After arriving on the Western Front, Hutier was placed in command of the newly formed Eighteenth Army. In March 1918, during Operation Michael at the start of the Spring Offensive, Hutier employed the new infiltration tactics that had been developed over the preceding three years on the Western Front. He hammered the British Fifth Army, advancing some 40 miles along the Somme River toward Amiens in the span of fifteen days. Hutier's forces captured around 50,000 prisoners; Hutier was awarded the Oak Leaves to accompany his Pour le Mérite for this victory. A contemporary French magazine credited Hutier with creating these infiltration tactics, which relied on small, flexible forces that moved rapidly, calling them "Hutier tactics", though he had had no significant role in developing them.