Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of the Piave River

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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 wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveGunsGuns010 km20 kmN

Austria (Aus Conrad & Borojevic Groups, 840,000 men under Archduke Eugene) attacked Italy (It Army Group, 784,000 men under Gen Diez) in Austria. The CAA Database of Battles records 168 hours of fighting on a front of 144 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Italy held. Losses: Austria 150,000 (18%), Italy 69,079 (9%).

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

Austria

Archduke Eugene

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry174,600
Austria centreInfantry232,800
Austria right wingInfantry174,600
Austria reserveInfantry145,500
Austria artillery (7,500 guns)Artillery112,500
Archduke EugeneCommander—
In this plan840,000

Italy

Gen Diez

UnitArmMen
Italy left wingInfantry162,805
Italy centreInfantry217,074
Italy right wingInfantry162,805
Italy reserveInfantry135,671
Italy artillery (7,043 guns)Artillery105,645
Gen DiezCommander—
In this plan784,000

What the sources report

AustriaItaly
Strength, this plan840,000784,000
Losses, this plan150,00069,079

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 384, “The Piave”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
144 km (attacker), 144 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker840,000150,00007,500Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate
Italydefender784,00069,07907,043Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.