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Who's Who - Hermann von Eichhorn

Hermann von Eichhorn Hermann von Eichhorn (1848-1918) served as a German field commander on the Eastern Front for the duration of the war.

A veteran by the time war arrived in August 1914 Eichhorn was handed command of the new German Tenth Army when posted to the Eastern Front in January 1915.  He led Tenth Army during Hindenburg's Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in February 1915 and during the capture of Kovno in August and Vilna in September 1915.

Based in the northern Polish sector of the front (in control of the new Army Group Eichhorn) Eichhorn was made Field Marshal in December 1917.  With the removal of Russia from the war he was appointed Ukraine's military governor with responsibility for fully and exhaustively exploiting its resources, chiefly grain (as specified by the harsh Treaty of Brest Litovsk).

Eichhorn's Ukraine regime was sufficiently oppressive (and consequent unpopular) to bring about his own death, at the hands of a Ukrainian socialist on 30 July 1918.

Observation balloons were referred to as 'sausages'.

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