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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Krefeld

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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 wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveClermont02 km4 kmN

Hanover (Pr Allied Army, 32,000 men under Ferdinand) attacked France (Fr Army, 50,000 men under Clermont) in Westphalia. The CAA Database of Battles records 5 hours of fighting on a front of 10.5 km, a single envelopment, left rear against hasty defense, and that Hanover won. Losses: Hanover 1,800 (6%), France 8,200 (16%).

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

Hanover

Ferdinand

UnitArmMen
Hanover left wingInfantry7,680
Hanover centreInfantry10,240
Hanover right wingInfantry7,680
Hanover reserveInfantry6,400
FerdinandCommander—
In this plan32,000

France

Clermont

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry12,000
France centreInfantry16,000
France right wingInfantry12,000
France reserveInfantry10,000
ClermontCommander—
In this plan50,000

What the sources report

HanoverFrance
Strength, this plan32,00050,000
Losses, this plan1,8008,200

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 71, “Crefeld”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
10.5 km (attacker), 7.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Hanoverattacker32,0001,800——Single envelopment; Left rear; Breakthrough
Francedefender50,0008,200——Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +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.