The famous SS man, an ace tanker who crushed the lands of France, Poland, Greece, the Soviet Union (Kursk Bulge) with caterpillars, served the Wehrmacht until 1936, and then - until his death - in the SS. In the USSR he got the commander of a platoon of assault guns. In the spring of 1944 he was transferred to Normandy, where he showed that the German Tiger tank was significantly superior to all the machines used by our allies. His name is included in all military encyclopedias - this is Michael Wittmann.
Tank ace
He covered himself with special fame under the town of Ville-Bocage, where a demonstration battle was given: in fifteen minutes, Michael Wittmann disabled 11 tanks, 13 armored personnel carriers and 2 anti-tank guns. Thus, he almost completely destroyed British intelligence, not simple intelligence, but also very glorious since the time of the African campaign, the very one that was called "desert rats." As a result of the actions of one Tiger, a breakthrough of the British army ceased to exist.
St. Aignan de Cramesnil is a town in Normandy, where in 1944 the brave soldier of the SS group Michael Wittmann laid his head. The tank in which the German ace was located was destroyed by a direct hit: the ammunition detonated, the tower was torn down. All those in the tank were simply smeared.
During the war, Michael Wittmann, the master of tank battles, personally destroyed 132 anti-tank guns and 141 tanks. Most of the personal account of this ace is recorded on the Eastern Front.
short biography
The most productive tank commander of the Second World War, Michael Wittmann, was born in April 1914 in the family of a farmer from the Upper Palatinate. At the age of twenty, he joined the Workers' Association (RAD - Reichsarbeitdienst), where he served for six months, after which he was called up for military service in the German army.
In 1936, Michael Wittmann ends up serving as a non-commissioned officer, and already at the beginning of 1937 he became an SS officer under the number SS 311623. Here he began to train to drive an armored car, in which he showed excellent results.
Poland, Greece and other Europe
The Poles in 1939 had an army, if inferior to the Wehrmacht, then quite a bit. Nevertheless, the German campaign in Poland responded to all the signs of a blitzkrieg. In September of this year, Michael Wittmann, the newly made Unterscharfuhrer SS, as part of the reconnaissance unit on the armored vehicle Sd. Kfz. 232 with unchanged triumph traveled through the territory of a neighboring state.
Already in October 1939, Wittmann went up the career ladder. First, he was transferred to the fifth reconnaissance armor plate in Berlin, where there was a kind of “training” on assault guns, then - into a newly made battery of self-propelled assault guns. Here he met and made friends with future aces, whom he would subsequently catch up with and overtake: these were Hans Philipsen, Helmut Wendorf, Alfred Gunther and some others.
Path to the tank
The real tank career of Michael Wittmann began. At the end of 1940 in Greece and Yugoslavia, Michael Wittmann already commanded a platoon of StuG self-propelled guns. III Ausf. A, where he stayed until June 1941. Already on June 11, the LSSAH division, where he served, took off and went east, where Barbarossa's plan was awaiting implementation. At first, Michael Wittmann fought in the southern regions of the USSR.
For the destruction of Soviet tanks on July 12, 1941, Wittmann already received the Iron Cross of the II degree, was slightly wounded, but remained in service, and on September 8 received the same award of I degree. The battles near Rostov brought him the Tank Assault Medallion (for 6 tanks destroyed in one battle at the same time) and the title of OberscharfĂĽhrer. So he fought until June 1942, after which he entered the cadets for officer courses in Bavaria for outstanding services. In September 1942 he graduated from there as a tank instructor.
Grenadier Division Tank
After redeployment and reorganization in the spring of 1943, Michael Wittmann began his combat career already on the Tiger, which ironed the heights of the Kursk Bulge on the southern ledge of the front. On the first day, Wittmann managed to disable 13 T-34 tanks and 2 anti-tank guns. At the same time, he helped to survive the platoon of Helmut Wendorf, who was in serious trouble. For the entire duration of the battles for Kursk and Kharkov, at the end of the operation until July 17, 1943, Wittmann's “iron tiger” destroyed 28 Soviet guns and 30 tanks.
In August, the division was transferred to replenish and rearm in Italy, from where it was also used to control the occupied territories. In the newly formed SS heavy tank battalion, Michael Wittmann served with legendary killers such as tank aces Franz Staudeger, Helmut Wendorf, JĂĽrgen Brandt. This unit was commanded by the SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Heitz Kling on the Tiger, number 1301.
Autumn Offensive of the Red Army of 1943
German invaders with bloody battles retreated from Soviet soil. The tank battalion, where Michael Wittmann served, was again sent to the Eastern Front - near Kiev. Replacing his Tiger with a younger beast, Wittmann shot 20 T-34 tanks and 23 anti-tank guns in just one day on October 13. In January, he received a knight's cross from his native Vaterland.
In early January, Soviet troops outlined a breakthrough of the tank brigade, but Wittmann Tiger stood in the way of the breakthrough. By January 13, as German radio joyfully reported, Wittmann's personal account for destroyed equipment amounted to 88 units of tanks and self-propelled guns. Wittmann’s gunner Balthazar Woll also got his knight’s cross because he knew how to hit a moving target even on the move. Then Wittmann became Obersturmfuhrer SS. Personally, Adolf Hitler congratulated the tank ace, thanked for the heroic actions and awarded the “Oak Leaves” to the knightly badge. Below you can consider: at the head of the crew - Michael Wittmann. The photo shows his "Tiger", on the gun barrel of which 88 rings are drawn, indicating victory.
Knights Division
At the end of February, the unit had five knights of the knight's cross: Staudegger, Wendorf, Woll, Kling and Wittmann. But only the latter had reason for special pride - oak leaves for this cross. And in early March, all these knights left the Eastern Front. Michael Wittmann, whose quotes have now been collected, has uttered that Soviet tanks - easy prey, Soviet anti-tank guns - and they were harder to take.
On March 1, 1944, Whitman married a girl named Hildegard Burmester, a tanker knight Balthazar Woll, his gunner, was present at the wedding as a witness. By this time, Michael Wittmann, Hauptsturmfuhrer SS, became a national hero, his portrait could be seen in literally every house. The propaganda machine did its job. By the way, gunner Woll survived the war, fought until the last day. He died in 1996.
Towards the main triumph
In April 1944, Wittmann visited the Henschel factory in Kassel, talked with the workers, praised the Tigers, which were made with their hands, thanked for the work, examined the new versions of these tanks. When the hero of Germany Michael Wittmann said something, his statements were scrupulously recorded.
In May 1944, Wittmann returned to the unit - not on the Eastern Front, but in France, in the Norman town of Ligier, and on June 6 the USSR allies landed in Normandy. Wittman received the newest “Tiger” of the latest version. During the redeployment, the air raids of the allied aviation greatly thinned the orderly ranks of German tanks. There are only six Tigers in Wittmann’s company. Nevertheless, on June 13, the remains of this company completely destroyed the entire 4th British Tank Regiment. It was like that.
The British have not yet won the war
The British entered the town of Ville-Bocage early in the morning. The head shelves of the Desert Rats (7th English Armored Division), meeting with locals delighted with their arrival, climbed out of the tanks and relaxed slightly. Or even not slightly, considering what happened next. At this time, the 4th battalion with the Cromwell tank company, reconnaissance and motorized infantry decided to move on to inspect and clear if there was a way to Caen. Montgomery was transmitting at the same time to the Chief of Staff de Gigand a telegram about how well it was possible to capture the enemy in ticks.
And again, at the same time, Michael Wittmann watched the whole picture from the tower of his disguised Tiger from a high-rise building nearby, while Coll checked the readiness of the guidance system, grumbling that the English were behaving as if they were already won the whole war. Wittmann had 5 tanks: 4 Tigers, one of which was with a damaged truck, one Panther. Against the myriad tanks of the whole English army. Nevertheless, everyone was preparing for battle to prevent the British from circumventing German troops from the flank.
"They are wrong"
It was with this phrase that Michael Wittmann, the SS Hauptsturmfuhrer (there was no one to quote the quotes this time), answered the grumbling of Kohl. The column of British reconnaissance tanks at this time was already approaching the altitude occupied by Vuitton by 200 meters. The Desert Panthers rode quietly along a winding highway, and tall, beautiful trees growing on both sides of the road pleased their eyes. Well, the review was closed, of course, almost completely.
At that moment Vuitton did not know the situation on this sector of the front; he himself made his way here from Paris only at night, but he was still seriously injured by the raids of the English air aces. Nevertheless, he calmly counted all the “Cromwells”, “Sherman”, “Brenov” - a full armored regiment in this approaching colossal caterpillar. Radio reinforcements had already been requested, there were two ways out: to wait or to attack. The second is pure suicide.
Selection made
Wittman was unable to get his tank, so he moved a subordinate into the car, told what to do the rest in position, and led the Tiger towards the enemy. Having reduced the distance to one hundred meters, he knocked out two leading tanks of the British, then the last tank in the convoy, blocking the others in a narrow space of a highway lined with trees that Wittmann’s tank was protecting and hiding. Going into the tail of the column, Wittmann shot at point blank range every British car that appeared in sight. A couple of “Cromwells” simply rammed so as not to interfere with the promotion.
After 20 minutes, almost everything was over with the 7th British Armored Division. Failed completely: 21 tanks, 28 vehicles of other armored vehicles, 14 self-propelled guns and 14 half-track armored personnel carriers. After that, Wittman stepped back a little. Without the slightest damage. The four tanks remaining on the skyscraper covered the commander. In the meantime, reinforcements also arrived - another 8 tanks from the first company entered Ville-Bocage on the other hand in order to drive out other British units from the town.
Here are the promised "ticks"
Wittmann interrupted his retreat and rushed to the city center. There, three of the four English tanks that got in the way, he knocked out, and the fourth disappeared behind the wall of the garden. He could not shoot: his gunner did not have time to return to his post. The British relaxed, indeed, to the fullest. But there was also the fifth Sherman, which crept around the building and shot Wittman four times at close range, and the Tiger at that moment opened its board for the enemy tank. One shell hit, interrupting Wittmann’s tank "caterpillar."
Wittman naturally answered immediately: half of the building collapsed on the Sherman and completely overwhelmed him. And he continued to fire. The last "Cromwell", which without a gunner, was also found and defeated. The immobilized tank was Wittmann abandoned with bitterness. He returned to the skyscraper, still started his “Tiger”, refueled and managed to join the reinforcements that approached, in whose ranks he again fell upon what remained of the English division. For this boldness Hitler awarded Wittmann also with “Swords” to “Oak Leaves” to the Knight's Cross. Thus, the tanker was more deserving than Vuitton in the German army. However, the next major British military operation in the west ended in collapse. At the beginning of August 1944, the tank, which contained the entire crew of Michael Wittmann, was also killed.