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Schematic plan · King William's War

Battle of Walcourt

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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, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsWaldeck0200 m400 mN

France (Fr Army, 24,000 men under D'humieres) attacked Dutch Republic (Allied Army, 35,000 men under Waldeck) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 9.5 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Dutch Republic held. Losses: France 2,000 (8%), Dutch Republic 130 (0%).

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

France

D'humieres

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry5,688
France centreInfantry7,584
France right wingInfantry5,688
France reserveInfantry4,740
France artillery (20 guns)Artillery300
D'humieresCommander—
In this plan24,000

Dutch Republic

Waldeck

UnitArmMen
Dutch Republic left wingInfantry8,400
Dutch Republic centreInfantry11,200
Dutch Republic right wingInfantry8,400
Dutch Republic reserveInfantry7,000
WaldeckCommander—
In this plan35,000

What the sources report

FranceDutch Republic
Strength, this plan24,00035,000
Losses, this plan2,000130

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 41, “Walcourt”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
9.5 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1 km (attacker), 1 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker24,0002,000—20Frontal attack; Penetration; Withdrew
Dutch Republicdefender35,000130——Defensive/offensive plan; Double envelopment; Penetration

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.