Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Schnee Eifel South

16 December 1944
Germany
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 62nd Vgdiv (+), 11,000 men under Gen Kittel) attacked USA (US 424th Inf (+), 106th Id, 4,300 men under Col Reid) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 9 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 200 (2%), USA 300 (7%).

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

Gen Kittel

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	2,371
Germany centre	Infantry	3,162
Germany right wing	Infantry	2,371
Germany reserve	Infantry	1,976
Germany artillery (66 guns)	Artillery	990
Germany armour (26 tanks)	Armour	130
Gen Kittel	Commander	—
In this plan		11,000

USA

Col Reid

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	877
USA centre	Infantry	1,170
USA right wing	Infantry	877
USA reserve	Infantry	731
USA artillery (59 guns)	Artillery	645
Col Reid	Commander	—
In this plan		4,300

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	11,000	4,300
Losses, this plan	200	300

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 621, “Schnee Eifel South”, 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: Dry, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width: 9 km (attacker), 9 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	11,000	200	0	66	Frontal attack; Penetration; Stalemate
USAdefender	4,300	300	0	59	Defensive plan; Withdrew; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · momentum +1 · intelligence +2 · initiative +1 · surprise +3

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. 621 · 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.