Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (Italy 1944)

Battle of Lanuvio

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 wingReserveGunsArmour0500 m1 kmN

USA (US 34th Inf Div(-), 17,300 men under Mg Ryder) attacked Germany (Ger 3rd Pz Gr Div(1/2), 6,108 men under Mg Baade) in Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense, and that Germany held. Losses: USA 825 (5%), Germany 698 (11%).

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 Ryder

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,814
USA centreInfantry5,085
USA right wingInfantry3,814
USA reserveInfantry3,178
USA artillery (94 guns)Artillery1,410
Mg RyderCommander—
In this plan17,301

Germany

Mg Baade

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry1,191
Germany centreInfantry1,588
Germany right wingInfantry1,191
Germany reserveInfantry993
Germany artillery (61 guns)Artillery915
Germany armour (46 tanks)Armour230
Mg BaadeCommander—
In this plan6,108

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan17,3006,108
Losses, this plan825698

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 452, “Lanuvio”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
72 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Fortified defense
Front width
3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker17,300825094Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
Germanydefender6,108698061Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages 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.