| The Prussian Machine - Generals |
Oskar von Hutier
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Oskar Emil von Hutier (27.8.1857 - 5.12.1934) place of birth: Erfurt (Saxony) Ludendorff's cousin and the grandson of a French officer who served with Napoleon and immigrated to Germany. Hutier's father commanded a Prussian Army regiment during the War of 1870. As General of the Infantry, Hutier was best known for the so-called Hutier Tactics, the introduction of infiltration or stormtrooper tactics. Although he devised neither of these, he applied them during the September 1917 capture of Riga and during the 1918 Spring Offensive on the Western Front. At the outbreak of WW1, he commanded the 1. Guard Infantry Division in Buelow's Second Army during the Marne Campaign (1914). In the spring of 1915, he moved to the Eastern Front to command XXI. Corps under Eichhorn's Tenth Army which took Vilna and Kovno. In 1917, he served in the Riga area as commander of Army Detachment "D." In April of that year he was promoted to command the Eighth Army which captured Riga and earned him the Pour le Merite. His forces took the Baltic Islands during the only successful amphibious operation of the war (Sept 1917). In January 1918, he moved to the Western Front to become commander of the Eighteenth Army which in March lead the Spring Offensive, capturing 50,000 prisoners and advancing 35 miles. After the war, he was president of the German Officers League (1919-34). Von Hutier died in Berlin on 5 December 1934. |
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