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

Battle of Bowling Alley

16 February 1944
Italy
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 74th Pz Corps(-)(+), 41,974 men under Gen Mackensen) attacked USA (US 45th Inf Div(+), 20,496 men under Mg Eagles) in Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 49.2 hours of fighting on a front of 9.6 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense and prepared defense, and that USA held. Losses: Germany 2,238 (5%), USA 1,018 (5%).

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 Mackensen

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	8,691
Germany centre	Infantry	11,588
Germany right wing	Infantry	8,691
Germany reserve	Infantry	7,243
Germany artillery (317 guns)	Artillery	4,755
Germany armour (201 tanks)	Armour	1,005
Gen Mackensen	Commander	—
In this plan		41,973

USA

Mg Eagles

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	4,129
USA centre	Infantry	5,506
USA right wing	Infantry	4,129
USA reserve	Infantry	3,441
USA artillery (184 guns)	Artillery	2,760
USA armour (106 tanks)	Armour	530
Mg Eagles	Commander	—
In this plan		20,495

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	41,974	20,496
Losses, this plan	2,238	1,018

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 431, “Bowling Alley”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 49.2 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Flat, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 9.6 km (attacker), 9.6 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	41,974	2,238	0	317	Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Withdrew
USAdefender	20,496	1,018	0	184	Defensive/offensive plan; Double envelopment; Penetration

Attacker’s advantages momentum +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. 431 · 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.