Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (Italy 1943-1944)

Battle of Tobacco Factory

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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGunsArmourArmourSickenius02 km4 kmN

Germany (Ger 16th Pz Div(-)(+), 14,733 men under Mg Sickenius) attacked USA (US 45th Inf Div(+), 12,691 men under Mg Middleton) in Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 10.8 hours of fighting on a front of 9.7 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Germany 702 (5%), USA 317 (2%).

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

Mg Sickenius

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry3,037
Germany centreInfantry4,049
Germany right wingInfantry3,037
Germany reserveInfantry2,531
Germany artillery (106 guns)Artillery1,590
Germany armour (98 tanks)Armour490
Mg SickeniusCommander—
In this plan14,734

USA

Mg Middleton

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry2,515
USA centreInfantry3,354
USA right wingInfantry2,515
USA reserveInfantry2,096
USA artillery (112 guns)Artillery1,680
USA armour (106 tanks)Armour530
Mg MiddletonCommander—
In this plan12,690

What the sources report

GermanyUSA
Strength, this plan14,73312,691
Losses, this plan702317

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 399, “Tobacco Factory”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
10.8 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
9.7 km (attacker), 9.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Germanyattacker14,7337020106Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
USAdefender12,6913170112Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages morale +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.