Bruchmüller commanded the artillery of the 8th Army (General Oskar von Hutier) in the victory at Riga in September 1917. The 8th Army moved west soon thereafter and, in the first months of 1918, Bruchmüller's techniques were taught to gunners at a special school in Belgium before the German spring offensive of 1918. Infantry officers were also taught his methods and there were joint infantry-artillery exercises with live ammunition, with advances shielded by the creeping barrage. The first attack, Operation Michael, began with a barrage of shells in five hours, almost a second. Defying instructions, Bruchmüller eliminated preliminary registration by firing from the map and then directed the artillery during the next attack at the Battle of the Lys on Flanders, where the artillery had not yet been trained in the Pulkowski method. The guns were registered by observation during the first phase of the bombardment. Bruchmüller was awarded the oak leaves to his "Pour le Mérite" on March 26, 1918, one of just two higher artillery commanders decorated this way. Still only a Lieutenant-Colonel and a retired officer on temporary recall, he commanded the artillery in Heeresgruppe Deutscher Kronprinz in the Third Battle of the Aisne and the Second Battle of the Marne. The artillery fired from the map in darkness and the infantry advanced at first light. Ludendorff cited him as an example of "the decisive influence of personality on the course of events in war".