wittman military

Wittman Military - Late on the morning of August 8, 1944, the day the famous tank commander Michael Wittmann ended the battle, German SS-Oberführer (Colonel) Kurt "Panzer" Meyer drove to Sinteaux in his private car. France, near the front line. The British offensive continued, and Meyer commanded the Hitler Youth's 12th SS Panzer Division, which was directly in the enemy's path. As the two men headed north, they were met with a sight of horror. Many German infantry were retreating in disarray and moving south. The scene was complete chaos, Meyer immediately began to change. Taking his carbine, the SS officer got out of the state car and entered among the fleeing men. He single-handedly advised his men to stop running and rejoin him. Courageously displayed, his enthusiasm was successful and the men around him fell into line.

Meyer soon met a member of his unit, Sturmbahnführer (Major) Hans Waldmüller. They went to a gentle slope near the village of Gaumesnil. They found a stable there and went to his head with binoculars. What they saw certainly discouraged them. In the distance, the spearheads of two British armored divisions converged to continue the Allied attack. Tanks, trucks and Bren aircraft carriers lay before them like a pride of lions, predators ready to close in for destruction.

Wittman Military

Meyer knew there was little behind him to stop this wave of destruction from reaching Falaise. If they succeed, Germany's defenses for the entire region could collapse. His army was too weak to defend, so he decided to attack instead. Meyer quickly ordered all Hitler Youth forces in the area to launch a counterattack to the north at 12:30 p.m. It was a desperate move, but if successful, the British schedule would be disrupted, giving time for other German units to arrive and further outflank the already defensive positions. . They had only half an hour to prepare.

Us60501 Corgi Tiger I Ss Panzer Abeitlung 101 Michael Wittman

All the troops in the area were immediately under the command of Waldmüller. There were about 20 tanks from the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, most of which were Panzer IV models. Next to them were about 500 infantrymen of the 1st battalion of the 25th SS regiment. However, the force Meyer was most likely to depend on to tip the balance in his favor was the Tiger heavy tanks of the 2nd Company, 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion, under the command of Hauptsturmführer.(Capt.) Michael Wittmann, ace panzer with multiple tank kills. to trust himself and his staff. Although Meyer did not know it, he had ordered the death of the famous Wittmann.

Thanks to the skillful apparatus of Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, Michael Wittmann became a national hero in wartime Germany. He was born on April 22, 1914, shortly before the start of World War I, as the son of a farmer. As a young man, he served two years in the German Army before joining the SS, joining the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, a regimental-level unit that later grew to divisional strength. At the start of the war, Wittmann served in the Polish campaign of 1939 and the invasion of the Balkans in 1940. The young soldier rose to the rank of Obersharführer (sergeant) in the early months of Operation Barbarossa, where he demonstrated. the ability to knock on the doors of enemy tanks. Sensing his ability, his superiors sent Wittman to train officers. He returned to the unit in December 1942 and was assigned to the division's Tiger tank company. As part of this unit, he fought brilliantly in the Battle of Kursk.

Silhouetted against a battle-scarred landscape, a German Tiger tank is seen in action at Kursk on July 13, 1943.

After the battle, his company was recruited as officers of the newly formed SS 101 Heavy Tank Battalion. In January 1944, Wittmann was awarded the Knight's Medal for his success in destroying more than 90 enemy tanks. By March, he was running his own company. On June 6, 1944, the battalion was transferred to France to face the Allied invasion of Normandy. Wittmann's battalion fought with the full strength and tenacity of its soldiers. Their "Tiger" tank terrified the Allied army.

Col. George Hardy, Left, Brig. Gen. Charles Mcgee, Right, Tuskegee Airmen, And U.s. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, Air Force Special Operations Command Commander, Pose For A Photo At Eaa Airventure

On the morning of June 13, 1944, his company was deployed near the French village of Villers-Bocage in anticipation of a British attack. His company is only at half capacity. When the British attack arrived sooner than expected, Wittmann and his Tigers swung into action, destroying about 30 vehicles and anti-tank guns; At least 10 British tanks were lost. During the fierce fighting, Wittmann's own Tiger was disabled, so he and his crew fled on foot to the safety of Germany. Armor's trump card would go on to fight, destroying a total of 139 tanks before dying in August.

The battle in which Wittmann met his fate was part of the larger movement surrounding Operation Totalize, a British offensive to seize the high ground around the town of Falaise. German forces were slowly becoming trapped in a nearby pocket, and the capture of Falaise would help seal that pocket. The operation was conducted under the command of Canadian General Guy Simonds, the commander of the Canadian II Corps. The plan for Totalize consists of several stages. First, a pair of infantry divisions would attack along the main road from Caen to Falaise. Seven mobile columns would move through the German forward defenses toward targets in the Nazi rear. These columns were heavy on tanks, and assigned infantry were placed in armored vehicles to keep up the rapid advance. Unblocked positions will be killed by more infantry followed by mobile columns.

The attack went well, and by noon on August 8, the German lines were breached at a depth of 6 km. Especially bad was the gap in the area of ​​the German 89th Division, where Meyer and his Hitler Youth were stationed. The second stage of the attack had begun in front of them. Little did the Canadians and the British know that the Germans were in such disarray and waiting for an air attack scheduled for 12:26 p.m. In this attack, 681 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers hit six separate targets during the morning. Two British tank divisions, watched by Meyer from the warehouse, were just waiting for the air attack to begin.

SS Captain Michael Wittmann's 205th Tiger tank on display during the Normandy operations in this painting by artist Barry Spicer. Wittmann was one of Germany's most successful aces of World War II. He died in battle on August 8, 1944.

Unhinged Soldier Stormed A Melbourne Animal Shelter Looking For His Cat

While Meyer and Waldmuller planned a counterattack, Wittmann and his four Tigers sat behind a tree-lined fence about 600 meters to the southeast. Their crews were carefully camouflaged to protect them from the ever-moving Allied fighter-bombers. Within minutes, Wittmann received a call to meet Meyer and Waldmuller at nearby Cintheaux. His personal tank, the Tiger 205, is under maintenance, so he uses the battalion commander's vehicle, the Tiger 007. It only took a few minutes for the tanks to get there; Wittmann completes his plans with his two superiors.

While commanding Wittmann about the impending attack, they saw a sight that spurred the three to move even faster. A lone Allied bomber flew through the air, flames shooting from its bomb bay. Meyer had seen this before; The plane marks the target area for a major airstrike. A bomber force could be less than 10 minutes away. This makes a counterattack all the more necessary. If the Germans had held their ground, the bombers would have destroyed them, making them easy targets for advancing British tanks. The attack should begin now. Wittman hurried back to his tank and joined the other three. The camouflage was hastily torn off and soon all four tanks were heading north. Estimates vary, but at least one more Tiger, perhaps three others, advanced several hundred meters eastward toward the British.

In the north, the British were waiting to advance. One of their units, Northamptonshire Yeomanry No 1, was an armored unit armed with the M4 Sherman tank. This unit formed a task force with the famous Black Watch battalion. Together they captured the city of St. Petersburg. Aignan the night before. During the battle, A Squadron tanks engaged four German self-propelled guns and lost a trio of Shermans from the 2nd Army. Two of the enemy vehicles were shot down by a Sherman Firefly. The improved Sherman army was equipped with a powerful British 17-pounder gun. ball. After defeating the Nazi armor, the British St. Aignan captured him around 4:30 in the morning. The remaining tanks of A Squadron took up defensive positions in a group of orchards southwest of the town known as Delle.