Villers-Bocage Then & Now......
Just spent a most enjoyable week in Normandy, with V-B as our 'local' town. As has been said many times, there's not much to see. But if you have a good selection of books the 'Wittmann' locations are easy to find - you just need to use your imagination ( hard ! ).
Like with this one - Hannes Philipsen's Tiger ; not much left for me to find !
I was in Caen a couple of months ago, and didn't have time to see Villers Bocage.
I was told there wasn't any thing really to see..
Nice "Then & Now" picture
Well, it's right - there isn't. But if you get deeply into it, you can 'see' things....
Here's the now almost entirely disused Ancienne Route De Caen, along which Wittmann's Tigers came on the night of 12/13 June 1944 ( toward the camera ).....
And here's the spot I really wanted to find. According to the latest research ( in Heimdal's Villers-Bocage : Autopsie D'une Bataille ) Witmann's temporary CP was in the Haut Vents farm ( just visible through the gates to the left ). One or two of the Tigers were parked in the lee of the hedge in front of the car, and the cleared area in the right foreground marks the beginning of the track along which Wittmann advanced to the main road before starting his attack.
Today, a forgotten bit of farmland. But I stood there lost in imagination - the shouted warning over the radio ; 'For Christ's sake get moving ! There's a Tiger tank running alongside us 50 yards away.....'
( Oh - and I managed to be there on the 13th.....
The jury's out on this one. The Heimdal authors reckon that this is Wittmann's Tiger, facing back uphill after engaging the Firefly at the end of the street and being immobilized. However, Daniel Taylor reckons it isn't, Henri Marie isn't sure......the Heimdal authors triangulated the location today.
Anyway - I gave it a go. Obviously, something needed to stand on the exact spot ( ! )........
Last edited by Martin Bull; 06-25-2017 at 09:07 AM.
Great stuff! I am going to be over in Normandy next spring on a 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment tour (my grandfathers Regiment). He was wounded at a place called "Black Orchard", in Troarn, during the advance battle to take Caen. Leon.
Nicely presented thread, thank you Martin.
And here's a view up the road to Point 213 ( Villers-Bocage is behind the camera ). The three, four or five Tigers led by Mobius possibly emerged from the lane on the right , turning to their right to attack ; Wittmann about 75 metres further down heading in the opposite direction toward Villers-Bocage.
The wrecks at the top of the hill were photographed by the Germans and 'T&Ns' become easier to achieve. here's the second Sherman Firefly to be knocked out.....
Wittmann
Patricks book gives a pretty good account of what happened inclusive of the combat reports & maps in the battle it was surprising to learn that the column surprised Wittmann as he them, with him observing them from his post at a range of 150-200M as he was not in his Tiger.
A soldier came in to explain to him there was an armoured column going by this position and the shape of the tanks did not look like anything the German army possessed they were more rounded, I gather he was speaking of the Shermans.
The map shows his tank Wittmann's at the @12:00 position (No.7) stating the tank was disabled either way what happened there displays just how professional and skilled he was as a tanker and commanding of his Tiger troop.
In his report Wittmann stated he took what they could from his tank small arms wise and did not destroy his tank as he was confident they would retake the town and the Tiger could be recovered and repaired other Tigers were not so fortunate.
He went on to say if they had weapons capable of dealing with tanks they could have destroyed more tanks so close were they when trying to reach their lines this is indicative of Wittmann taking the fight right to the enemy despite the numbers.
Bit of a story from that engagement;
In an interview years after the war Pat Dias a Sherman commander whom faced Wittmanns Tiger literally had nothing but praise for him saying he epitomized the fighting qualities of the German tankers bold and ruthless.
Pat's story goes he was at Villers when the fan was hit, he saw Wittmanns Tiger coming towards his Sherman so instructed his driver to quickly reverse into a building to let Wittmann go by come out behind him and get a flank shot into the Tiger at close range disabling it.
Duly Wittmanns Tiger went past Pat's position, so the Sherman tracked out to deliver the knock out blow.
Sadly for Pat Wittmann was onto the ruse after he had passed Pat's position he had turned his Tiger to meet the threat head on Pat Dias said of the encounter;
"We came out of the building and turned left to fire at the rear of the Tiger when we had turned left we were confronted with a Tiger tank head on at a hundred yards which was not good for ones disposition."
"We fired twice the shots just bounced off his frontal armour he fired once the shot did not bounce off, it killed three of my crew and blew me out of the commanders hatch, I was wounded and had my eyes full of steel splinters."
"I was lucky at the aid station on the beach as the treating doctor was an eye specialist and passed a great big magnet past my eyes removing all the steel splinters he said if they had stayed in there for 24 hours I would have been blind for life."
Last edited by CINDERSII; 06-19-2017 at 05:05 AM.
I look at these "Before and After photos" and always wonder......just What would Europe and all the cities and little villages have looked like today if it hadn't been for the incessant wars raging and rolling over everything. Unfortunately, we'll never know...
William
"Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."
Just to round off my little V-B holiday with a couple of less-spectacular pics.....
As a confirmed Wittmann 'nut', I've long been interested in his activities later in the day ; his arrival at the Leibstandarte Div HQ, reporting to Sepp Dietrich and Hein von Westernhagen, being toasted with champagne and giving the famous interview to the Wochenschau reporter ( which you can listen to on YouTube ). All this happened in the park of the Chateau at Baron-sur-Odon, a tiny village just a few minutes' drive from Villers-Bocage.
However, when we got to Baron, we found that it has two Chateaux !So the 'right' one took some finding. It's strictly private property, but I managed to get a couple of pics - the back gate has some bullet holes but these are most likely from the later fighting in July.
But the day wasn't over yet.....the 'other' Chateau was holding a little 'Vide Grenier' ( literally, 'clear attic' ). I love these - they're a French institution and the best ones are just local people clearing out stuff from home and garages, but the event is more of a local get-together with good food and drink available, music at lunchtime, etc. And.........it's hit-and-miss but they can be a good seed-bed of militaria......
Anyhow, this was a nice, relaxed event on a hot day and my wife was happy to browse the bric-a-brac after a day listening to me droning on about Michael Wittmann.
She was chatting in French to a middle-aged couple tending a stall full of crockery, glassware, a huge collection of old tractor (!) books and so on. Much of this stuff apparently came from the home of a deceased farming relative who lived between here and Villers all his life. And right there in front of me were two 37mm brass cases plus a larger one. I picked it up - a 6pr case, quite nicely cut down and swaged into a vase with an engraving of 'Liberte' on it. But my eyes popped at the engraved date - '13-14 Juin 1944'.
The battle of Villers-Bocage.
How much ? Ten Euros the lot. Apparently, they sat in the old man's fireplace for many years. It would have been rude to haggle.....
I was 'chuffed' with that. Whatever the story, it's a nice V-B holiday souvenir - much better than a fridge magnet !
So, if you've got time, there are still things to be found at Villers-Bocage.......
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