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

Battle of Monte Rotondo

8 November 1943
Italy
Draw

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.

USA (US 3rd Inf Div(-), 16,350 men under Mg Truscott) attacked Germany (Ger 3rd Pz Gr Div(1/2), 7,942 men under Mg Baade) in Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 4.5 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against fortified defense, and that neither side won. Losses: USA 165 (1%), Germany 118 (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

USA

Mg Truscott

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	3,415
USA centre	Infantry	4,554
USA right wing	Infantry	3,415
USA reserve	Infantry	2,846
USA artillery (106 guns)	Artillery	1,590
USA armour (106 tanks)	Armour	530
Mg Truscott	Commander	—
In this plan		16,350

Germany

Mg Baade

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	1,665
Germany centre	Infantry	2,220
Germany right wing	Infantry	1,665
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,387
Germany artillery (53 guns)	Artillery	795
Germany armour (42 tanks)	Armour	210
Mg Baade	Commander	—
In this plan		7,942

What the sources report

	USA	Germany
Strength, this plan	16,350	7,942
Losses, this plan	165	118

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 419, “Monte Rotondo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 48 hours
Winner: the draw
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense
Front width: 4.5 km (attacker), 4.5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	16,350	165	0	106	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Repulse; Penetration; Stalemate
Germanydefender	7,942	118	0	53	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 419 · 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.