The Hutier Legend
Abstract
Many English-language and French accounts of World War I speak of "Hutier Tactics" as a German secret weapon that nearly won the war in Ludendorff's spring offensive of 1918. What were the Hutier tactics and their origins? Upon the outbreak of the war, all the major powers envisioned quick victories through lightning blows. The Germans had the Schlieffen Plan to encircle the French armies. The French Plan XVII projected the destruction of the German forces in the Metz-Thionville area. The Austro-Hungarians sought to smash the Serbians before the Russians could mobilize. The Russians drove a "steamroller" to flatten the Austrians at once. Despite ingenious plans, daring feats, and self-sacrifice on all the battlefields, the Germans could go no farther than the Marne, the French army bogged down, the Serbs checked the Austro-Hungarians, and the Russians ran out of steam. In the ensuing static warfare on the western front, where the trench, machine gun, and barbed wire made defensive operations supreme, the opponents were able to advance but little at the cost of thousands of lives. Searching for the solution of how to cross no-man's land, the adversaries used concentrated artillery barrages, poison gas, the tank, and, increasingly, the airplane. None of these innovations, even when improved, made possible a breakthrough of the enemy defenses. When Ludendorff launched his spring offensive on 21 March 1918, however, he achieved surprising success. The German Second, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Armies broke through the Allied lines on a 100-kilometer front. Especially spectacular was the advance of General Oskar von Hutier's Eighteenth Army, which gained 10 kilometers on the first day, 12 on the second, 8 on the third, and 8 again on the fourth.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA531980
Entities
People
- Laszlo M. Alfoldi
Organizations
- United States Army War College