Time Astra

Schematic plan · Viet Nam

First Battle of Quảng Trị

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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.
Flat, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingGuns010 km20 kmN

North Vietnam (Nvn Corp, 30,000 men under unrecorded commanders) attacked South Vietnam (Svn Div, 17,000 men under unrecorded commanders) in Viet Nam. The CAA Database of Battles records 696 hours of fighting on a front of 44 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that North Vietnam won. Losses: North Vietnam unknown, South Vietnam 14,300 (84%).

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

North Vietnam

UnitArmMen
North Vietnam left wingInfantry6,840
North Vietnam centreInfantry9,120
North Vietnam right wingInfantry6,840
North Vietnam reserveInfantry5,700
North Vietnam artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
North Vietnam commandCommander—
In this plan30,000

South Vietnam

UnitArmMen
South Vietnam left wingInfantry3,799
South Vietnam centreInfantry5,066
South Vietnam right wingInfantry3,799
South Vietnam reserveInfantry3,166
South Vietnam artillery (78 guns)Artillery1,170
South Vietnam commandCommander—
In this plan17,000

What the sources report

North VietnamSouth Vietnam
Strength, this plan30,00017,000
Losses, this planunknown14,300

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 654, “Quang Tri”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
696 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Temperate, Spring, Tropical
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
44 km (attacker)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
North Vietnamattacker30,000—0100Frontal attack; Breakthrough
South Vietnamdefender17,00014,300078Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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.