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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Bergen (1759)

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Hanover (Pr & Allied Army, 24,000 men under Brunswick) attacked France (Fr Army, 30,000 men under Broglie) in Rhineland. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France held. Losses: Hanover 2,800 (12%), France 1,800 (6%).

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

Brunswick

UnitArmMen
Hanover left wingInfantry5,684
Hanover centreInfantry7,579
Hanover right wingInfantry5,684
Hanover reserveInfantry4,737
Hanover artillery (21 guns)Artillery315
BrunswickCommander—
In this plan23,999

France

Broglie

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry7,038
France centreInfantry9,384
France right wingInfantry7,038
France reserveInfantry5,865
France artillery (45 guns)Artillery675
BroglieCommander—
In this plan30,000

What the sources report

HanoverFrance
Strength, this plan24,00030,000
Losses, this plan2,8001,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 74, “Bergen”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 3.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Hanoverattacker24,0002,800—21Frontal attack; Penetration; Withdrew
Francedefender30,0001,800—45Defensive plan

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.