Time Astra

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

Battle of Eboli

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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreGunsLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmourArmour02 km4 kmN

USA (US 45th Inf Div(+), 15,576 men under Mg Middleton) attacked Germany (Ger 26th Pz Div(+)(-), 6,702 men under Mg Luettwitz) in Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 7.5 km, a frontal attack against delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 386 (2%), Germany 120 (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

USA

Mg Middleton

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,229
USA centreInfantry4,306
USA right wingInfantry3,229
USA reserveInfantry2,691
USA artillery (106 guns)Artillery1,590
USA armour (106 tanks)Armour530
Mg MiddletonCommander—
In this plan15,575

Germany

Mg Luettwitz

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry1,296
Germany centreInfantry1,729
Germany right wingInfantry1,296
Germany reserveInfantry1,080
Germany artillery (80 guns)Artillery1,005
Germany armour (59 tanks)Armour295
Mg LuettwitzCommander—
In this plan6,701

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan15,5766,702
Losses, this plan386120

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 401, “Eboli”, 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, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Delaying action
Front width
7.5 km (attacker), 7.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker15,5763860106Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender6,702120080Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +1 · air superiority +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.