strength, this plan	300,000	190,000
Losses, this plan	22,128	21,448

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 366, “Meuse-Argonne I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 168 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Heavily wooded
Weather: Dry, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense
Front width: 53 km (attacker), 53 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	300,000	22,128	0	2,700	Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Germanydefender	190,000	21,448	0	—	Defensive plan; Stalemate

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 366 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.

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.