Visited here last week as part of my Villers-Bocage visit.....
Visited here last week as part of my Villers-Bocage visit.....
Great photos !
For the new readers here a little Bio on Michael Wittmann and what happened at this location in the photos.
Regards Larry
It is not the size of a Collection in History that matters......Its the size of your Passion for it!! - Larry C
One never knows what tree roots push to the surface of what laid buried before the tree was planted - Larry C
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” - Winston Churchill
Amazing to think something actually happened there the scar of war is not visable.
So peaceful now, it's hard to imagine that a war took place here once, thank you for the pics.
Regards
Paul
This is worth a watch
YouTube
A very interesting site indeed.
I believe it is now widely accepted the Joe Ekins was not responsible for the taking out of Wittman.
He did achieve the stellar feat of knocking out three Tigers from max range (about 800-900m) with the 17Pdr gun of his Sherman Firefly but there were four Tigers and Wittman was in the rearmost which after years of debate now seems to have fallen to the the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers on the opposite flank and much closer to Wittman than the Northamptonshire Yeomanry. As I understand it Ekins himself never pressed a claim to knocking out Wittman and the fourth Tiger would probably not been visible to him. Knocking out three in short order was a hell of a feat of gunnery especially as it was (I believe) his first real engagement.
There was a theory that 2nd Tactical Airforce Typhoons might have been responsible but that doesn't really stack up.
Either way it was a hell of an achievement to have done for the first three!
Thanks for the pics bet it was a great visit.
Regards
Mark
Last edited by Watchdog; 10-02-2019 at 09:06 PM. Reason: t
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Is it widely accepted though ? Still controversial
To be honest that's why i also visited the site of where the Sherbrooke Fusiliers were over in the old chateau, i have included some pictures, you can still see evidence of their Shermans in the old wall
There are no entries in their war diaries that they even opened fire on the Tigers though so i believe ??
Having read everything I can find about this, and having visited the locations, I think that with the 'fog of war' and also sadly the passing of time and any witnesses, this one will run and run. Both British and Canadian accounts are plausible - but 2 TAF involvement can be discounted.
For myself, I'm (reasonably) satisfied that the Tigers' attack that day was tactically unsound - and Wittmann was killed by a Sherman Firefly.
Anyhow, I'm glad you got there, HistoryMan !
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