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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Leuthen

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army, 33,000 men under Frederick II) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 65,000 men under Lorraine) in Silesia. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 4.3 km, a single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 11,589 (35%), Austria 22,000 (34%).

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

Prussia

Frederick II

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry4,679
Prussia centreInfantry6,238
Prussia right wingInfantry4,679
Prussia reserveInfantry3,899
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry5,500
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry5,500
Prussia artillery (167 guns)Artillery2,505
Frederick IICommander—
In this plan33,000

Austria

Lorraine

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry11,484
Austria centreInfantry15,312
Austria right wingInfantry11,484
Austria reserveInfantry9,570
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry7,000
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry7,000
Austria artillery (210 guns)Artillery3,150
LorraineCommander—
In this plan65,000

What the sources report

PrussiaAustria
Strength, this plan33,00065,000
Losses, this plan11,58922,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 70, “Leuthen”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4.3 km (attacker), 7.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker33,00011,58911,000167Single envelopment; Left flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Austriadefender65,00022,00014,000210Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · combat effectiveness +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

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.