Their objective was to exploit the gap in the front line, seize Villers-Bocage, and capture the nearby ridge (Point 213) in an attempt to force a German withdrawal. The next morning, lead elements of the British 7th Armoured Division entered Villers-Bocage. Nominally composed of 12 tanks, his company was 50 per cent understrength due to losses and mechanical failures. Anticipating the importance the British would assign to the high ground near Villers-Bocage, Wittmann's company was positioned near the town. From this position, the battalion could protect the developing open left flank. Sepp Dietrich, commander of 1st SS Panzer Corps, ordered Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101, his only reserve, to position itself behind the Panzer Lehr Division and SS Division Hitlerjugend. As the division withdrew south, it opened a 12 km (a 7.5-mile) gap in the front line near Caumont-l'Éventé. ĭue to the Anglo-American advance south from Gold and Omaha Beaches, the German 352nd Infantry Division began to buckle. Wittmann is standing in the turret of Tiger 205. Wittmann's company, 7 June 1944, en route to Morgny. “By early January 1944 his combined total of destroyed tanks would rise to sixty-six.” On their first day in action against the Soviets, Wittman’s crew destroyed ten T-34s and five anti-tank guns. In November 1943, Wittmann, still serving in Leibstandarte’s heavy company, was involved in armored counterattacks against the Russians around Zhitomir. At one point, his tank survived a collision with a burning T-34. On their first day in battle at Kursk, Wittmann and his crew scored eight tanks and seven anti-tank guns destroyed. Attached to the LSSAH, Wittmann's platoon of four Tigers reinforced the division's reconnaissance battalion to screen the division's left flank. By 1943, he commanded a Tiger I tank, and had become a platoon leader in the heavy company by the time Operation Citadel and the Battle of Kursk took place. He was assigned to SS Panzer Regiment 1, a tank unit, where he commanded a StuG III assault gun/tank destroyer as well as a Panzer III medium tank. Wittmann's unit was transferred to the Eastern Front in the spring of 1941 for Operation Barbarossa, the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. A year later, he participated in the annexation of Austria, the occupation of Sudetenland, and joined the Nazi Party. Wittmann joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) in October 1936 and was assigned to the regiment, later division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) on 5 April 1937. He enlisted in the German Army ( Heer) in 1934 after the Nazi seizure of power. Michael Wittmann was born in the village of Vogelthal, near Dietfurt in Bavaria's Upper Palatinate on 22 April 1914. Some praised his actions at Villers-Bocage, while others found his abilities lacking, and the praise for his tank kills overstated. Historians have mixed opinions about his tactical performance in battle. Wittmann became a cult figure after the war thanks to his accomplishments as a " panzer ace" (a highly decorated tank commander), part of the portrayal of the Waffen-SS in popular culture. The news was disseminated by Nazi propaganda and added to Wittmann's reputation. While in command of a Tiger I tank, Wittmann destroyed up to 14 tanks, 15 personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns within 15 minutes for the loss of his own tank. He is known for his ambush of elements of the British 7th Armored Division during the Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. Michael Wittmann (22 April 1914 – 8 August 1944) was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
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