Michael Wittmann

Early life and career

Michael Wittmann was born on 22 April 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 30 October 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(private). 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 (private). A year later, he participated in the invasion of Austria and the Sudetenland with an armoured car platoon.

Second World War

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 6 April 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 13 June 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. Historians have claimed that Wittmann's attack ended after he had withdrawn from the town following an unsuccessful duel with a Sherman Firefly. 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. Wittman's Tiger is then said to have continued eastwards, out of town, before being disabled by a British 6-Pounder anti–tank gun. 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.Wittmann did not take part in the fighting throughout the rest of the morning nor the afternoon, although German propaganda claimed he did and credited him with the destruction of nearly all the British losses.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).

Death

Burial

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.

Summary of his SS career

Dates of rank

• SS-Mann: April 01, 1937
• SS-Sturmmann: November 11, 1937
• SS-Unterscharführer: April 20, 1939
• SS-Oberscharführer: November 09, 1941
• SS-Untersturmführer: December 21, 1942
• SS-Obersturmführer: January 30, 1944
• SS-Hauptsturmführer: June 21, 1944

Notable decorations

• Iron Cross Second (1941) and First (1941) Classes
• SS-Honour Ring
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (1944)
• Oak Leaves (1944)
• Swords (1944)
• Wound Badge in Black (1941)
• Panzer Badge in Silver (1941)
• Eastern Front Medal (1942)
• Sudetenland Medal (1938)
• Anschluss Medal (1938)
• Soldier's Cross Of The Order Of Bravery 2nd Class (Tsardom Of Bulgaria) (1941)
• Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht on 13 January 1944

On March 1, 1944, Wittmann married Hildegard Burmester