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

Battle of El Guettar

23 March 1943
Tunisia
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.

Germany (Ger 10th Pz Div(+), 10,300 men under Gen Broich) attacked USA (US 1st Inf Div(+), 22,019 men under Mg Allen) in Tunisia. The CAA Database of Battles records 5.3 hours of fighting on a front of 25 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Germany 450 (4%), USA 203 (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

Gen Broich

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	2,125
Germany centre	Infantry	2,834
Germany right wing	Infantry	2,125
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,771
Germany artillery (62 guns)	Artillery	930
Germany armour (103 tanks)	Armour	515
Gen Broich	Commander	—
In this plan		10,300

USA

Mg Allen

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	4,748
USA centre	Infantry	6,331
USA right wing	Infantry	4,748
USA reserve	Infantry	3,957
USA artillery (124 guns)	Artillery	1,860
USA armour (75 tanks)	Armour	375
Mg Allen	Commander	—
In this plan		22,019

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	10,300	22,019
Losses, this plan	450	203

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 392, “El Guettar”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 5.3 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Desert
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 25 km (attacker), 25 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	10,300	450	0	62	Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
USAdefender	22,019	203	0	124	Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2

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. 392 · 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.