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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Warburg

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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 wingLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveReserveHorseHorse02 km4 kmN

Hanover (Pr & Allied Army, 19,000 men under Brunswick) attacked France (Fr Army, 17,000 men under Muy) in Westphalia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that Hanover won. Losses: Hanover 1,300 (7%), France 3,700 (22%).

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 wingInfantry3,192
Hanover centreInfantry4,256
Hanover right wingInfantry3,192
Hanover reserveInfantry2,660
Hanover cavalry of the leftCavalry2,850
Hanover cavalry of the rightCavalry2,850
BrunswickCommander—
In this plan19,000

France

Muy

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry3,120
France centreInfantry4,160
France right wingInfantry3,120
France reserveInfantry2,600
France cavalry of the leftCavalry2,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry2,000
MuyCommander—
In this plan17,000

What the sources report

HanoverFrance
Strength, this plan19,00017,000
Losses, this plan1,3003,700

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 79, “Warburg”, 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 attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
5 km (attacker), 6.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Hanoverattacker19,0001,3005,700—Single envelopment; Left flank; Penetration; Pursued
Francedefender17,0003,7004,000—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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

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.