Born in Bavaria on 22 April 1914, Michael Wittmann would go on to become the most famous WaffenSS Tiger Ace (a panzer commander credited with multiple kills, also called a ‘Panzer Ace’) of World War II. First in Russia and then most famously at the Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944, in Normandy, he would win fame and glory before his death in combat on 8 August that same year. Feted by the Nazi propaganda machine, his legacy is a controversial one, with historians casting doubt on his achievements and abilities as a panzer commander.
Wittmann was born a farmer’s son but didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps: he opted for a military life and in 1934, aged 20, enlisted in the army. Having served for two years Wittmann – also a member of the Nazi Party – made the decision to transfer to the still infant Waffen-SS. He was assigned to Hitler’s own bodyguard, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), a motorised infantry regiment, and following the outbreak of war he fought with the Leibstandarte in the invasions of Poland, France and the Balkans. By then he had been promoted to NCO rank, but his career only really took off with the advent of Operation Barbarossa – the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 104, 2022-utgaven av History of War.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war
