Michael Wittman August 1944

[MartinKnight1333]

After much research and setting up the table at 1" to 7 yards we gamed the 12th SS counter attack in 6mm at one to one. 

The table was set up as per the aerial photographs before and after Wittman was killed, we had two kiels with 14 x Tigers at the front, supported by 20 panzer Ivs and 10 SP's.
 
Here is our conclusions.
SS Haupsturmfuhrer Michael Wittman now temporary Battalion Commander. The Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101 with two company's 2nd & 3rd was attached to 12th SS Panzers Michael was with second company and from research we deduce he was in the centre of a V formation with 3 Tigers on his right and three on his left.
They had been ordered to take the high ground at Cramesnil, where a large force of Canadian armour was massing, this village was being held by the 144th Royal Armoured Corps and in Saint-Aignan the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The second group heading for that same high ground via Robert Mensil, again with Tigers of the 101st and Panzers IV's of 12th SS, both groups had SP support. The Panthers of 12th SS Panzer Division having cleared Cintheaux on the N158 earlier, were now held back, the seven Tigers I's, ten Panzer IV's and SP's advanced shooting up woods to the right and the Canadians to the left, under heavy allied artillery fire the Tigers sped up and advanced to get out of the fire zone. See 'Grenadiers' by Kurt Meyer, according to Kurt Meyer, Michael Wittman was leading the section of three Tigers and was to the right of the road, the N158, and was the lead tank, three Tigers were to the Wittman was seen by a comrade to be hit from the left, front and then the right when he then blew up.

The 144th RAC claim to have knocked out, with their Firefly's, one Tiger that was leading a group of four, these Tigers were on the east side of the N158, they also claimed one Panzer IV, the range was 850-900 yards from their position at Cramesnil, this Tiger was most likely the last to be destroyed in my opinion, see page 60 of 'Arromanches to the Seine' by Charles More. Although the 144th RAC have never claimed this to be Wittman, the chances are higher than the Sherbrooke's claim that they were the unit that knocked his tank out.

The 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry claim to have knocked out three Tigers and Panzer IV's to their front and to the right of Wittman's knocked out tank. see the map on page 182 of 'Normandy Then and Now' by Eric Leferve. They then switched fire to the second large group closing on them from the SSE. The interview with Joe Etkins clearly says he destroyed the rear most of the four first, then the second in line which blew up, the last one he destroyed was now trying to reverse.

With the Canadians facing South and South East firing from the Chateaux at Gaumesil and claiming two Tiger I's, two Panzer IV's and two SP's, it is unlikely that they could have hit Wittman from their positions, their turrets would had to have been at the 7 o'clock position and firing through buildings, trees and an orchard across the N158 to the north east, with three Tigers to their front along with Panzers IV's they would most likely would have had their hands full as A Squadron only had with them six 75 mm Sherman's and two 17 pounder Fireflies behind the chateaux walls. see photo 1

The Interview with Bradley Walters, he clearly stated he did not see his tanks destroy Wittman's, but he did see it blow up. As the CO his place was behind the firing line and may have a had a better view.


The Germans claim five Tigers were lost in this action, of note is that the Germans only counted write offs and not those that could be repaired.
Jonathan Dale has researched Optics on Tigers and Sherman's; his findings are of interest. a 2m object would be 2mm at 1km, or 4mil at 500m. Tanks were equipped with charts with all common enemy tanks, their size, and their range for a given mil-size. German optics were x 5 and Allied x 2.5, so the Tigers would have appeared as small as 5mm. By incorporating this knowledge into our conclusions we see that the ranges do matter in shooting, the view at 300 yards at a scale of 1" to 7yards,  a good Sherman as you can see with a x5 zoom with a Zeiss the Sherman at 300 yards looks clear. Wittman gunner always set his sights at 800 metres for speed of aiming.

We have incorporated this data in my rules Tiger Kompanie, which are being test played in the USA and in the UK.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Wow, great research

[MartinKnight1333]

Thank you only by using true scales could we come to this conclusion.