Schematic plan · World War II (North Africa 1942-1943)

Battle of Alam Halfa

31 August 1942
Egypt
Victory for Great Britain

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.

Germany and Italy (Ger & Ital Pz Army Africa, 124,000 men under Gfm Rommel) attacked Great Britain (Br 8th Army, 120,000 men under Lg Montgomery) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 35.3 hours of fighting on a front of 90 km, a single envelopment, left rear against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Great Britain held. Losses: Germany and Italy 2,940 (2%), Great Britain 1,750 (1%).

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

Germany and Italy

Gfm Rommel

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	27,133
Germany centre	Infantry	36,178
Germany right wing	Infantry	27,133
Germany reserve	Infantry	22,611
Germany artillery (558 guns)	Artillery	8,370
Germany armour (515 tanks)	Armour	2,575
Gfm Rommel	Commander	—
In this plan		124,000

Great Britain

Lg Montgomery

Unit	Arm	Men
Great Britain left wing	Infantry	26,186
Great Britain centre	Infantry	34,915
Great Britain right wing	Infantry	26,186
Great Britain reserve	Infantry	21,822
Great Britain artillery (576 guns)	Artillery	8,640
Great Britain armour (450 tanks)	Armour	2,250
Lg Montgomery	Commander	—
In this plan		119,999

What the sources report

	Germany	Great Britain
Strength, this plan	124,000	120,000
Losses, this plan	2,940	1,750

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 386, “Alam Halfa”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 35.3 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Flat, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width: 90 km (attacker), 90 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germany & Italyattacker	124,000	2,940	0	558	Single envelopment; Left rear; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
Great Britaindefender	120,000	1,750	0	576	Defensive/offensive plan; Single envelopment; Right rear; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages initiative +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. 386 · 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.