Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Kunersdorf

12 August 1759
Prussia
Victory for Russia

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.

Prussia (Pr Army, 50,900 men under Frederick II) attacked Russia (Russ & Aus Army, 59,500 men under Saltykov) in Prussia. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 5.4 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Russia held. Losses: Prussia 19,100 (38%), Russia 15,500 (26%).

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

Unit	Arm	Men
Prussia left wing	Infantry	8,232
Prussia centre	Infantry	10,976
Prussia right wing	Infantry	8,232
Prussia reserve	Infantry	6,860
Prussia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	6,500
Prussia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	6,500
Prussia artillery (240 guns)	Artillery	3,600
Frederick II	Commander	—
In this plan		50,900

Russia

Saltykov

Unit	Arm	Men
Russia left wing	Infantry	10,987
Russia centre	Infantry	14,650
Russia right wing	Infantry	10,987
Russia reserve	Infantry	9,156
Russia cavalry of the left	Cavalry	5,000
Russia cavalry of the right	Cavalry	5,000
Russia artillery (248 guns)	Artillery	3,720
Saltykov	Commander	—
In this plan		59,500

What the sources report

	Prussia	Russia
Strength, this plan	50,900	59,500
Losses, this plan	19,100	15,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 76, “Kunersdorf”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 6 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rolling, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 5.4 km (attacker), 6.4 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Prussiaattacker	50,900	19,100	13,000	240	Frontal attack
Russiadefender	59,500	15,500	10,000	248	Defensive 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 76 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Kunersdorf · 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.