Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Fontenoy

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Great Britain (Br Allied Army, 50,000 men under Cumberland) attacked France (Fr Army, 60,000 men under Saxe) in Austrian Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 8 hours of fighting on a front of 2.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France held. Losses: Great Britain 12,000 (24%), France 6,000 (10%).

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

Great Britain

Cumberland

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry9,236
Great Britain centreInfantry12,315
Great Britain right wingInfantry9,236
Great Britain reserveInfantry7,697
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
Great Britain artillery (101 guns)Artillery1,515
CumberlandCommander—
In this plan49,999

France

Saxe

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry10,440
France centreInfantry13,920
France right wingInfantry10,440
France reserveInfantry8,700
France cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
France artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
SaxeCommander—
In this plan60,000

What the sources report

Great BritainFrance
Strength, this plan50,00060,000
Losses, this plan12,0006,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 58, “Fontenoy”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
8 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
2.8 km (attacker), 4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker50,00012,00010,000101Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Francedefender60,0006,00015,000100Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack

Attacker’s advantages 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

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.