Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Sauer River

16 December 1944
Luxembourg
Victory for Germany

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 212th Volksgrenadier Div, 10,000 men under Mg Sensfuss) attacked USA (US 12th Inf Rgt, 4th Inf Div(+), 8,634 men under Mg Barton) in Luxembourg. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 14.5 km, a river crossing, frontal attack, single envelopment against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 268 (3%), USA 134 (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

Mg Sensfuss

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	2,150
Germany centre	Infantry	2,867
Germany right wing	Infantry	2,150
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,792
Germany artillery (68 guns)	Artillery	1,020
Germany armour (4 tanks)	Armour	20
Mg Sensfuss	Commander	—
In this plan		9,999

USA

Mg Barton

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	1,808
USA centre	Infantry	2,411
USA right wing	Infantry	1,808
USA reserve	Infantry	1,507
USA artillery (60 guns)	Artillery	900
USA armour (40 tanks)	Armour	200
Mg Barton	Commander	—
In this plan		8,634

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	10,000	8,634
Losses, this plan	268	134

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 483, “Sauer River”, 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: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 14.5 km (attacker), 14.5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	10,000	268	0	68	River crossing; Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Penetration; Stalemate
USAdefender	8,634	134	0	60	Defensive plan; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · surprise +2

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, and which flank the envelopment fell on is a guess. 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. 483 · 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.