Oskar von Hutier

Oskar von Hutier
General von Hutier, the liberator of Riga; Oskar von Hutier together with his artillery commander Georg Bruchmüller pioneered the artillery supported infiltration tactics used by the German army’s elite storm troopers and it could be argued that they served as the precursor to the Blitzkrieg tactics employed by the Wehrmacht in WWII, with Panzers and self-propelled assault guns acting as mobile artillery.
Birth name	Emil Oskar von Hutier
Birth date	27 August 1857
Place of birth	Erfurt, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation
Death date	5 December 1934 (aged 77)
Place of death	Berlin, German Reich
Resting place	Old Cemetery in Darmstadt (honorary grave of the city; gravesite: IV C 135)
Allegiance	Kingdom of Prussia German Empire
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army
Years of service	1875–1919
Rank	General of the Infantry
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross Pour le Mérite
Relations	∞ 1892 Maria von Miller zu Aichholz

Emil Oskar Hutier, since 1870 von Hutier (27 August 1857 – 5 December 1934), was a German officer of the Prussian Army and the Imperial German Army, finally General of the Infantry, army commander-in-chief and knight of the order "Pour le Mérite" with Oak Leaves in WWI. From 1 December 1919 until his death, he served as president (Bundespräsident) of the German Officers' Association (DOB) and was also president of the Berlin National Club in 1919. He was also a member of the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund „Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge“, founded 1919) and was listed in the Ehrenbuch (honour book; kept in the Shrine of Honor in the St. Michael's Church in Hamburg) alongside Paul von Hindenburg, August von Mackensen and others.

Military career (chronology)

General von Hutier's offensive at Riga

Der Welt-Spiegel, 9 September 1917

Daughters Marion and Irmgard von Hutier, in: "Sport im Bild", 1918, Issue No. 18

Post-war picture (after January 1929)

Signature

Front row (from left to right): Hans von Seeckt, Crown Prince Wilhelm, August von Mackensen and Oskar von Hutier during a parade of the Stahlhelmbund (12th R.F.S.T.).

From left to right: Rudolf von Horn, president of the Deutscher Reichskriegerbund „Kyffhäuser“ , Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, head of the Reichswehr Army Command, and Oskar von Hutier, president of the German Officers' Association.

• 15.4.1875 Joined the 2. Nassauisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 88 as a 2nd Lieutenant coming from the Prussian Cadet Corps
• 1.10.1881 Appointed battalion adjutant
• 1.10.1885 to 21.7.1888 Commanded to the War Academy for three years of studies
• 1.4.1889 Commanded to the Great General Staff (Großer Generalstab)
• 17.11.1890 Appointed company commander in the 2. Nassauisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 88
• 15.12.1890 Appointed commander of the 10th Company/1. Großherzoglich Hessisches Infanterie-(Leibgarde-)Regiment Nr. 115 in Mainz
• 25.2.1894 Chief of Operations (Ia) in the General Staff of the 30th Division in Metz, Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen
• 1.10.1896 Transferred to the Great General Staff (Großer Generalstab)
• 9.9.1898 Chief of Operations (Ia) in the General Staff of the I. Armee-Korps in Königsberg under Karl Alexander Ferdinand August Graf Finck von Finckenstein
• 1.10.1900 Commander of the 1st Battalion/6. Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 95 in Gotha
• 17.08.1902 Head of a department (Abteilungschef) in the Great General Staff
• 18.10.1902 Provisional Chief of General Staff (mit der Vertretung beauftragt) of the III. Armee-Korps in Berlin
  • 22.11.1902 Delegated with the leadership of the General Staff
  • 1.9.1903 Appointed Chief of General Staff under Karl von Bülow
• 22.3.1907 Commander of the Leibgarde-Infanterie-Regiment (1. Großherzoglich Hessisches) Nr. 115 in Darmstadt
• 22.3.1910 Commander of the 74. Infanterie-Brigade in Stettin
• 3.2.1911 Chief Quartermaster (Oberquartiermeister) in the Great General Staff
  • 21.2.1911 to 23.12.1912 At the same time also a member of the study commission of the War Academy
• 19.11.1912 Commander of the 1. Garde-Infanterie-Division
  • as such at the beginning of WWI with the 2nd German Army on the Western Front in France
• 4.4.1915 Commanding General of the XXI. Armee-Korps as successor to Fritz von Below
• 2.1.1917 Commander-in-chief of the Armee-Abteilung D (Dünaburg)
• 22.4.1917 Commander-in-chief of the 8. Armee as successor to Friedrich von Scholtz
  • Battle of Riga
• 12.12.1917 Convalescent leave
• 27.12.1917 Commander-in-chief of the new 18. Armee; the staff was that of the dissolved Heeresgruppe Woyrsch
  • Western Front; in March 1918, he lead the Spring Offensive (Operation Michael), capturing 50,000 prisoners and advancing 57 kilometers.
• 14.1.1919 Retired

Hutier tactics

Development

Infiltration tactics were developed 1915 on the Western Front. It started with the Flammenwerfer-Abteilung (flamethrower department) under Captain of the Landwehr, later Major Dr. Bernhard Reddemann. This special force, mostly comrades from the fire department, consisted of Reddemann as leader, the deputy officer and fire department sergeant Ambrosius and 48 men. Equipped with 10 portable hand pressure sprayers, which could throw flames up to 35 m, and six passenger cars with trailers to transport the crew and equipment, the flamethrower department was transferred to the VI. Reserve Corps in Romagne-sous Montfaucon on 15 February 1915. The first flamethrower attack of World War I was to take place on 26 February 1915 near Malancourt.

The available 10 hand pressure sprayers (small flamethrowers) and 2 “Fiedler flamethrowers” ​​(large flamethrowers) were used. The military success and the moral impact were enormous. A short time later, the department was formed into a flamethrower battalion with 8 combat companies, a recruit department and an experimental company. This is how the designation III. Guard Pioneer Battalion, this special force led by Reddemann, entered the action. Until the start of the Verdun Offensive, the steadily growing, modernized and richly equipped III. Guard Pioneer Battalion carried out various attacks in Champagne, the Argonne, the Priest Forest and Flanders and was able to continually improve its tactical approach and equipment.

In March 1915, the Germans also set up their first storm or assault units. Their extremely determined fighting style is said to bring victory on the Western Front. This first experimental pioneer assault unit of the German army was founded by Major Calsow (Sturm-Abteilung „Calsow“) and later commanded and refined by Captain Wilhelm „Willy“ Martin Ernst Rohr, becoming famous as the Sturm-Bataillon Nr. 5. These methods further evolved war tactics originally developed by the Prussians, to form the basis of German infiltration tactics. In 1916, generals were borrowing storm units trained in these tactics to come to the Eastern Front and lead important attacks using these tactics.

The experiences gained so far during the Verdun Offensive and the increasing fighting ensured that on 20 April 1916, the III. and IV. Guard Pioneer Battalions became a 3,000-man regiment (Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment) with 12 combat companies, an experimental company and a recruit department. The individual platoons were now alternately assigned to the assault battalions that had already been formed. The fleet was expanded and the launchers were further improved. Each field company had 200 men in three combat platoons. A combat platoon was comprised of five flamethrower detachments of two Kleif squads each, one machine-gun detachment on loan from the infantry, and one replacement detachment. Each combat platoon was armed with six to eight Grof and 54 Kleif. On 8 July 1916, the Brandenburgerisches Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 3 was transformed into Jäger(-Sturm)-Battalion Nr. 3, the only other assault battalion besides Sturmbataillon Rohr which had a flamethrower platoon as a permanent component. The death’s head sleeve badge was awarded to the regiment by the Crown Prince on 28 July 1916. Worn on the lower left sleeve, on or directly above the cuff, it gave the regiment its informal name of the Totenkopfpioniere.

1917

Von Hutier used the assault battalion (German: Sturm-Bataillon) tactics on a large scale with great success in the Battle of Riga in September 1917. Consequently, the tactic was named after him. In "Hutier tactics" (German: Hutier-Taktiken), infiltration attacks began with brief and violent artillery preparation of the enemy front lines in place of the traditional week's long barrage. The new artillery purpose was to suppress enemy positions rather than destroy them. The new artillery preparation would shift to the enemy rear area to disrupt lines of communications, artillery, logistics, and command and control nodes. The goal was disruption at the critical moment. The resulting confusion would degrade the enemy's ability to launch credible counterattacks, concentrate fires, and shift units to fill gaps or block penetrations.

This was followed by light assault infantry led infiltration attacks. They would evade and bypass frontline fortified positions, thus identifying gaps in the front line. The infiltrating light infantry units would "pull" the larger, more heavily equipped, units through. More heavily armed units (with machine guns, mortars and flamethrowers) would follow and attack the bypassed and isolated enemy strong points. Other follow-on forces would enter the gaps to reduce the strongpoint and precipitate the collapse of the entire front. These infiltration attacks relied on surprise and speed.

Von Hutier deployed 84 Flammenwerfer detachments from Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment at Riga. His troops captured 8,900 men, 200 MGs, and 325 cannon, and a lot of very vital terrain, hundreds of square kilometers. He owed much to the skills of his artillery commander (pioneer of the artillery neutralization tactics), the talented Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmüller (1863–1948), known as Durchbruchmüller (Breakthrough Müller).

His tactics set a precedent, and so German troops, supporting the hard-pressed and retreating Austro-Hungarian k. u. k. troops, achieved a spectacular victory over the Italians in the 12th Battle of the Isonzo in von Hutier's absence. The tactic was also used successfully to retake territory that had been captured by the British during the Battle of Cambrai (20 November to 6 December 1917).

Battle of Riga

The Battle of Riga (German: Schlacht um Riga) took place in early September 1917 and was last major campaign on the Eastern Front of World War I before the Russian Provisional Government and its army began disintegrating. The battle was fought between Oskar von Hutier's German Eighth Army (60,000 men) and Dmitri Parsky's Russian Twelfth Army (192,000 men). On 3 September 1917, the German flag flew over the liberated city, on 5 September 1917 the rest of the Russian forces had been destroyed. The Russians suffered 25,000 casualties and 9,000 captured.

The fall of Riga weakened the Russian front line along the Baltic Sea, bringing German forces closer to Petrograd, and was followed by Operation Albion (de), an amphibious landing on several islands in the Baltic by the Imperial German Navy. The offensive was also the first large scale use of stormtrooper infantry tactics by the Imperial German Army, which had been expanded by Oskar von Hutier, before their use in the West during the 1918 spring offensive.

Family

Emil Oskar's parents were Colonel Johann Heinrich Cölestin von Hutier (b. 26 September 1827 in Posen; d. 20 August 1894 in Eisenach) and his wife Fanny Marie Karoline, née Ludendorff (b. 26 April 1830 in Stettin; d. 28 January 1913 in Charlottenburg). His father was a major and commander of the Schleswig-Holstein Pioneer Battalion No. 9 when he was raised to the Prussian nobility on 16 July 1870. He earned the Red Eagle Order, 4th Class with Swords and the Iron Cross, 2nd Class during the Franco-German War. Erich Ludendorff was Oskar's maternal 1st cousin. Oskar had two brothers:

• Johann August Gaston (b. 19 October 1852 in Stettin), Portepee-Fähnrich (officer cadet) with the 7. Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 96, severely wounded during the Battle of Gravelotte on 18 August 1870, died of his wounds (ᛣ⚔) on 10 October 1870 in Rendsburg
• Eugen Cölestin (b. 6 June 1854 in Swinemünde; d. 9 October 1924 in Eisenach), Captain of the Prussian Army; ∞ Weimar 15 July 1882 Wilhelmine Emilie Elise Marie Knoke, 1 daughter

Marriage

On 24 September 1892 in Vöslau near Vienna, von Hutier married his fiancée Maria Theresia Josefa Augusta von Miller zu Aichholz (b. 28 January 1865 in Vienna, Austrian Empire; d. 18 November 1912 in Charlottenburg). They had three children:

• Marion Franziska Augusta (b. 23 July 1893 in Darmstadt; d. 24 October 1980); ⚭ 20 October 1921 Peter Paul Raimund Maria Josef Hubert Freiherr und Edler Herr von und zu Eltz-Rübenach (1875–1943), Captain of the Reserves, Prussian Staatsrat, Reich Transport Minister and Reich Post Minister, SS-Brigadeführer Kuno von Eltz-Rübenach was his nephew
  • 6 children; his only son Kuno Oskar Maximilian Maria Joseph Hubert (b. 10 July 1924) was ⚔ in Russia on 6 May 1942
• Irmgard Johanna Gabriele (b. 13 July 1894 in Straßburg, Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen; d. 26 November 1976); ⚭ 23 January 1932 Heinrich Vinzenz Franz Josef Oskar Ritter von Miller zu Aichholz (1896–1972), 2nd Lieutenant of the Reserves, 1 child
• Oscar Gustav Cölestin August Werner (1897–1910)

Promotions

• 15.4.1875 Sekondeleutnant (2nd Lieutenant)
• 6.12.1883 Premierleutnant (1st Lieutenant)
• 20.9.1890 Hauptmann (Captain)
• 30.5.1896 Major
• 12.9.1902 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
• 15.9.1905 Oberst (Colonel)
• 22.3.1910 Generalmajor (Major General)
• 22.4.1912 Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General)
• 27.1.1917 General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry)

Awards, decorations and honours

Awards and decorations

• Red Eagle Order (Roter Adlerorden), 4th Class (PRAO4/PrA4)
• Prussian Centenary Medal 1897 (Zentenarmedaille)
• Order of Orange-Nassau, Commander's Cross (NN3)
• Prussian Long Service Cross for 25 years (Königlich Preußisches Dienstauszeichnungskreuz; DA/PDK)
• Prussian Order of the Crown (Preußischer Kronenorden), III. Class
• China Commemorative Medal (China-Denkmünze) in Steel for non-combatants in 1901
• Saxe-Ernestine House Order, Commander 2nd Class (HSEH2b/HSH2b)
• Red Eagle Order, 3rd Class with the Bow (mit der Schleife)
• Prussian Order of the Crown, 2nd Class (PKrO2) on 13 September 1906
• Southwest Africa Commemorative Medal (Südwest-Afrika Denkmünze) in Steel for non-combatants in 1907
• Mecklenburg Order of the Griffon (Großherzoglich Mecklenburgischer Greifenorden), Commander's Cross (MG2b)
• House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis, Ehren-Komturkreuz or Honorary Commanders Cross (OV2b)
• Baden Order of the Zähringer Lion (Orden vom Zähringer Löwen), Commander 2nd Class (BZL2b/BZ2b)
• Grand Ducal Hessian Ludwig (Ludewig) Order, Knight's Cross 1st Class (GHL3a/HL3a) on 11 June 1909
• Hesse Order of Merit of Philip the Magnanimous (Verdienstorden Philipps des Großmütigen), Commander 2nd Class (HP2b)
• Red Eagle Order, 2nd Class with Oak Leaves on 21 January 1912
• Bavarian Military Merit Order, II. Class with Star (BMV2mSt)
• Hesse Order of Merit of Philip the Magnanimous (Verdienstorden Philipps des Großmütigen), Grand Cross (HP1)
• Saxon Albert Order (Albrechts-Orden), Grand Cross (SA1)
• Danish Order of Dannebrog, Grand Cross (DD1)
• Royal Victorian Order, Honorary Grand Cross (GV1)
• Star and Crown to his Red Eagle Order 2nd Class with Oak Leaves on 2 June 1913
• Order of the Star of Romania, Grand Cross (RmSt1/RumSt1)

WWI

• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 13 September 1914
  • 1st Class on 20 September 1914
• Swords to his Bavarian Military Merit Order II. Class with Star (BMV2mSt⚔)
• Swords to his Red Eagle Order 2nd Class with Oak Leaves, Star and Crown on 12 October 1915
• Swords to his Saxon Albert Order Grand Cross (SA1⚔)
• Cross for Faithful Service (Fürstlich Schaumburg-Lippisches Kreuz für treue Dienste 1914; SLK)
• Hessian Bravery Medal (Hessische Tapferkeitsmedaille; HT)
• Hamburg Hanseatic Cross (Hamburgisches Hanseatenkreuz; HH)
• Lübeck Hanseatic Cross (Lübeckisches Hanseatenkreuz; LübH/LüH)
• Bremen Hanseatic Cross (Bremisches Hanseatenkreuz; BremH/BH
• Princely House Order of Hohenzollern, Cross of Honour 1st Class with Swords (HEK1⚔)
• Bavarian Military Merit Order, I. Class with Swords (BMV1⚔)
• Pour le Mérite with Oak Leaves
  • Pour le Mérite on 6 September 1917
  • Oak Leaves on 23 March 1918 for the successes of the first days of the attack during Operation Michael
    • on this day, Traugott Martin von Sauberzweig (1863–1920) was also awarded the Oak Leaves. He was a major general and chief of the general staff of the 18th Army.
• Saxon Military Order of St. Henry, Knight's Cross (SH3) and Commander 2nd Class (SH2b) on 16 November 1917
• Ottoman/Turkish Gallipoli Star (Eiserner Halbmond; TH)
• Ottoman/Turkish Liakat Medal in Silver with Sabers (TL2⚔)
• Ottoman/Turkish Imtiaz Medal (Imitazgefechtsmedaille) in Silver with Sabers (TI2⚔/TJ2⚔)
• Saxon Military Order of St. Henry, Commander 1st Class (SH2a) on 7 May 1918
• Red Eagle Order, 1st Class with Oak Leaves and Swords on 23 July 1918
• Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern, Commander's Cross with Star and Swords (HOH2a⚔) on 15 October 1918

Post-war (excerpt)

• Commemorative Badge for the 70th birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Erinnerungszeichen zum 70. Geburtstag Kaiser Wilhelms II.) in January 1929
• Badge of the 12th Reich Front Soldier Day in Breslau in May 1931
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords

Honours

• Hutier barracks in Hanau
  • Built from 1911 to 1913, the barracks were inhabited by the Eisenbahn-Regiments Nr. 2. After WWI, the State Police (Landespolizei) took over. In 1937, the barracks (Kaserne) was named in honour of General von Hutier and accommodated the 1st Battalion of the 88th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht. After 1945 it was taken over by the US armed forces (until 2007).
• Hutier area (Areal) in Hanua in the Lamboy city district
• “Hutier Nord” commercial area (Gewerbegebiet) in north Hanau

Gallery

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Further reading

• German Headquarters: Aus den Kämpfen um Riga, Report from 11 October 1917 (Archive)
• Major General David Tadeusz Zabecki: As Russia Tottered on the Brink of Collapse in WWI, Germany Debuted Fire-Support Tactics That Still Inform Warfare, 2023 (Archive)