How long was Michael Wittmann awake before his attack at Villars Bocage?

[Tempestzzzz]

Anyone have a timeline/logs/references? I understand the Germans just arrived and Wittmann on his own attacked.

On the road and attack was there any point that shows he had rest/sleep?

Edited March 5, 2017 by Tempestzzzz

[Warts 'n' all]

I think that the amount of rest that he had might have depended on how many Panzer chocolates he had consumed.

[Holman]

Is that what they called the meth?

[Tempestzzzz]

Yeah-I'm reading ...

https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488765168&sr=8-1&keywords=blitzed

I am not trying to take away what he did. I don't know if he even took it that day (unless someone comes up with some kind of documents on what was supplied to units. And even then..)

Not looking to get in a forum fight or a locked thread.  Was thinking since this battle is so well documented if there is any indication how much rest he had beforehand. Have some pretty knowledgeable people here. Just looking for a timeline. FWIW

People can then form their own private opinions.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Tempestzzzz

[JonS]

His unit had only just arrived in Normandy. They'd had a long march (from ... Holland?), including a road march up from Paris, but they weren't under a great deal of pressure yet. In fact his unit had only just arrived in time for The Great Turkey Shoot. I think the arrived the night before, or maybe overnight? My guess is that he and his unit were fairly well rested before Villers Bocage.

Op Totalise, on the otherhand ... I wouldn't be at all surprised if he and his unit were exhausted and drugged to the eyeballs for that one. If nothing else it would explain the tactically absurd choices he made that morning.

[JonS]

https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489829939&sr=8-1&keywords=ohler+blitzed

Quote

The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. But as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. On the eve of World War II, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse, and companies such as Merck and Bayer cooked up cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, to be consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to millions of German soldiers. In fact, troops regularly took rations of a form of crystal meth—the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to explain certain German military victories. 

Drugs seeped all the way up to the Nazi high command and, especially, to Hitler himself. Over the course of the war, Hitler became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs—including a form of heroin—administered by his personal doctor. While drugs alone cannot explain the Nazis’ toxic racial theories or the events of World War II, Ohler’s investigation makes an overwhelming case that, if drugs are not taken into account, our understanding of the Third Reich is fundamentally incomplete. 

 

Carefully researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws surprising light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.

 

However ...

https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/product-reviews/1328663795/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=two_star&reviewerType=avp_only_reviews

Edited March 18, 2017 by JonS