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Schematic plan · The Seven Year's War

Battle of Torgau

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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 groundCentreHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveGuns02.5 km5 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army, 50,000 men under Frederick II) attacked Austria (Aus Army, 53,400 men under Daun) in Silesia. The CAA Database of Battles records 8 hours of fighting on a front of 8 km, a single envelopment, right rear against prepared defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 16,670 (33%), Austria 15,697 (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

Prussia

Frederick II

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry9,120
Prussia centreInfantry12,160
Prussia right wingInfantry9,120
Prussia reserveInfantry7,600
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry6,000
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry6,000
Frederick IICommander—
In this plan50,000

Austria

Daun

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry7,026
Austria centreInfantry9,368
Austria right wingInfantry7,026
Austria reserveInfantry5,855
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry10,000
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry10,000
Austria artillery (275 guns)Artillery4,125
DaunCommander—
In this plan53,400

What the sources report

PrussiaAustria
Strength, this plan50,00053,400
Losses, this plan16,67015,697

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 81, “Torgau”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
8 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
8 km (attacker), 11.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker50,00016,67012,000—Single envelopment; Right rear; Penetration
Austriadefender53,40015,69720,000275Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +1 · initiative +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

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.