Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Arracourt

19 September 1944
France
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 111th & 113th Pz Bdes(+), 7,500 men under Gen Krueger) attacked USA (US Combat Command 'a', 4th Armd Div(+), 4,800 men under Mg Wood) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 21.4 hours of fighting on a front of 10.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Germany 779 (10%), USA 119 (2%).

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 Krueger

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	1,606
Germany centre	Infantry	2,141
Germany right wing	Infantry	1,606
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,338
Germany artillery (12 guns)	Artillery	180
Germany armour (126 tanks)	Armour	630
Gen Krueger	Commander	—
In this plan		7,501

USA

Mg Wood

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	833
USA centre	Infantry	1,110
USA right wing	Infantry	833
USA reserve	Infantry	694
USA artillery (48 guns)	Artillery	720
USA armour (122 tanks)	Armour	610
Mg Wood	Commander	—
In this plan		4,800

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	7,500	4,800
Losses, this plan	779	119

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 467, “Arracourt”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 21.4 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 10.4 km (attacker), 10.4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	7,500	779	0	12	Frontal attack; Repulse
USAdefender	4,800	119	0	48	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 467 · 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.