Time Astra

Schematic plan · World War II

Battle of Wahlerscheid

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 wingReserveGunsCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmour0250 m500 mN

USA (US 9th Inf(+), 2nd Id, 8,300 men under Col Hirschfelder) attacked Germany (Ger Lxxiv Corps (-), 1,400 men under unrecorded commanders) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that USA won. Losses: USA 370 (4%), Germany 250 (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

USA

Col Hirschfelder

UnitArmMen
USA left wingInfantry1,660
USA centreInfantry2,213
USA right wingInfantry1,660
USA reserveInfantry1,383
USA artillery (124 guns)Artillery1,245
USA armour (28 tanks)Armour140
Col HirschfelderCommander—
In this plan8,301

Germany

UnitArmMen
Germany left wingInfantry293
Germany centreInfantry390
Germany right wingInfantry293
Germany reserveInfantry244
Germany artillery (12 guns)Artillery180
Germany commandCommander—
In this plan1,400

What the sources report

USAGermany
Strength, this plan8,3001,400
Losses, this plan370250

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 617, “Wahlerscheid”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
72 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Heavily wooded
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width
1 km (attacker), 1 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
USAattacker8,3003700124Frontal attack; Repulse; Penetration
Germanydefender1,400250012Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · initiative +1 · 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.