Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Hochkirch

14 October 1758
Saxony
Victory for Austria

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

Austria (Aus Army, 80,000 men under Daun) attacked Prussia (Pr Army, 31,000 men under Frederick II) in Saxony. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 5.6 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against prepared defense, and that Austria won. Losses: Austria 7,587 (9%), Prussia 9,097 (29%).

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

Austria

Daun

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	11,256
Austria centre	Infantry	15,008
Austria right wing	Infantry	11,256
Austria reserve	Infantry	9,380
Austria cavalry of the left	Cavalry	14,000
Austria cavalry of the right	Cavalry	14,000
Austria artillery (340 guns)	Artillery	5,100
Daun	Commander	—
In this plan		80,000

Prussia

Frederick II

Unit	Arm	Men
Prussia left wing	Infantry	4,320
Prussia centre	Infantry	5,760
Prussia right wing	Infantry	4,320
Prussia reserve	Infantry	3,600
Prussia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	5,000
Prussia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	5,000
Prussia artillery (200 guns)	Artillery	3,000
Frederick II	Commander	—
In this plan		31,000

What the sources report

	Austria	Prussia
Strength, this plan	80,000	31,000
Losses, this plan	7,587	9,097

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 73, “Hochkirch”, 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, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 5.6 km (attacker), 4.2 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Austriaattacker	80,000	7,587	28,000	340	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough; Pursued
Prussiadefender	31,000	9,097	10,000	200	Defensive plan; Withdrew

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 73 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Hochkirch · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.