The battered and bruised Tiger beat a hasty retreat back up the hill, running into a Cromwell. Wittmann and his crew sustained two more hits before the Cromwell was brewed up and two of its crew killed. Lying to the left of, and parallel to, the highway was a narrow track. Clanking up this, Wittmann’s first victim was a half-track at the base of the waiting column; this was followed by an unsuspecting Honey light tank. Further up the road a 6-pounder crew hurriedly swung their gun round, but a well-placed German shell hit the Bren carrier loaded with ammunition in front of it.
Wittmann’s rampaging Tiger then proceeded to brew up the rest of the trapped column, knocking out a row of Bren Carriers and half-tracks as armour piercing shells continued to bounce off his impervious armour. British soldiers scattered in all directions, many taking shelter in the ditch behind the column. A tank tried to block Wittmann’s path on the track so he drove onto the road, crushing everything in his way. Wittmann withdrew to the woods to the southeast. In just five minutes he had reduced the British advance to a shambles, destroying twenty-five vehicles single handedly.
The 7th Armoured’s divisional reconnaissance regiment, to the north, advanced to help, but was engaged by four other Tigers and suffered heavy losses. In the early afternoon a triumphant Wittmann, rearmed and refuelled, returned to join the rest of his forces: four Tigers, the Panzer IV and possibly three other tanks (either from Lehr or 1 Kompanie) with infantry support. With these he attacked the remnants of the British forces trapped around Point 213. On the edge of the hill at least two Cromwells and one Firefly were knocked out blocking the road, while not far away, in the woods on the crown of the hill, two more Cromwells were brewed-up.
The battle for Point 213 was a one-sided affair with the Germans now pressing around Villers-Bocage and British attempts to send reinforcements failed. Three Cromwells and a Firefly under Lieutenant Bill Cotton tried to make contact. They managed to cross the town, but were unable to get over the railway embankment and turned back to take up positions in the square.
The survivors from the British 7th Armoured Division’s 22nd Armoured Brigade, spearheaded by the 4th County of London Yeomanry and A Company, 1st Battalion the Rile Brigade, were quickly overrun. The Riles lost four killed, five wounded and seventy-six missing; at least twenty Cromwell tanks, four Fireflys, three Honeys, three scout cars and a half-track were destroyed. A Company lost eighty men, including three Officers; about thirty infantry managed to escape. By late afternoon both units had ceased to exist, which left only B Squadron precariously holding onto Villers-Bocage.
Supported by units of the 2nd Panzer Division, Wittmann now turned his attention back on Villers-Bocage. This time the British were not going to be caught out. B Squadron, with four Cromwells and a Firely, took up defensive positions around the main square with a Queen’s Regiment 6-pounder guarding the main street from a side alley, where it was hoped they would catch the Tiger’s side armour.
Wittmann, over-playing his hand, noisily entered Villers-Bocage again, this time in strength, with two Tigers (possibly including Mobius) and a PzKpfw IV. Rounding the bend into the high street, he drove straight into the prepared ambush, ‘When the Tigers were about 1,000 yards away and were broadside to us I told 3 Troop and my gunner to fire’, recalled Lieutenant Cotton. ‘The Firefly did the damage, but the 75s helped and must have taken a track off one which started to circle out of control’.
Wittmann’s tank was hit by the anti-tank gun, the following Tiger by Sergeant Bobby Bramall’s Firefly. Corporal Horne’s Cromwell missed and the Panzer IV had driven almost past the second Tiger when Horne drove out behind the German and blasted him. It seems a third Tiger entered town but was also caught by B Squadron a few dozen yards from the main street at the crossroads of Rue Jeanne Bacon and Rue Emile Samson.
Lieutenant Cotton notes that the engagement was not all one way: ‘They shot back at us, knocked the Firefly out, as its commander was hit in the head. However, at the end of a very few minutes there were three “killed” Tigers’. The German crews escaped because too few British infantry remained. Later, Lieutenant Cotton, armed with an umbrella, alongside Sergeant Bramall, carrying blankets and petrol, walked in the pouring rain to the German tanks and set fire to them to prevent recovery.
This series of brutal engagements fought throughout the 13th rendered it impossible for the British to hold onto Villers-Bocage. Their forces were split in two, with one group at Villers-Bocage and another at Tracy-Bocage several miles west; also, the 7th Armoured was strung out along the road from Villers-Bocage to Livry.
Alarmingly, 7th Armoured’s intelligence estimated that up to forty Tigers from 2nd Panzer were in the area, with which it was feared the Germans would cut the road between Villers-Bocage and Caumont, trapping B Squadron. This estimate was not accurate; 2nd Panzer had no Tigers and its panzers did not arrive from Paris until 18 June, nor did the 12th SS Panzer Division have any Tiger tanks. It is doubtful that Abteilung 101 had anymore than a handful in the Villers-Bocage area on 13 June.
Panzer Lehr, likewise, had no spare tanks. It was being held down frontally by Major General D A H Graham’s 50th (Northumbrian) Division and Kampfgruppe Kauffman’s ad hoc forces showed what Panzer Lehr had in the way of reserves. Panzer Kompanie 316 (Funklenk), attached to Panzer Lehr, had six Tigers, of which only half were serviceable, and nine StuG assault guns. Therefore, the 7th Armoured Division even at this stage was still a considerable threat to the German lank. The British, though, in fear of the Tigers, were ordered to pull back at nightfall and hold Tracy-Bocage, concentrating on Hill 174.
At about 1700 hours, while the Germans were regrouping, the British withdrew two miles (3km) to the west. B Squadron was ordered to time its withdrawal to coincide with a covering barrage. In total the brigade lost 225 men, twenty-seven tanks, fourteen half-tracks, fourteen Bren carriers and a number of anti-tank guns. Wittmann’s prompt action in thwarting the British enabled Villers-Bocage to be retaken later in the day by the Panzer Lehr Kamfgruppe and units of 2nd Panzer; thus plugging the gap. A few days later he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer.
Stopping Goodwood
Wittmann’s successful defensive action forced Montgomery to launch two more costly enveloping attacks, with Operation Epsom to the west on 25 June and Goodwood to the east on 18 July. In between these he launched Operation Charnwood, a frontal assault, on 8 July, losing 3,500 casualties and eighty tanks.
In the meantime, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 became the tactical responsibility of 21st Panzer Division. The tanks were entrained and shipped to Dreux by 5 July. They reached von Choltitz’s LXXXVI Corps area with about forty-five Tigers, though on 23 July the abteilung was shifted to the I SS Panzer Corps. In early July the abteilung’s HQ, at the Château de Canteloup near Argences, southeast of Caen, was visited by Oberst Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski, commander of 21st Panzer’s Panzer Regiment 22. The 503 departed the Dreux forest for Caen, going into action on 11 July alongside 21st Panzer, with III Kompanie claiming twelve enemy tanks near Cuverville.
Seven days later, German defences east of Caen were carpet bombed prior to Goodwood. One Tiger was burnt out, another tossed upside down like a child’s toy, trapping the crew, and a third was seriously damaged. The abteilung’s HQ in a nearby Chateau was also caught in the bombing, but Hauptmann Fromme escaped with his life. That day, eight Tigers went into action, but by evening III Kompanie had just one operational tank left.
Goodwood made good initial progress until it ran into the in-depth prepared positions of infantry and armour, including thirty-six Tiger tanks and elements of the 1st SS and 12th SS Panzer Divisions. The offensive cost 6,000 British casualties and 400 tanks and was called off after just two gruelling days.
Abteilung 503’s III Kompanie was withdrawn from the line and received fourteen Tiger IIs during the first week of August at Mailly-le-Camp. The company left on the 11th but missed the battle for Falaise. I and II Kompanies were instrumental in helping halt the British breakth
rough, which reached Cagny to the southeast of Caen. The British lost forty tanks, many of them falling to Abteilung 503’s Tigers. The battalion continued to fight with 21st Panzer and by the end of the month was in the Bretteville-sur-Laize area.
Battle for Hill 112
Tigers of Panzer Abteilung 102, supported by panzergrenadiers from the 9th SS Panzer Division, attacked Canadian positions at Hill 112 on 10 July. The battalion first went into action at Maltot to the northeast of the hill, when four Tigers securing the lank knocked out three Shermans, a surviving tank fleeing in the direction of Eterville. Fourteen Tiger tanks then struck toward St Martin to the southeast of Hill 112 and were met by more Shermans, which poured fire into the lead panzer.
Platoon commander Will Fey recalled the attack:
Three enemy tanks were already silenced; the others kept on firing without pause. Then we finally had the most eager one in our crosshairs. The two farthest to our right had already been knocked out by us with five anti-tank shells, when light bombers showed up above the battleground. Like eagles, they fell out of the sky, dropped their loads of bombs, pulled up, and climbed away again. They came at us like a swarm of hostile hornets and covered us with a hail of medium bombs. At the same time, smoke shells landed among us and covered everything around with an impenetrable white fog within minutes. This was a new way of fighting to us, something we had not encountered on any battleground before. We withdrew to the starting positions where at least the infantry was able to keep the enemy close-assault teams away from us.
The attack was renewed the following day, but an artillery barrage greeted the advancing Tigers, though they managed to knock out a few Churchill tanks. A smoke screen again descended on the panzers and Fey’s tank took several hits to the rear and the turret, before stumbling upon enemy trucks and personnel carriers. Two Churchills were quickly knocked out. By the evening the Tigers had secured Hill 112. It would be fought over until the end of the month when the Germans finally gave up its scorched earth. In the meantime it would change hands repeatedly.
During the night of the 11th, the British moved back onto the hill and the isolated Tigers withdrew to St Martin. Two days later they counterattacked, recapturing the wooded area of the cattle pen on the summit. The heavy and devastating Allied bombardment of the hill ensured that the supporting panzergrenadiers could not remain, and on the 15th the Tigers once again found themselves alone amid the shattered landscape. The following morning the 10th SS came to their assistance.
When the Canadians occupied Maltot, some Tigers were sent to clear them out. These were met by a deluge of artillery fire but caught a column of four Churchill tanks on the road, knocking out the first and last vehicle, trapping them. The two middle tanks were caught desperately trying to escape down the embankment; the last one was hit twice in the rear. Enemy anti-tank guns and fighter-bombers then greeted the Tigers and despite getting beyond Maltot, Will Fey and his comrades were recalled to their original positions.
On 24 July the Tigers intercepted eight Churchills striking from Maltot toward St Martin; none escaped. The next day the battalion was bombed when a raid covered Hill 112 all the way back to St Martin. Fey and his comrades were relieved by the III Kompanie and they withdrew, only to be thrown into the fight again on the 26th, around Hill 67 and the northern exit of St Andre, to the west of Feuguerolles.
In the fighting that followed, the Tiger next to Fey’s tank was hit, smoke pouring from its hatches as those uninjured crew sought to escape. He witnessed the awful carnage:
The driver of the knocked-out Panzer wildly waved the bloody stump of his arm from which his hand was dangling, held by some pieces of skin and flesh, and sought cover with the other survivors to the side. The radio operator had been killed by a direct hit. Our other Panzers then advanced from their stand by positions to the ridge of the hills. Across from us, there was no more movement. Everything remained quiet.
It appeared that the Canadian attempt to break through, which began with such high hopes, had been stalled by the valour and determination of our grenadiers. Its brutal force spent, it faltered. Then came another air attack. On the whole the Tiger tanks were able to weather these steel storms; the main damage seemed to be to the antenna, tracks, radiators and ventilators. The thing they most feared was naval gunfire as this delivered the heaviest shells.
Totalise juggernaut
The Tigers helped halt the Guards Armoured Division near Estry and stopped the 11th Armoured Division’s push toward the Vire–Vassy Road. On 1 August, Abteilung 102 was ordered to withdraw south under the cover of darkness to assist the 9th SS Panzer Division, which was involved in heavy fighting with British and Canadian armoured forces. Arriving in Vire, they found the place reduced to rubble by air attacks.
They then moved north to assist German paratroops under attack along the railway embankment. The following day, elements of Abteilung 102, along with the weak reconnaissance abteilung from the 10th SS and a company of paratroops, were ordered to counterattack north of Vire.
In the initial engagement the Tigers knocked out five Cromwell tanks. They then bumped into concealed Shermans, but these were also swiftly dealt with. In total, twenty-two tanks, belonging to the British Guards Armoured Division, were knocked out without any loss. The following day the battalion continued to take a toll on the British tanks. At 2300 on 3 August they withdrew, claiming twenty-eight enemy tanks and fourteen trucks destroyed, two armoured scout cars and two motorbikes captured.
Northwest of Vassy on 7 August the Tigers halted a massed armoured column with devastating effect. Opening fire at just 400 metres they knocked out fourteen of the fifteen attacking Shermans along with numerous other vehicles.
The next day, ten tanks of Abteilung 101 supporting Kampfgruppe Wald-müller, consisting of thirty-nine Panzer IVs, a battalion of panzergrenadiers and the escort companies from the 12th SS, were thrown against Operation Totalise, the British and Canadian attempt to break through to Falaise. The juggernaut of the Polish 1st Armoured and Canadian 4th Armoured Divisions were poised to roll.
Wittmann’s Tigers were gathered east of Cintheaux behind a hedge, ready to do Kurt Meyer’s bidding. The latter recalled:
Once more I shake Michael Wittmann’s hand and refer to the extremely critical situation. Our good Michael laughs his boyish laughter and climbs into his Tiger. So far, 138 enemy tanks in the East and West have fallen victim to him. Will he be able to increase this number of successes or become a victim himself?
The massive Allied air raid in support of their offensive failed to hit a single panzer. The Tigers, with the grenadiers behind them, struck toward the wood southeast of Carcelles where the Allied tanks were assembled. It was at this point that Wittmann’s luck ran out.
Hauptsturmführer Wolfgang Rabe MD, Abteilung 101’s physician, reported:
Wittmann was east of the road to Caen with four or five Tigers. I was off to the side. The panzers came under fire, reportedly from English 15cm guns. Some of the Tigers went up in flames. I tried to determine if anyone got out. When I did not see anybody, I thought they might have left the panzer through the lower hatch and I tried to get closer. This was impossible since I came under fire as soon as I left the ditch in an easterly direction. We waited another hour or two for anyone of the crews to show up. Towards evening I drove over to Brigadeführer Kraemer, Chief of the General Staff, I SS Panzer Corps, and reported on developments. He ordered me, since I was the senior Officer of the Abteilung, to lead the remains of the Abteilung back, and attached me to the SS Panzer Regiment 12, Wünsche.
Other reports stated that Wittman succumbed to Shermans and a Typhoon rocket attack. At the time of his death he was not only credited with 138 AFVs, most of them tanks, but also 132 anti-tank guns, which he had chalked up in under two years. His greatest victory, though, has to be inflicting the debacle of Villers-Bocage on the British. Through a mixture of luck and courage Wittmann, largely single-handedly, halted a British armoured thrust that could hav
e encircled Panzer Lehr or even rolled up the entire German corps front. If this had happened the German collapse in Normandy could have been much swifter and perhaps even more catastrophic. General major Fritz Kraemer summed up the action very succinctly:
Early in the morning of 12 June the commander of five tanks (Tigers) which had been placed in readiness north of Villers-Bocage sighted an enemy motorized column, including tanks, on the march from Tilly toward Villers-Bocage. Without hesitation he [Wittmann] drove against this column and exterminated with his tanks about thirty enemy tanks and a like number of motor vehicles. Thus, by the personal courage of this Officer, the enemy’s intention to break through by way of Villers-Bocage was frustrated.
Battle for Falaise
By 9 August the last of Abteilung 102’s Tiger tanks were withdrawing from the Vire area toward Falaise. Their kampfgruppe was attached to the remains of the 271st Infantry Division, which was holding a line from St Germain to the southern edge of Bernay to the northern edges of Fresnay, Espins and Coisilles, against the British 59th (Staffordshire) Division.
The following day enemy armoured cars probed the 271st’s left lank, followed by forty tanks advancing on Espins and Le Monsul. German infantry dropped their weapons and led when twelve tanks supported by the armoured cars broke through southwest of Le Monsul. The Tigers of the II Kompanie rallied the reluctant infantry and counterattacked, claiming four tanks and putting the rest to light northward.
Falaise: The Flawed Victory Page 13