Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II

Battle of Schmidt III

All battles
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, Heavily wooded groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingGunsReserveGunsArmour0500 m1 kmN

USA (US 109th Inf (+), 28th Id, 4,950 men under Col Strickler) attacked Germany (Ger Lxxiv Corps (-), 3,700 men under Gen Straube) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 1.2 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Germany held. Losses: USA 350 (7%), Germany 200 (5%).

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

USA

Col Strickler

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,010
USA centreInfantry1,346
USA right wingInfantry1,010
USA reserveInfantry842
USA artillery (53 guns)Artillery743
Col StricklerCommander—
In this plan4,951

Germany

Gen Straube

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry748
Germany centreInfantry997
Germany right wingInfantry748
Germany reserveInfantry623
Germany artillery (38 guns)Artillery555
Germany armour (6 tanks)Armour30
Gen StraubeCommander—
In this plan3,701

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan4,9503,700
Losses, this plan350200

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 616, “Schmidt Iii”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
48 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Heavily wooded
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width
1.2 km (attacker), 1.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker4,950350053Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse
Germanydefender3,700200038Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse

Attacker’s advantages air superiority +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.