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Schematic plan · War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Kesselsdorf

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseReserveHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army, 31,000 men under Anhalt-Dessau) attacked Saxony (Sax Army, 31,200 men under Rutkowski) in Saxony. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 4.4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 5,000 (16%), Saxony 6,630 (21%).

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

Anhalt-Dessau

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry5,161
Prussia centreInfantry6,882
Prussia right wingInfantry5,161
Prussia reserveInfantry4,301
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry4,500
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry4,500
Prussia artillery (33 guns)Artillery495
Anhalt-DessauCommander—
In this plan31,000

Saxony

Rutkowski

UnitArmMen
Saxony left wingInfantry5,657
Saxony centreInfantry7,542
Saxony right wingInfantry5,657
Saxony reserveInfantry4,714
Saxony cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
Saxony cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
Saxony artillery (42 guns)Artillery630
RutkowskiCommander—
In this plan31,200

What the sources report

PrussiaSaxony
Strength, this plan31,00031,200
Losses, this plan5,0006,630

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 61, “Kesseldorf”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4.4 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker31,0005,0009,00033Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Saxonydefender31,2006,6307,00042Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · 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.