Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Krinkelt-Rocherath II

17 December 1944
Belgium
Victory for USA

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 (-)(+), 9,100 men under Col Kraas) attacked USA (US 38th Inf (-)(+), 2nd Id, 6,600 men under Col Boos) in Belgium. The CAA Database of Battles records 48 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that USA held. Losses: Germany 900 (10%), USA 720 (11%).

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	1,711
Germany centre	Infantry	2,282
Germany right wing	Infantry	1,711
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,426
Germany artillery (99 guns)	Artillery	1,365
Germany armour (121 tanks)	Armour	605
Col Kraas	Commander	—
In this plan		9,100

USA

Col Boos

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	1,357
USA centre	Infantry	1,810
USA right wing	Infantry	1,357
USA reserve	Infantry	1,131
USA artillery (52 guns)	Artillery	780
USA armour (33 tanks)	Armour	165
Col Boos	Commander	—
In this plan		6,600

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	9,100	6,600
Losses, this plan	900	720

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 619, “Krinkelt-Rocherath Ii”, 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, Bare
Weather: Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	9,100	900	0	99	Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse; Stalemate
USAdefender	6,600	720	0	52	Defensive plan; Withdrew; Stalemate

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. 619 · 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.