Michael Wittmann (SS member)

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Michael Wittmann (1944), here as SS-Untersturmführer (press illustration Heinrich Hoffmann )

Michael Wittmann (born April 22, 1914 in Vogelthal ; † August 8, 1944 near Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil , France) was a German SS Hauptsturmführer of the Waffen-SS and is one of the most successful with 138 officially recognized tank shots Tank commanders of World War II .

Life

After attending elementary school , Wittmann worked in his parents' farm. A brief employment at a dairy followed. In 1934 he volunteered for the Reich Labor Service . He then did military service with the 19th Infantry Regiment until 1936 , which he completed as a private . Wittmann worked for a short time in Ingolstadt as a track construction worker.

SS membership

On October 1, 1936, at the age of 22, he entered the survey lists of his local SS unit . In November of the same year he was assigned to the 1st storm of the 92nd SS standard (SS number 311.623) in Ingolstadt. On April 1, 1937, he switched to the SS disposal force . On April 5, 1938, he began his training with the Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler" , in which he received the rank of SS man . On November 9, 1938, in Munich Feldherrnhalle the swearing in on Adolf Hitler and the promotion of SS-Sturmmann .

Wittmann is said to have participated with his tank reconnaissance company in March 1938 both in the Anschluss of Austria and in the occupation of the Sudetenland in October of the same year . Wittmann received his promotion to SS-Unterscharführer on April 20, 1939.

Second World War

During the attack on Poland in 1939 and the invasion of France in 1940, Wittmann served as a member of a reconnaissance department . It was used near Rotterdam and Dunkirk (see Battle of Dunkirk ), the Somme , the Marne and Flanders .

During the Balkan campaign in April 1941, as a tank commander, he commanded one of the first six Sturmgeschütz III  (Ausf. A) of the Leibstandarte and received the Iron Cross,  2nd class. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class for his work at the Barbarossa company .

After attending the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz from June 4 to September 5, 1942, Wittmann was promoted to SS Untersturmführer . Wittmann had commanded a Tiger tank since the beginning of 1943 .

Wittmann on January 30, 1944 with Adolf Hitler

On January 14, 1944, Joachim Peiper presented Wittmann with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in front of a running camera for the destruction of 66 enemy tanks . After further reported kills, he received the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 30, 1944 (380th award). The Nazi propaganda declared Wittmann a national hero . He was celebrated (like other knight's cross bearers) at public appearances.

On March 1, 1944, he married his fiancée Hildegard Burmester.

On June 12th - after the Allies landed  - Wittmann was relocated to Normandy. He came as a company commander to the heavy SS Panzer Department 101 ( Heavy Tank Department of the I. SS Panzer Corps ) and fought against British tank units after the start of the landing. During the Battle of Villers-Bocage , he and his company were able to inflict heavy losses on the enemy until an anti-tank gun rendered his vehicle unable to move. He and his crew escaped and reached their own lines. For his service in the battle of Villers-Bocage he received the swords for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on June 22, 1944 (71st award). Soon afterwards he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer . After the swords were awarded, he was offered an apprenticeship at the armored troop school, which he refused. Wittmann returned to the front.

On August 8, 1944, at the beginning of the fighting for the Falaise pocket , Wittmann came across five American M4 Shermans near Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil , on the Caen-Falaise road . He was alone after he had separated from his unit and drove ahead. The enemy tanks took him under fire from three sides and hit the ammunition depot. In the subsequent explosion, the tower was thrown away, no crew member survived. Wittmann was buried there. His remains were found in March 1983 and later reburied in the La Cambe military cemetery , 55 km northwest of Caen. In July 2015, the grave slab was stolen by strangers.

reception

Michael Wittmann (Northern France, May 1944), photo of the propaganda company PK 698

With the destruction of 138 enemy tanks and 132 anti-tank guns, Michael Wittmann is considered the most successful tank commander of the Second World War. With 117 tanks, most of the kills occurred on the Eastern Front.

The historian Sönke Neitzel describes Wittmann as the "allegedly most successful tank commander of World War II" and states a "heroic cult around Wittmann" that is hardly missing in any popular book about the Waffen SS. According to Neitzel, "the success figures of highly decorated tank commanders [...] must be treated with a certain degree of caution", since in the "turmoil" it is hardly possible to reliably determine who shot down how many tanks.

Awards

literature

  • Gregory T. Jones: "Armored Hero - The Greatest Tank Commander of World War Two" , OCLC 43506651

Web links

Commons : Michael Wittmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 793.
  2. ^ Jens Westemeier : Himmler's warriors: Joachim Peiper and the Waffen SS in war and post-war times. Verlag Ferd. Schöningh 2013, p. 288
  3. ↑ Christopher W. Wilbeck: Sledghammers. The Strenghs and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II. Bedford 2004, ISBN 978-0-9717650-2-3 . P. 113ff.
  4. ↑ Florian Berger: With oak leaves and swords: the most highly decorated soldiers of the Second World War. ISBN 978-3950130706 , page 386
  5. ↑ Kühn / Kleine: Tiger: the history of a legendary weapon 1942-45. Fedorowicz Publishing House, 2004, page 221.
  6. ↑ a b The "Panzeröter" from Vogelthal. In: Donaukurier . May 6, 2015, accessed April 30, 2019 .
  7. ↑ without title . In: SARL Politique hebdomadaire (ed.): Le Point . No. 601-613 , 1984, pp. 64 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Grave plate of an SS tank commander stolen in northern France. In: time online . July 28, 2015, archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; accessed on March 19, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Sönke Neitzel: Still worth researching? Notes on the history of operations of the Waffen SS. In: Military History Journal . ISSN  0026-3826 , 61 (2002), pp. 403-429, here p. 413.
personal data
SURNAME Wittmann, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, company commander of the heavy SS tank division 501
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Vogelthal
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1944
Place of death Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil , south of Caen