Wittmann Tiger Normandie.

**The Devil's Bank** · 09-22-2016, 06:10 PM

Always been interested in the Tank battles around Caen in France.

Especially those with the 101 Schwere SS Panzers.

The famous picture of Wittmanns destroyed turretless Tiger has always fascinated me

A friend of mine who enjoys doing a bit of oil painting, was asked if he could do a small picture for me??

Well, here is the answer and I think it has come out really well.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-22-2016 06:10 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**lebus12** · 09-22-2016, 07:44 PM

**Gunny Hartmann** · 09-22-2016, 08:35 PM

Could we have a daylight photo with no flash please?...

**The Devil's Bank** · 09-23-2016, 04:35 PM

I'll try mate

The picture of Wittmanns Tiger, photographed in 1946 (I think?) is wrong really..

Spitfires flying over the Caen battlefields, took Recce photo's and The turret was lying by the side of the Panzer and not behind as shown.

Possibly during it's removal, the Tiger was "pulled" forward off it's tracks. Hence the position of the Turret.

**Martin Bull** · 09-24-2016, 07:11 AM

by Panzerheld

Possibly during it's removal, the Tiger was "pulled" forward off it's tracks. Hence the position of the Turret.

You're quite correct - the famous ( and unique ) pic shows no sign of the tracks, either on the tank or in the grass. The French scrap dealers got to work very quickly after the war and it wasn't hard to knock out a track pin, hitch a tractor to the tank and pull it forward off the tracks.

( Fantasy thought : if those guys had put the tracks in a barn somewhere their families could be wealthy now.... ' Original Track Link From Michael Wittmann's Tiger : £5000.00 BIN or Make Me An Offer....'

)

**The Devil's Bank** · 09-25-2016, 12:21 AM

Yes Martin, imagine how much that piece of original Turret floor plate, that's in the barn, would be worth

This piece blew out of the Turret, when the Tiger exploded

Wittmanns wife Hilde, cried when she visited the barn and saw this part.

**CBH** · 09-25-2016, 03:17 AM

I believe I've seen a doc with a French collector who has the floor piece , it looked to match the photo . I believe it might have been Canadian production .

**Martin Bull** · 09-25-2016, 09:37 AM

I think you're right - it was a good documentary and was shown over here on Channel 4 IIRC a few years ago. Sadly, I don't think it's available on DVD. It presented a reasonably convincing case for the Sherbrookes having 'got' Wittmann from cover at Gaumesnil, physically much closer to the Tigers than the Northants were.

At this stage, no-one is ever going to be 100% certain but for sure, the Tigers drove straight into a perfect trap and literally had nowhere to hide. Here's a photo I took in the late '90s looking across the general area where Wittmann was killed - it almost looks like a shooting range. Interesting point : although I didn't realize it at the time, the concrete pylons are the originals which were there in 1944......