Michael Wittmann was with the SS.

[Warphead]

Hehe...

[Andreas]

Ekins was just a camper.

[Sgt. Steiner]

I read recently that the remains of Wittmann's tiger are owned by a French farmer who keeps them in a barn near the scene. A group of investigators examined the wreckage, and concluded that the tank had been destroyed by aircraft rockets. This would seem to confirm Fridiricus' post..

[pakfan]

Here's a little bio on Michael Wittmann, including a bad picture of his burnt-out tank:

http://www.panzer-vi.fsnet.co.uk/tigeraces.html

I think I have some images of the tank in better quality somewhere on a CD. If I can find them, I'll post them here.

One thing on the site definitely isn't correct: He's not buried in Gaumesnil. His grave can be found at the german military cemetary in La Cambe - I've been there.

BTW, a friend of mine knew one of his platoon members. Unfortunately, the old guy died last year. He told my friend a lot of interesting stories, mainly about the girls he "organised" for the young Michael

[Andrew H.]

Originally posted by Seanachai:

Gods, that's hideous.

Looks like the 'Terry Redlin/Wild Wings' school of military painting.

Or a Thomas Kincaid painting.

:eek:

Also, the farm doesn't look very french; it looks like it's out in Missouri somewhere.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Andrew Hedges:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Seanachai:

Gods, that's hideous.

Looks like the 'Terry Redlin/Wild Wings' school of military painting.

Or a Thomas Kincaid painting.

:eek:

Also, the farm doesn't look very french; it looks like it's out in Missouri somewhere.</font>

[xerxes]

Joe "lamer" Elkins probably opened up the scenario editor and changed all his rounds to "t" rounds, gamey bastid.

[offtaskagain]

Originally posted by fridericus:

i read the division-histories of all ss-dividions. wittman died by an airstrike from a rocket. they were on the fiels, when wrecks were still there. the turret of the tiger was not on the hull, but some meter away. there wasn`t any hole in the armor except ONLY one on cover of engine. no gunner from any sherman can hit the top of the tank, esp the top over the engine. thatswhy and because of the size of the hole wittman`s tank was blown away from a rocket from aircrafts, which claim the succes too.

you should read "panzerkampf im bild" from will fey, tank commander in "Das Reich" and sSS-PzAbt. 501/101

Wrong. No Typhoons were operating in the area that day. If it had been hit by a rocket the storage bin on the turret would've been mangled, which photos show it clearly is not. Read the link I provided earlier. It has an eye-witness account from by SS-Haupsturmfuhrer Hoflinger about exactly how Wittman and the other tanks were killed.

[Foxbat]

Originally posted by panzerwerfer42:

Wrong. No Typhoons were operating in the area that day. If it had been hit by a rocket the storage bin on the turret would've been mangled, which photos show it clearly is not.

Besides these rockets don't have very good penetration values, the warhead is just HE (I doubt can penetrate 25mm of armour and explode inside)

Read the link I provided earlier. It has an eye-witness account from by SS-Haupsturmfuhrer Hoflinger about exactly how Wittman and the other tanks were killed.

That seems pretty final to me, especially since this can be confirmed from allied sources.

[mike the wino2]

Wittman didn't die. He escaped moved to Argentina, where he lived for a number of years and then moved to a small island where he resides with Elvis. I read an account of his life in paper recently...Weekly World News i think.

[fridericus]

on the top of tigers engine you have gratings for changing air, where the rocket could have hit. these gratings are very big on a tiger.

almost most space of the top-plate over the engine.

i think, it is not important, where allied aircrafts should oparate, they ruled ALL of the sky.

in the book "panzerkampf im bild" the Rottenfuehrer Herbert Debusmann described, how he was pow in 1947 and saw the tank 007 with splitted turret from the hull.

did mustangs have rockets?

the ammo-hatch had not been open by the explsion after the rocket-hit, because most of them were closed by welding.

[Lumbergh]

Originally posted by fridericus:

on the top of tigers engine you have gratings for changing air, where the rocket could have hit. these gratings are very big on a tiger.

almost most space of the top-plate over the engine.

i think, it is not important, where allied aircrafts should oparate, they ruled ALL of the sky.

in the book "panzerkampf im bild" the Rottenfuehrer Herbert Debusmann described, how he was pow in 1947 and saw the tank 007 with splitted turret from the hull.

did mustangs have rockets?

the ammo-hatch had not been open by the explsion after the rocket-hit, because most of them were closed by welding.

Not to delve into groggish territory here, but my non-groggish instincts tell me that a catastrophic explosion would be a bit more likely from a 17lber hit than from a rocket.

Of course, this is pure speculation on my part, obviously, and especially since I don't have the kinetic energy info for the gun sitting here. Perhaps a grog can fill us in.

[Lt. Havoc]

Road construction workers did find his and the crew's remains in 1985 or so.

Interesting read about it on www.achtungpanzer.com (Under Generals and Tank Aces)

--

LT

[Mark Gallear]

What about the theory that a rooky Archer SP 17pdr gunner did him in. (He was the driver took over as gunner for this one battle and then went back to been the driver for the rest of war ....