Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Krinkelt-Rocherath I

17 December 1944
Belgium
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 12th SS Pnzdiv (-)(+), 3,300 men under Col Kraas) attacked USA (US 3rd/23rd Inf, 2nd Id, 1,357 men under Col Tuttle) in Belgium. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 2.5 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 100 (3%), USA 400 (29%).

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

Col Kraas

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	660
Germany centre	Infantry	880
Germany right wing	Infantry	660
Germany reserve	Infantry	550
Germany artillery (36 guns)	Artillery	495
Germany armour (11 tanks)	Armour	55
Col Kraas	Commander	—
In this plan		3,300

USA

Col Tuttle

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	276
USA centre	Infantry	369
USA right wing	Infantry	276
USA reserve	Infantry	230
USA artillery (12 guns)	Artillery	180
USA armour (5 tanks)	Armour	25
Col Tuttle	Commander	—
In this plan		1,356

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	3,300	1,357
Losses, this plan	100	400

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 618, “Krinkelt-Rocherath 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: Rugged, Heavily wooded
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 2.5 km (attacker), 2.5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	3,300	100	0	36	Frontal attack; Repulse; Penetration; Pursued
USAdefender	1,357	400	0	12	Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages momentum +1 · initiative +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. 618 · 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.