Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War I

Battle of Megiddo (1918)

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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, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGuns05 km10 kmN

Great Britain (Br 21st Corps(+), 51,170 men under Gen Allenby) attacked Ottoman Empire (Tk 8th Army, 18,250 men under Gen Liman von Sanders) in Palestine. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 24 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Great Britain won. Losses: Great Britain 3,378 (7%), Ottoman Empire 7,000 (38%).

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

Great Britain

Gen Allenby

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry10,898
Great Britain centreInfantry14,531
Great Britain right wingInfantry10,898
Great Britain reserveInfantry9,082
Great Britain artillery (384 guns)Artillery5,760
Gen AllenbyCommander—
In this plan51,169

Ottoman Empire

Gen Liman von Sanders

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry3,840
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry5,120
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry3,840
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry3,200
Ottoman Empire artillery (150 guns)Artillery2,250
Gen Liman von SandersCommander—
In this plan18,250

What the sources report

Great BritainOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan51,17018,250
Losses, this plan3,3787,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 385, “Megiddo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
24 km (attacker), 24 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker51,1703,3780384Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Ottoman Empiredefender18,2507,0000150Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · morale +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +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.