Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of Hondshoote (1793)

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveHorseHorseGunsYork02 km4 kmN

France (French Army of the North, 42,000 men under Houchard) attacked Great Britain (Br & Han Army, 13,000 men under York) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 8 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 3,000 (7%), Great Britain 3,000 (23%).

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

France

Houchard

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry8,736
France centreInfantry11,648
France right wingInfantry8,736
France reserveInfantry7,280
France cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
France artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
HouchardCommander—
In this plan42,000

Great Britain

York

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry2,592
Great Britain centreInfantry3,456
Great Britain right wingInfantry2,592
Great Britain reserveInfantry2,160
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry1,100
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry1,100
YorkCommander—
In this plan13,000

What the sources report

FranceGreat Britain
Strength, this plan42,00013,000
Losses, this plan3,0003,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 99, “Hondschoote”, 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
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
8 km (attacker), 5.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker42,0003,0005,00040Frontal attack; Penetration
Great Britaindefender13,0003,0002,200—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages morale +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.