Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Minden

1 August 1759
Rhineland
Victory for Hanover

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.

Hanover (Pr & Allied Army, 45,000 men under Brunswick) attacked France (Fr Army, 60,000 men under Contades) in Rhineland. The CAA Database of Battles records 5 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Hanover won. Losses: Hanover 2,762 (6%), France 7,086 (12%).

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

Unit	Arm	Men
Hanover left wing	Infantry	10,127
Hanover centre	Infantry	13,502
Hanover right wing	Infantry	10,127
Hanover reserve	Infantry	8,439
Hanover artillery (187 guns)	Artillery	2,805
Brunswick	Commander	—
In this plan		45,000

France

Contades

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	13,788
France centre	Infantry	18,384
France right wing	Infantry	13,788
France reserve	Infantry	11,490
France artillery (170 guns)	Artillery	2,550
Contades	Commander	—
In this plan		60,000

What the sources report

	Hanover	France
Strength, this plan	45,000	60,000
Losses, this plan	2,762	7,086

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 75, “Minden”, 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: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 4 km (attacker), 4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Hanoverattacker	45,000	2,762	—	187	Frontal attack; Penetration; Pursued
Francedefender	60,000	7,086	—	170	Defensive plan; Repulse; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 75 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Minden · 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.