Schematic plan · World War II (European Theater)

Battle of Schnee Eifel North II

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 18th Vgdiv (-)(+), 12,800 men under Col Hoffman-Schonborn) attacked USA (US 422nd Inf, (-)(+), 106th Id, 4,150 men under Col Deschenneux) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 72 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a single envelopment, left rear against prepared defense and fortified defense, and that Germany won. Losses: Germany 200 (2%), USA 3,535 (85%).

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 Hoffman-Schonborn

Unit	Arm	Men
Germany left wing	Infantry	2,496
Germany centre	Infantry	3,328
Germany right wing	Infantry	2,496
Germany reserve	Infantry	2,080
Germany artillery (120 guns)	Artillery	1,800
Germany armour (120 tanks)	Armour	600
Col Hoffman-Schonborn	Commander	—
In this plan		12,800

USA

Col Deschenneux

Unit	Arm	Men
USA left wing	Infantry	859
USA centre	Infantry	1,146
USA right wing	Infantry	859
USA reserve	Infantry	716
USA artillery (38 guns)	Artillery	570
Col Deschenneux	Commander	—
In this plan		4,150

What the sources report

	Germany	USA
Strength, this plan	12,800	4,150
Losses, this plan	200	3,535

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 623, “Schnee Eifel North Ii”, 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: Rugged, Heavily wooded
Weather: Dry, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense, Fortified defense
Front width: 1 km (attacker), 1 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Germanyattacker	12,800	200	0	120	Single envelopment; Left rear; Penetration; Breakthrough
USAdefender	4,150	3,535	0	38	Defensive plan; Annihilated

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. 623 · 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.