Schematic plan · World War II

Battle of Sidi Bou Zid I

14 February 1943
Tunisia
Victory for Germany

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.

Germany (Ger Elms 10th and 21st Pnzr Div, 6,400 men under Gen Ziegler) attacked USA (US Cca, 1st Arm Div (+), 5,333 men under Bg Mcquillion) in Tunisia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 22 km, a double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 20 (0%), USA 920 (17%).

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

Germany

Gen Ziegler

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	1,248
Germany centre	Infantry	1,664
Germany right wing	Infantry	1,248
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,040
Germany artillery (35 guns)	Artillery	525
Germany armour (135 tanks)	Armour	675
Gen Ziegler	Commander	—
In this plan		6,400

USA

Bg Mcquillion

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	1,028
USA centre	Infantry	1,371
USA right wing	Infantry	1,028
USA reserve	Infantry	857
USA artillery (47 guns)	Artillery	705
USA armour (69 tanks)	Armour	345
Bg Mcquillion	Commander	—
In this plan		5,334

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	6,400	5,333
Losses, this plan	20	920

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 602, “Sidi Bou Zid I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 12 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Flat, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Cold, Winter, Desert
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 22 km (attacker), 22 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	6,400	20	0	35	Double envelopment; Penetration
USAdefender	5,333	920	0	47	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · air superiority +1 · combat effectiveness +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. 602 · 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.