Schematic plan · World War II (Eastern Front)

Yassy-Kishinev Operation

20 August 1944
USSR
Victory for USSR

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.

USSR (Sov 2nd Ag(+), 1,250,000 men under Gen Malinovsky) attacked Germany (Ger & Rom Ag Southern Ukraine, 800,000 men under Gen Friessner) in USSR. The CAA Database of Battles records 216 hours of fighting on a front of 590 km, a double envelopment against prepared defense, and that USSR won. Losses: USSR 135,000 (11%), Germany 690,000 (86%).

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

USSR

Gen Malinovsky

Unit	Arm	Men
USSR left wing	Infantry	260,598
USSR centre	Infantry	347,464
USSR right wing	Infantry	260,598
USSR reserve	Infantry	217,165
USSR artillery (10,469 guns)	Artillery	157,035
USSR armour (1,428 tanks)	Armour	7,140
Gen Malinovsky	Commander	—
In this plan		1,250,000

Germany

Gen Friessner

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	172,368
Germany centre	Infantry	229,824
Germany right wing	Infantry	172,368
Germany reserve	Infantry	143,640
Germany artillery (5,320 guns)	Artillery	79,800
Germany armour (400 tanks)	Armour	2,000
Gen Friessner	Commander	—
In this plan		800,000

What the sources report

	USSR	Germany
Strength, this plan	1,250,000	800,000
Losses, this plan	135,000	690,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 510, “Yassy-Kishinev Operation”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 216 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 590 km (attacker), 590 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USSRattacker	1,250,000	135,000	0	10,469	Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Germanydefender	800,000	690,000	0	5,320	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · training +2 · morale +2 · logistics +2 · momentum +1 · intelligence +2 · technology +2 · initiative +2 · surprise +1 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +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. 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. 510 · 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.