Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Seille-Nied

8 November 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.

USA (US 12th Corps, 99,583 men under Mg Eddy) attacked Germany (Ger 84th Corps(-)(+), 23,588 men under Gen Balck) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 96 hours of fighting on a front of 48 km, a river crossing, frontal attack against fortified defense and delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 4,265 (4%), Germany 4,880 (21%).

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 Eddy

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	21,028
USA centre	Infantry	28,038
USA right wing	Infantry	21,028
USA reserve	Infantry	17,524
USA artillery (543 guns)	Artillery	8,145
USA armour (764 tanks)	Armour	3,820
Mg Eddy	Commander	—
In this plan		99,583

Germany

Gen Balck

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	5,220
Germany centre	Infantry	6,959
Germany right wing	Infantry	5,220
Germany reserve	Infantry	4,350
Germany artillery (99 guns)	Artillery	1,485
Germany armour (71 tanks)	Armour	355
Gen Balck	Commander	—
In this plan		23,589

What the sources report

	USA	Germany
Strength, this plan	99,583	23,588
Losses, this plan	4,265	4,880

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 470, “Seille-Nied”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 96 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense, Delaying action
Front width: 48 km (attacker), 48 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	99,583	4,265	0	543	River crossing; Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse
Germanydefender	23,588	4,880	0	99	Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages morale +2 · logistics +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 470 · 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.