Schematic plan · World War II (Eastern Front)

Battle of Vistula-Oder

12 January 1945
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 1st Byelorussian Ag(+), 2,200,000 men under Marshal Zhukov) attacked Germany (Ger Ag 'a', 560,000 men under Gfm Harpe) in USSR. The CAA Database of Battles records 528 hours of fighting on a front of 480 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against prepared defense, and that USSR won. Losses: USSR 46,900 (2%), Germany 147,400 (26%).

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

Marshal Zhukov

Unit	Arm	Men
USSR left wing	Infantry	458,160
USSR centre	Infantry	610,880
USSR right wing	Infantry	458,160
USSR reserve	Infantry	381,800
USSR artillery (17,990 guns)	Artillery	269,850
USSR armour (4,230 tanks)	Armour	21,150
Marshal Zhukov	Commander	—
In this plan		2,200,000

Germany

Gfm Harpe

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	121,980
Germany centre	Infantry	162,640
Germany right wing	Infantry	121,980
Germany reserve	Infantry	101,650
Germany artillery (3,050 guns)	Artillery	45,750
Germany armour (1,200 tanks)	Armour	6,000
Gfm Harpe	Commander	—
In this plan		560,000

What the sources report

	USSR	Germany
Strength, this plan	2,200,000	560,000
Losses, this plan	46,900	147,400

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 511, “Vistula-Oder”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 528 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 480 km (attacker), 480 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USSRattacker	2,200,000	46,900	0	17,990	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough
Germanydefender	560,000	147,400	0	3,050	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · training +2 · morale +2 · logistics +2 · momentum +1 · intelligence +2 · technology +2 · initiative +2 · 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. 511 · 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.