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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Hastenbeck

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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.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 60,000 men under Estrees) attacked Great Britain (Br Army, 36,000 men under Duke of Cumberland) in Honaover. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 5.5 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right rear against prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 2,500 (4%), Great Britain 1,500 (4%).

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

France

Estrees

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry11,755
France centreInfantry15,674
France right wingInfantry11,755
France reserveInfantry9,796
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
France artillery (68 guns)Artillery1,020
EstreesCommander—
In this plan60,000

Great Britain

Duke of Cumberland

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry7,339
Great Britain centreInfantry9,786
Great Britain right wingInfantry7,339
Great Britain reserveInfantry6,116
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
Great Britain artillery (28 guns)Artillery420
Duke of CumberlandCommander—
In this plan36,000

What the sources report

FranceGreat Britain
Strength, this plan60,00036,000
Losses, this plan2,5001,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 68, “Hastenbeck”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
5.5 km (attacker), 10 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker60,0002,50010,00068Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration; Withdrew
Great Britaindefender36,0001,5005,00028Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Penetration; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +2

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.