Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Sarre-Union

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 wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingArmourReserveGunsArmour01 km2 kmN

USA (US 4th Armd Div(+), 19,773 men under Mg Wood) attacked Germany (Ger 25th Pz Gr Div(-)(+), 6,044 men under Col Burmeister) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 4.5 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against prepared defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 234 (1%), Germany 129 (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

USA

Mg Wood

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry3,900
USA centreInfantry5,199
USA right wingInfantry3,900
USA reserveInfantry3,250
USA artillery (156 guns)Artillery2,340
USA armour (237 tanks)Armour1,185
Mg WoodCommander—
In this plan19,774

Germany

Col Burmeister

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry1,205
Germany centreInfantry1,607
Germany right wingInfantry1,205
Germany reserveInfantry1,004
Germany artillery (156 guns)Artillery907
Germany armour (23 tanks)Armour115
Col BurmeisterCommander—
In this plan6,043

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan19,7736,044
Losses, this plan234129

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 480, “Sarre-Union”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
4.5 km (attacker), 4.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker19,7732340156Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration
Germanydefender6,0441290156Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; 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

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.