Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I (Western Front 1918)

Battle of Meuse-Argonne II

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 wingReserve010 km20 kmN

USA (Fr 4th Army(+), 500,000 men under Gen Foch) attacked Germany (Ger 3rd Army(+), 300,000 men under Gen Ludendorff) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 648 hours of fighting on a front of 104 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 77,448 (15%), Germany 75,068 (25%).

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 Foch

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry120,000
USA centreInfantry160,000
USA right wingInfantry120,000
USA reserveInfantry100,000
Gen FochCommander—
In this plan500,000

Germany

Gen Ludendorff

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry72,000
Germany centreInfantry96,000
Germany right wingInfantry72,000
Germany reserveInfantry60,000
Gen LudendorffCommander—
In this plan300,000

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan500,000300,000
Losses, this plan77,44875,068

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 373, “Meuse-Argonne Ii”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
648 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
104 km (attacker), 104 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker500,00077,4480—Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
Germanydefender300,00075,0680—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages morale +2 · 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.