Spring Boot 2.2 no longer adds HiddenHttpMethodFilter by default See https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-2.2-Release-Notes#httphiddenmethodfilter-disabled-by-default This means that trying to map DELETE requests using _method variable does not work. This changes the mapping to use a POST which doesn't require the HiddenHttpMethodFilter which might expose the application to unnecessary security risk by allowing the HTTP method to be overridden. Closes gh-1613