Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Chartres

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 wingArmourReserveGunsArmour01 km2 kmN

USA (US 7th Armd Div, 15,646 men under Mg Silvester) attacked Germany (Ger 1st Army(-), 8,325 men under Gen Chevallerie) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a double envelopment against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: USA 113 (1%), Germany 579 (7%).

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 Silvester

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry2,849
USA centreInfantry3,799
USA right wingInfantry2,849
USA reserveInfantry2,374
USA artillery (146 guns)Artillery2,190
USA armour (317 tanks)Armour1,585
Mg SilvesterCommander—
In this plan15,646

Germany

Gen Chevallerie

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry1,706
Germany centreInfantry2,275
Germany right wingInfantry1,706
Germany reserveInfantry1,422
Germany artillery (76 guns)Artillery1,140
Germany armour (15 tanks)Armour75
Gen ChevallerieCommander—
In this plan8,324

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan15,6468,325
Losses, this plan113579

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 462, “Chartres”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the draw
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker15,6461130146Double envelopment; Penetration; Stalemate
Germanydefender8,325579076Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages morale +1 · logistics +1 · 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.