Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Morhange-Faulquemont

13 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, 92,393 men under Mg Eddy) attacked Germany (Ger 13th SS Pz Corps(-)(+), 28,382 men under Lg Priess) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 49 km, a frontal attack against fortified defense and delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 3,223 (3%), Germany 2,665 (9%).

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	19,692
USA centre	Infantry	26,255
USA right wing	Infantry	19,692
USA reserve	Infantry	16,410
USA artillery (515 guns)	Artillery	7,725
USA armour (524 tanks)	Armour	2,620
Mg Eddy	Commander	—
In this plan		92,394

Germany

Lg Priess

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	6,128
Germany centre	Infantry	8,170
Germany right wing	Infantry	6,128
Germany reserve	Infantry	5,106
Germany artillery (169 guns)	Artillery	2,535
Germany armour (63 tanks)	Armour	315
Lg Priess	Commander	—
In this plan		28,382

What the sources report

	USA	Germany
Strength, this plan	92,393	28,382
Losses, this plan	3,223	2,665

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 473, “Morhange-Faulquemont”, 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 attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Fortified defense, Delaying action
Front width: 49 km (attacker), 49 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	92,393	3,223	0	515	Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender	28,382	2,665	0	169	Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 473 · 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.