Schematic plan · War of the Spanish Succession

Battle of Oudenarde

11 July 1708
Spanish Netherlands
Victory for England and Holy Roman Empire

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

England and Holy Roman Empire (Allied Army, 80,000 men under Marlborough & Eugene) attacked France (Fr & Bav Army, 85,000 men under Vendome & Burgundy) in Spanish Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 6.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that England and Holy Roman Empire won. Losses: England and Holy Roman Empire 4,000 (5%), France 15,000 (18%).

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

England and Holy Roman Empire

Marlborough · Eugene

Unit	Arm	Men
England left wing	Infantry	14,045
England centre	Infantry	18,726
England right wing	Infantry	14,045
England reserve	Infantry	11,704
England cavalry of the left	Cavalry	10,500
England cavalry of the right	Cavalry	10,500
England artillery (32 guns)	Artillery	480
Marlborough & Eugene	Commander	—
In this plan		80,000

France

Vendome · Burgundy

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	15,420
France centre	Infantry	20,560
France right wing	Infantry	15,420
France reserve	Infantry	12,850
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	10,000
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	10,000
France artillery (50 guns)	Artillery	750
Vendome & Burgundy	Commander	—
In this plan		85,000

What the sources report

	England	France
Strength, this plan	80,000	85,000
Losses, this plan	4,000	15,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 52, “Oudenarde”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 6 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 6.4 km (attacker), 6 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
England & Holy Roman Empireattacker	80,000	4,000	21,000	32	Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Francedefender	85,000	15,000	20,000	50	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · technology +1 · initiative +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. 52 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Oudenarde · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.