Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Soor

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army, 22,562 men under Frederick II) attacked Habsburg Empire (Aus & Sax Army, 41,000 men under Lorraine) in Silesia. The CAA Database of Battles records 4 hours of fighting on a front of 3.5 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 3,876 (17%), Habsburg Empire 7,444 (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

Prussia

Frederick II

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry3,794
Prussia centreInfantry5,059
Prussia right wingInfantry3,794
Prussia reserveInfantry3,162
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry2,926
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry2,926
Prussia artillery (60 guns)Artillery900
Frederick IICommander—
In this plan22,561

Habsburg Empire

Lorraine

UnitArmMen
Habsburg Empire left wingInfantry6,439
Habsburg Empire centreInfantry8,586
Habsburg Empire right wingInfantry6,439
Habsburg Empire reserveInfantry5,366
Habsburg Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry6,350
Habsburg Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry6,350
Habsburg Empire artillery (98 guns)Artillery1,470
LorraineCommander—
In this plan41,000

What the sources report

PrussiaHabsburg Empire
Strength, this plan22,56241,000
Losses, this plan3,8767,444

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 60, “Soor”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
4 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
3.5 km (attacker), 3.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker22,5623,8765,85260Frontal attack; Penetration; Pursued
Habsburg Empiredefender41,0007,44412,70098Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +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

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.