Michael Wittmann
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Michael Wittmann22 April 1914(1914-04-22) — 8 August 1944 (aged 30)
Michael Wittmann sitting on the gun barrel of a Tiger tankNicknameThe Black Baron
[1]Place of birthVogelthalPlace of deathBetween the towns of
Cintheaux and
St. Aignan de Cramesnil near the farm of Gaumesnil
[2]Allegiance
Nazi GermanyService/branch
Waffen SSYears of service1934-1944Rank
HauptsturmführerUnit
Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and
Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101Awards
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Michael Wittmann (April 22, 1914 - August 8, 1944) was a German
SS-
Hauptsturmführer during
World War II. Wittman's crews (chiefly gunner
Balthasar "Bobby" Woll, also a
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holder) are credited with the confirmed destruction of 138 tanks and 132 anti-tank guns, along with an unknown number of other armoured vehicles. Together with
Johannes Bölter,
Ernst Barkmann,
Otto Carius and
Kurt Knispel (the top scoring German panzer ace of the war with 168 confirmed tank kills
[3]), he is considered to be one of the greatest tank commanders in history.[
citation needed]
He is famous for his ambush of elements of the 4th County of London Yeomanry,
British 7th Armoured Division, during the
Battle of Villers-Bocage on June 13 1944. While in command of a single
Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger he destroyed between 10 and 11 tanks, 2 anti-tank guns and 13 personnel carriers within the space of 15 minutes.
[4][5][6]
The circumstances behind Wittmann’s death have caused some debate and discussion over the years, but it has been generally accepted that Trooper
Joe Ekins in a
Sherman Firefly commanded by Sergeant Gordon of the 1st
Northamptonshire Yeomanry was his killer.
[7][8][9][10] However, in recent years, some commentators have suggested that members of the
Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment may have instead been responsible.
[11]
//
: Early life and career
Michael Wittmann was born on April 22 1914 in the village of Vogelthal in the
Oberpfalz region of
Bavaria. He was the second son of local farmer Johann Wittmann and his wife Ursula. In February 1934, Michael joined the Volunteer Labor Service, the FAD (what later became the
RAD) and on October 30, 1934 he joined the
German Army. He was assigned to the 19. Infantry Regiment based at
Freising by
Munich, eventually reaching the rank of
Gefreiter. In October 1936 the 22-year old Wittmann joined the
Allgemeine-SS. On April 5 1937, he was assigned to the premier
regiment, later division
Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler and was given the rank
SS-Mann. A year later, he participated in the invasion of
Austria and the
Sudetenland with an armoured car platoon.
His first experience of combat came in the
Polish Campaign, followed by the
Battle of France as a commander of the new self-propelled assault guns, the
Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. A. The Greek campaign -
Operation 'Marita' - was launched on April 6 1941. Leibstandarte SS
Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), captured the
Greek capital, and formed the spearhead, alongside the 9th
Panzer Division, which punched through the Greek countryside. After three weeks of campaigning,
Nazi Germany had conquered Greece. Wittmann and his unit were sent to
Czechoslovakia for a refit. The rest would not last long, however, as Wittmann's unit was soon dispatched to the
Eastern Front to participate in the invasion of the
Soviet Union. He initially served as a commander of a StuG III assault gun. He was assigned for both officer and tank training in the winter of 1942-43.
Returning to the Eastern Front as a newly-
commissioned officer, Wittmann was reassigned to a tank unit with the rank of SS-
Untersturmführer, where he commanded a
Panzer III tank. By 1943, he commanded a Tiger, and by the time of the
Battle of Kursk (Operation Citadel), he was a platoon leader. On January 14 1944, he was awarded the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and on January 30, the Oak Leaves for his continued excellence in the field. By this time, he had destroyed 88 enemy tanks and a significant number of other armoured vehicles. Wittmann left the Leibstandarte, as the Tiger company of the division was used as the nucleus of a new
Waffen-SS heavy tank battalion,
Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101. This new formation was part of the I SS-Panzerkorps and was not permanently attached to any division or regiment.
By the time he was posted to France, in the late spring of 1944 following the Allied
D-Day invasion, Wittmann held the rank of SS-
Obersturmführer. His most famous exploit during the Normandy campaign was his ambush of the lead elements of the 7th Armoured Division's 22nd Armoured Brigade, which brought about the
Battle of Villers-Bocage on
June 13,
1944.
During the opening phase of this battle, within a 15 minute period, he is credited with the destruction of between 10 and 11 tanks, 2 anti-tank guns and 13 personnel carriers.
[4][5][6] Historians have claimed that Wittmann's attack ended after he had withdrawn from the town following an unsuccessful duel with a
Sherman Firefly.
[12][13] A British tanker claimed he was responsible for denting the driver visor on the Tiger tank, during the unsuccessful duel with the Firefly, and that this forced Wittmann to withdraw his tank.
[14] Wittman's Tiger is then said to have continued eastwards, out of town, before being disabled by a British
6-Pounder anti–tank gun.
[15] Wittmann's own account contradicts this sequence of events. He states that his tank was disabled in the town centre and photographic evidence, taken after the event, of the Tiger tanks knocked out in Villers-Bocage corroborates this position.
[16][17]
Wittmann did not take part in the fighting throughout the rest of the morning nor the afternoon
[18][16], although German propaganda claimed he did
[18] and credited him with the destruction of nearly all the British losses.
[19] For his actions at Villers-Bocage Wittmann was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer, was awarded Swords to his Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and had his story appear in
Das schwarze Korps (the German Panzer forces magazine).
[20]
eath
The only known photograph of the wrecked Tiger 007, taken by French civilian Mr. Serge Varin in 1945, still in the field near Gaumesnil where it had been stopped a year before.
Michael Wittmann was killed on August 8 1944 while taking part in a counterattack to retake Hill 122, near the town of St. Aignan de Cramesnil. The town and surrounding high ground had been captured a few hours previously by Anglo-Canadian forces during
Operation Totalize.
[21][22]
A group of seven Tiger tanks from the 3rd Company and HQ Company, Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 supported by several
Panzer IV and
Stug IV were ambushed by tanks from A Squadron, 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, 33rd Armoured Brigade, A Squadron, the Sherbrooke Fuisilier Regiment,
2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade and B Squadron, The 144
Royal Armoured Corps, 33rd Armoured Brigade.
[23][7][24][10][9][22]
The killing shots have long been thought to have come from a Sherman Firefly of ‘3 Troop’, A Squadron, 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry (commander - Sergeant Gordon; gunner - Trooper Joe Ekins), which was positioned in a wood called Delle de la Roque on the advancing Tigers' right flank
[25] at approximately 12:47.
[26]
It appears the shells penetrated the upper hull of the tank and ignited the Tiger's own ammunition, causing a fire which engulfed the tank and then blew off the turret.
[27]
For such a junior officer, there has been quite a lot of speculation surrounding how he died. At the time of his death, although the majority of allied soldiers had never heard of him,
[28] Wittmann had become a household name within Germany.
[29]
In 1985, Issue 48 of
After the Battle Magazine was published, containing an article on the last battle of Michael Wittmann. In this issue, Les Taylor, another member of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry during the war, stated that Joe Ekins was the man who was responsible for the death of Wittmann.
[7]
The
1st Polish Armoured Division, the
4th Canadian Armoured Division, the
144 Regiment Royal Armoured Corps and the
RAF Second Tactical Air Force have also been the subject of claims to have killed Wittmann.
No Holding Back, a book by Brian Reid on Operation Totalize, contains an entire appendix devoted to the death of Michael Wittmann, in which these claims are completely discredited.
Examination of the armoured divisions' war diaries revealed that they were too far north of St. Aignan de Cramesnil to have taken any part in the defeat of the German armoured counterattack. Investigation also ruled out the 144 Royal Armoured Corps; although they did take part in defeating the counterattack, they were positioned around Cramesnil and therefore out of effective range of Wittmann’s tank. The regiment did originally claim that they destroyed two Tigers during this German counterattack. However, their commanding officer changed this claim to one Tiger and one Panzer IV destroyed, post-battle.
[30]
The main source of controversy surrounding Wittmann's demise comes from the claim that he was killed when an
RP-3 rocket from a
Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon struck his tank.
This myth, originating in German propaganda,[
citation needed] stated Wittmann had fallen in combat to the
dreaded fighter-bombers. This was further enhanced when a French civilian, Mr. Serge Varin, who took the only known photo of the destroyed Tiger, stated that in his opinion the tank had been destroyed by an air attack. He said he had found an unexploded rocket nearby and could not see any other penetration holes, other than the one on the upper hull. However, some accounts describe this as an exit hole and state the engine was intact and not damaged from any explosion.
Brian Reid has also discredited this explanation after examining the logs of the RAF Second Tactical Air Force. Reid notes that they made no claim of engaging or destroying any tanks in the area during the time frame of the battle.
[31] He concludes:
"...no tanks were claimed destroyed or damaged in the forward areas by immediate support aircraft"
[32]
"...the only tanks claimed were by Typhoons on armed reconnaissance missions in areas away from the actual battle. Therefore Wittmann and his crew almost assuredly did not fall victim to an attack from the air."
[32]
"…made a point of remarking on the Allies' failure to use their tactical fighters on the morning of 8 August."
[33]
There is also no evidence to support any other aircraft outside of the Second Tactical Airforce attacked the tank.[
citation needed]
The final piece of evidence, which rules out air attack upon the attacking German tanks, comes from eyewitness testimony. German tank crews and other members of the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, such as Alfred Bahlo, Hans Dollinger, Hans Höflinger and Doctor Rabe, along with Allied tankers such as
Captain Boardman, Trooper Ekins and Major Radley-Walters have all stated in interviews (as well as other media such as letters) that the Tiger tanks came under tank attack only and do not mention any air attacks during this battle.
[34][7][24][10][9]
After discrediting the main claimants other than Joe Ekins, Brian Reid then discusses another possibility, as there was another armoured regiment much closer to Wittmann’s tank. A Squadron of The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment,
2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, commanded by Major Sidney Radley-Walters, was positioned in the chateau grounds at Gaumesnil. This area, south of Hill 112, is parallel with the Delle de la Roque woods and the location of Joe Ekin’s Firefly. The regiment at this time was made up of several
Sherman III and 2
Sherman VC, whose tankers had created firing holes in the property's wall. From this position, based on verbal testimony of the Canadian tankers, they engaged several tanks (including Tigers) and self-propelled guns driving up the main road and across the open ground towards Hill 112.
[11]
Reid puts forth the opinion that, with the range Joe Ekins would have to fire over to hit Wittmann’s tank,
[35] the proximity of The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment to the tank, no other evidence to suggest anything other than tank-to-tank combat, that the latter are most likely responsible for Wittmann's death.
[11] Because of changes in land use from orchards to ploughed fields since 1944, it is problematic to establish the exact location of Ekin's Firefly at the beginning of the engagement and even more difficult to know the position of the claimed kill shot as Ekins' tank moved during the engagement. At a minimum, the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry was positioned over 1000 metres away, possibly as much as 1200m, while the Canadian tanks were only around 500 metres away.
[32] Recent field studies that located the exact position of the Sherbrooke tanks puts the range at less than 150 yds and the firing angle from their position behind the Chateau's now removed east wall coincides exactly with the damage area to Wittman's Tiger in the left rear engine compartment. There are no official Canadian records to back up this position due the Regimental Headquarters halftrack being destroyed by a stray USAAF bomb.
[36]
Ken Tout, who at the time of Operation Totalize, was a member of C Squadron of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, published a postwar account of the battle and of Wittmann’s demise. Tout credited Joe Ekins at that time. However, when researching his new book on the subject, he interviewed former members of A Squadron, Sherbrooke Fusiliers. In this book, for the first time, he does not claim Wittmann for the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and acknowledges that other regiments were in the area at the time and engaged the attacking Tigers.
[37][24]
With the Tigers caught in a crossfire between the Northamptonshire Yeomanry and The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment, it is understandable that both regiments claimed to have destroyed his tank. However it is still generally accepted that Joe Ekins was Wittmanns killer. The significant hole in this belief is that, if Wittman's Tiger was one of three Tigers engaged and destroyed by Ekins that afternoon - a truly remarkable feat of tank gunnery, who then is responsible for one of the three Tigers nearest to where Ekins fired from. He killed three Tigers and if one was Wittman's, someone else had to engage and kill one of these three destroyed Tigers within 800 yds of Ekins position. There is no record or claim by any other Allied tank for any of these three Tigers.
In the appendix of “No Holding Back”, devoted to Wittmann’s demise, there is topographical map
[38] of the engagement, diagrams of the tank
[39] and the location of the shell strike.
[40] Using this and Google Earth it is quite easy to re-create the engagement scenario and measure the distances involved, an exercise that strongly supports the Canadian claim.
Photograph taken of Michael Wittmann and his crew's grave in the La Cambe German war cemetery
The German war graves commission, either with help of veterans from the
s.SS-Pz Abt. 101 or from the author of
Panzers in Normandy – Then and Now, located Wittmann and his crew's unmarked grave in 1983. They were then reinterred together at the German war cemetery of
La Cambe in France.
[41]
Historian Wolfgang Schneider has questioned the competence of Michael Wittmann, stating, "A competent tank company commander does not accumulate so many serious mistakes as Wittmann made".
[42] While other historians have praised Wittmann for his actions at Villers-Bocage, Schneider has criticised the solitary advance of Wittmann into Villers-Bocage. He states that, while it may "seem brave", he notes that "it goes against all the rules". Not only was intelligence not gathered, there was "no centre of gravity" or "concentration of forces" and because of Wittmann's actions, "the bulk of the 2nd Company and Mobius 1st Company came up against an enemy who had gone onto the defensive".
[42] He sums up "The carefree advance of a single panzer into a town occupied by the enemy is pure folly" and states elsewhere that "Such overhastiness was uncalled for". Had Wittmann waited to regroup with elements of his company and the 1st Company, "Such action would have been more effective".
[42] He ends, "Thoughtlessness of this kind was to cost [Wittmann] his life on August 9th 1944, near Gaumesnil, during an attack casually launched in open country with an exposed flank.”
[42]
On March 1, 1944, Wittmann married Hildegard Burmester in the town of
Lüneburg.
Iron Cross Second (1941) and First (1941) Classes
