Full name:
Michael WittmannNickname: His most commonly known nickname among historians, enthusiasts, and in post-war literature is "The Black Baron" (in German: "Der Schwarze Baron"), a reference to his dark hair, pale complexion, and his reputation as a daring and highly successful tank commander, drawing a loose parallel to the famous World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). This nickname became particularly popular in books and articles about Waffen-SS panzer aces.
Date of Birth: 22.04.1914 - Vogelthal bei Dietfurt, Oberpfalz, Bayern (German Empire)
Date of Death: 08.08.1944 - Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil, southwest of
Caen, Normandy (France)
At approximately 12:47 hours in Tiger Nr. 007 as Kp.-Fhr. of 2. Kompanie/schwere
SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, apparently by rocket fire from an RAF Typhoon
Mk IB. Also killed was his entire crew: SS-Sturmmann Rudolf “Rudi”
Hirschel (Radioman, *03.01.1924), SS-Unterscharführer Heinrich Reimers
(Driver, *11.05.1924), SS-Unterscharführer Karl Wagner (Observer,
*31.05.1920), and SS-Sturmmann Günther Weber (Loader, *21.12.1924). They
were buried by French civilians, the grave finally being located near
the town of Gaumesnil as a result of research by Msr. Jean Paul Pallud
in 1982. Following a request from the “Volksbundes Deutsche
Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.” (VDK, German War Graves Commission), the
bodies were disinterred in 1983 and re-buried in the Kriegsgräberstätte
La Cambe, Normandy, under a single marker bearing all their names (Row
3/Block 47/Grave 120).
NSDAP-Nr.: 5.508.244 (Joined 01.05.1937?)
SS-Nr.: 311.623 (Joined 01.04.1937)
Parents: Johann Wittmann und Ursula Wittmann (Bauern in Vogelthal)
Siblings: No information
Spouse: Hildegard Burmeister (verheiratet am 01.03.1944)
Children: No information
Promotions:
01.11.1935 Gefreiter
00.00.193_ Unteroffizier
01.04.1937 SS-Mann
09.11.1937 SS-Staffel-Sturmmann
20.04.1939 SS-Unterscharführer
09.11.1941 SS-Oberscharführer
21.12.1942 SS-Untersturmführer der Reserve
30.01.1944 SS-Obersturmführer der Reserve
21.06.1944 SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve
Career:
00.00.1930-00.00.1934 attended school and worked on family farm in Vogelthal
01.02.1934-31.07.1934 Reichsarbeitsdienst
30.10.1934-30.09.1936 10. Kompanie, Infanterie-Regiment 19, Wehrmacht, discharged as Gefreiter
01.11.1936 posted to 1. Sturm, 92. SS-Standarte
05.04.1938 began training in 17. Kompanie, Waffen-SS Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler as SS-Mann
09.11.1938 promoted SS-Sturmmann and participated in Anschluss and Sudetenland occupation with Panzer-Späh-Kompanie
20.04.1939 promoted SS-Unterscharführer
01.09.1939 commander of Sd.Kfz. 232 armoured reconnaissance vehicle in reconnaissance unit during invasion of Poland
00.04.1940-00.04.1941 commander of StuG III assault gun in SS-Sturmgeschütz-Batterie LSSAH
22.06.1941 took part in Operation Barbarossa from the beginning with LSSAH
04.06.1942-09.1942 attended officer training at SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz
21.12.1942 promoted SS-Untersturmführer and transferred to Panzer-Ersatz- und Ausbildungsabteilung for PzKpfw VI Tiger training
01.01.1943 returned to Eastern Front with LSSAH
04.1943 commander of Tiger tank platoon in 13. schwere SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 LSSAH
02.1943-03.1943 participated in recapture of Kharkov
05.07.1943-17.07.1943 participated in Operation Citadel at Kursk
11.1943-01.1944 heavy fighting and counterattacks around Zhitomir and in Ukraine
04.1944 transferred to schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 as corps asset
06.1944 appointed company commander of 2. Kompanie, schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101
13.06.1944 led Tiger attack at Villers-Bocage
08.08.1944 led counterattack group of seven Tigers during Operation Totalize and killed in action
Awards & Decorations:
00.00.193_ Deutsches Reichssportabzeichen in Bronze
00.00.19__ Totenkopfring der SS
ca. 1939 Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
ca. 1938 Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
12.07.1941 1939 Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse
08.09.1941 1939 Eisernes Kreuz I. Klasse
00.00.194_ Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Schwarz
21.11.1941 Panzerkampfabzeichen in Silber
00.08.1942 Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42”
00.08.1942 Soldier’s Cross of the Military Order for Bravery in War with Swords (Bulgaria)
13.01.1944 Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht
14.01.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes as
SS-Untersturmführer d. R. and Zugfhr. in
13.(schwere)Kompanie/SS-Panzer-Regiment 1/1. SS-Panzer-Division
“Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”, for 66 tanks destroyed. Vorschlag dated 10.01.1944 and signed by Div.-Kdr. Theodor Wisch. During the bitter winter
defensive fighting around Zhitomir in late 1943 and early 1944 as
platoon commander of Tiger tanks in the schwere SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 of
the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Wittmann and his crew had already
proven lethal in repeated armoured clashes. In November 1943
counterattacks his platoon claimed ten T-34s and five anti-tank guns on
the opening day alone, with his own Tiger surviving direct collisions
and close-range fire. The culminating action came on 13 January 1944
amid swirling snow and Soviet armour thrusts when, in a single day of
relentless engagements, his 88 mm gun accounted for nineteen Soviet
tanks and three massive SU-122 assault guns. Burning wrecks lit the
frozen battlefield as Wittmann’s precise long-range shots and rapid
manoeuvres broke the assault, bringing his confirmed total to sixty-six
enemy armoured vehicles and earning the immediate award of the
Ritterkreuz the following day.
30.01.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #380 as
SS-Untersturmführer d. R. and Zugfhr. in 13.(schwere)
Kompanie/SS-Panzer-Regiment 1/1. SS-Panzer-Division “Leibstandarte SS
Adolf Hitler”, Eastern Front. In the two weeks that followed the Ritterkreuz ceremony, as Soviet waves continued hammering German lines in the same sector, Wittmann pressed home further attacks through shell-pocked fields and ruined villages. Day after day his Tiger added dozens more kills in furious tank-versus-tank duels, the crew loading and firing without pause while enemy rounds ricocheted off the heavy frontal armour. By 30 January 1944 the total stood between 114 and 117 destroyed tanks, prompting the award of the Eichenlaub as the 380th recipient. Adolf Hitler presented the decoration personally at the Wolf’s Lair on 2 February 1944.
22.06.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern #71 as
SS-Obersturmführer d. R. and Kp.-Fhr. of 2. Kompanie/schwere
SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101/I. SS-Panzer-Korps “Leibstandarte”, Western
Front. Vorschlag dated 13.06.1944 and signed by Korps. Kom. Gen. “Sepp” Dietrich. Personally presented by Adolf Hitler at the Berghof. The award were earned in one of the most devastating single-handed armoured actions of the war on 13 June 1944 near Villers-Bocage in Normandy. Commanding the understrength 2. Kompanie of schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, Wittmann spotted lead elements of the British 7th Armoured Division rolling unopposed into the town after a leisurely advance. With no time to assemble his six operational Tigers he gave the order for the others to hold position and charged forward alone in Tiger 205. Emerging from cover onto the main road his gunner opened fire instantly: the rearmost Cromwell at Point 213 exploded in flames, followed seconds later by a Sherman Firefly whose blazing hulk blocked the entire column. Racing parallel to the strung-out British vehicles behind screening hedgerows, the Tiger methodically destroyed eight half-tracks and four troop carriers in rapid succession, machine guns raking panicked infantry leaping from burning transports.
Bursting into Villers-Bocage itself, Wittmann crushed three M3 Stuart light tanks of the reconnaissance troop at the eastern edge, then turned onto the main street where he demolished the four Cromwells of the regimental headquarters one after another. One British commander managed two futile 75 mm shots before his tank was blown apart; another reversed desperately into a garden only to be finished with a direct hit that killed the gunner and driver. Two artillery observation tanks of the 5th Royal Horse Artillery were next, their wooden decoy guns offering no protection as 88 mm shells tore through them. A scout car and medical half-track followed in quick succession, the narrow street now a corridor of fire and smoke with crews bailing out in all directions. In less than fifteen minutes Wittmann’s lone Tiger had accounted for thirteen to fourteen British tanks, thirteen to fifteen transport vehicles and two 6-pounder anti-tank guns. Only after a brief duel with a Sherman Firefly and a final disabling hit from a hidden 6-pounder at a road junction did his rampage end. Wittmann and his crew escaped on foot while the rest of the company mopped up remaining resistance at Point 213. The ambush shattered the British advance toward Caen, halted Operation Perch in its tracks and earned him immediate promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer together with the Schwerter to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub.
Note: Wittmann and his crew reportedly destroyed 138 tanks and 132 antitank guns, most of them on the Eastern Front. His gunner was fellow Ritterkreuzträger SS-Unterscharführer Balthasar Wol
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Michael Wittmann was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War renowned for his exceptional armoured exploits and status as one of the most successful panzer aces of the conflict. Born on 22 April 1914 in the small village of Vogelthal near Dietfurt in Bavaria's Upper Palatinate within the German Empire he grew up in a rural farming family before enlisting in the Reichsarbeitsdienst and later the regular German Army in 1934 shortly after the Nazi rise to power. In October 1936 he transferred to the Schutzstaffel and by 5 April 1937 had been assigned to the regiment that would evolve into the elite Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division. Wittmann participated in the bloodless annexation of Austria in 1938 and the occupation of the Sudetenland later that year while also joining the Nazi Party. His early combat experience came during the invasion of Poland in September 1939 where he commanded an armoured reconnaissance vehicle followed by service in the Balkans campaign of 1941 and the initial phases of Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front. Throughout these operations he progressed from enlisted ranks to non-commissioned officer demonstrating a natural aptitude for armoured warfare that would later define his legendary reputation.
After initial assignments with armoured cars and assault guns in the Leibstandarte Wittmann transitioned to commanding a StuG III assault gun and then a Panzer III medium tank as the unit prepared for major Eastern Front engagements. By early 1943 he had completed officer training at the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz earning promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and returned to the front just as the Leibstandarte received its first Tiger I heavy tanks. Attached to the division's heavy company he quickly rose to platoon leader and during the recapture of Kharkov in February and March 1943 his crew achieved multiple kills in intense street fighting and open-field clashes against Soviet armour. The pinnacle of this phase came amid Operation Citadel the massive German offensive at Kursk in July 1943 where his platoon of four Tigers reinforced reconnaissance elements on the left flank. On the very first day of battle Wittmann and his crew were credited with destroying eight enemy tanks and seven anti-tank guns surviving a direct collision with a burning T-34 that left his own Tiger scarred but operational. These successes amid the brutal attritional fighting around Prokhorovka and subsequent defensive actions solidified his growing tally of armoured victories and prepared the ground for even greater recognition in the winter campaigns that followed.
As Soviet counteroffensives intensified in late 1943 Wittmann found himself at the centre of desperate defensive battles around Zhitomir in Ukraine where his Tiger platoon repeatedly blunted armoured thrusts through snow-swept fields and ruined villages. On the opening day of one major counterattack in November his crew alone claimed ten T-34 tanks and five anti-tank guns in a whirlwind of long-range 88-millimetre engagements and close-quarters manoeuvres that left the battlefield littered with burning wrecks. Over the ensuing weeks of relentless combat his platoon maintained a punishing pace destroying dozens more Soviet vehicles while Wittmann's precise gunnery and cool leadership under fire pushed his personal confirmed total to sixty-six enemy tanks by mid-January 1944. In a single day's furious action amid swirling snowstorms on 13 January his gun accounted for nineteen additional Soviet tanks and three massive SU-122 assault guns breaking a major enemy thrust and earning immediate acclaim from his divisional commander SS-Oberführer Theodor Wisch. This cumulative achievement led directly to the award of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 14 January 1944 followed swiftly by the Oak Leaves on 30 January for a verified total of 117 tank kills making him the 380th recipient of that higher decoration which Adolf Hitler personally presented at the Wolf's Lair on 2 February 1944.
In April 1944 the Leibstandarte's Tiger company was reorganised and transferred to the independent schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 serving as a corps-level asset under the I SS Panzer Corps. Promoted to SS-Obersturmführer Wittmann assumed command of the battalion's second company which was rushed to Normandy following the Allied landings on 6 June. After a gruelling 165-kilometre road march under constant air threat the understrength unit of only six operational Tigers positioned itself near Villers-Bocage to cover a critical gap in the German lines opposite the advancing British 7th Armoured Division. On the morning of 13 June 1944 lead British elements rolled unopposed into the town prompting Wittmann to act decisively without waiting for his full company. Alone in his Tiger 205 he emerged onto the main road and within minutes unleashed a devastating solo rampage destroying the rearmost Cromwell tanks at Point 213 then racing parallel to the column to eliminate eight half-tracks and four troop carriers before bursting into the town itself. There he crushed three M3 Stuart light tanks demolished four Cromwells of the regimental headquarters and obliterated two artillery observation vehicles a scout car and a medical half-track turning the narrow streets into a corridor of flame and chaos. In less than fifteen minutes his single tank had accounted for thirteen to fourteen British tanks thirteen to fifteen transport vehicles and two anti-tank guns halting the entire British advance toward Caen and effectively blunting Operation Perch. For this legendary action Wittmann received immediate promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer and the Swords to the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves becoming the 71st recipient while German propaganda amplified the feat into a symbol of Waffen-SS invincibility.
Wittmann's final engagement came during Operation Totalize launched by Anglo-Canadian forces on 8 August 1944 to seize high ground near Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil under cover of darkness and aerial bombardment. Unaware of the full enemy strength the commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend ordered a hasty counterattack and Wittmann led a group of seven Tigers supported by additional armour and infantry across open terrain toward the ridge. Emerging from cover near Cintheaux around midday the formation was immediately ambushed from concealed positions on both flanks by British Sherman tanks of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and Canadian Shermans from the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment firing from wooded slopes and stone-walled chateaus. Within moments two Tigers and supporting vehicles erupted in flames as accurate 75-millimetre and 17-pounder shots penetrated hulls and ignited ammunition. Wittmann's own tank Tiger 007 was struck in the upper hull causing a catastrophic internal explosion that blew the turret clear in a dramatic jack-in-the-box effect killing him and his entire crew instantly. The surviving German force withdrew under heavy fire leaving the battlefield strewn with destroyed armour. Wittmann's body and those of his crew were initially buried in an unmarked grave near the site only to be rediscovered and reinterred with full honours at the La Cambe German war cemetery in 1983.
Over the course of his career Michael Wittmann was officially credited with between 135 and 138 enemy tanks destroyed along with numerous anti-tank guns and soft-skinned vehicles though exact figures remain debated among historians given the fog of war and propaganda influences. His earlier awards included the Iron Cross Second Class in July 1941 and First Class in September 1941 plus the Panzer Badge in silver reflecting consistent frontline service from Poland through the Soviet Union. He married Hildegard Burmeister in March 1944 in a ceremony attended by his crew and SS dignitaries with Adolf Hitler sending a personal gift of wine. Post-war Wittmann became a cult figure in popular military history celebrated in books and media as the ultimate tank ace whose solitary stand at Villers-Bocage exemplified daring armoured warfare yet some analysts have critiqued his tactics as occasionally rash and overly aggressive noting that his final ambush in open country highlighted the shifting balance of Allied firepower and air superiority. Regardless of interpretation his record stands as a testament to the lethal effectiveness of the Tiger I and the intense combat conditions faced by German armoured units in the final years of the war.
Source :
Michael D. Miller photo collection
https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/obraz/735/f1ad60e23687fb97414b1d62bad7e578/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/152986901863424/permalink/1079256229236482/
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
Michael Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte in World War II by Patrick Agte
Panzer Aces by Franz Kurowski
