Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Sarre-St. Avold

20 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, 88,941 men under Mg Eddy) attacked Germany (Ger 13th SS Pz Corps(-)(+), 32,396 men under Lg Simon) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 168 hours of fighting on a front of 64 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and delaying action, and that USA won. Losses: USA 3,279 (4%), Germany 4,942 (15%).

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	18,707
USA centre	Infantry	24,943
USA right wing	Infantry	18,707
USA reserve	Infantry	15,589
USA artillery (519 guns)	Artillery	7,785
USA armour (642 tanks)	Armour	3,210
Mg Eddy	Commander	—
In this plan		88,941

Germany

Lg Simon

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	6,951
Germany centre	Infantry	9,268
Germany right wing	Infantry	6,951
Germany reserve	Infantry	5,792
Germany artillery (207 guns)	Artillery	3,105
Germany armour (66 tanks)	Armour	330
Lg Simon	Commander	—
In this plan		32,397

What the sources report

	USA	Germany
Strength, this plan	88,941	32,396
Losses, this plan	3,279	4,942

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 475, “Sarre-St. Avold”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 168 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Delaying action
Front width: 64 km (attacker), 64 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USAattacker	88,941	3,279	0	519	Frontal attack; Penetration
Germanydefender	32,396	4,942	0	207	Defensive/offensive plan; Repulse; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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. 475 · 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.