- For the Steel Division: Normandy 44 unit see SD:Tiger E Wittman
Tiger E Wittman is a Germany Tank unit in Steel Division II.
Background[ | ]
SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann was one of the most recognizable of the tank aces of World War II. A veteran of the Heer and Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Wittmann served on the Eastern Front in command of Panzer III, StuG III, and ultimately Tiger I tanks, before his s.SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 was reassigned to Normandy in April 1944. Following the Normandy landings, Wittmann fought in the Battle of Villers-Bocage on June 13, participating in the destruction of fourteen tanks, fifteen trucks, and two anti-tank guns in less than quarter of an hour. Although the actual scale of his accomplishments is still debated, Wittmann was manufactured into a hero.
Less than two months later, Wittmann would die in an ill-advised counter-attack ordered by Kurt Meyer of 12. SS-Panzer. On August 8, 1944, as Anglo-Canadian forces launched Operation Totalize, Wittmann found himself ambushed by tanks from A Squadron 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, A Squadron Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, and B Squadron 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. Allied fire hit his tiger, penetrating the upper hull and igniting the ammunition. The resulting explosion killed Wittmann and his crew and destroyed his tank, blowing the tank's turret off. The tank crew was buried in an unmarked grave, only found and reinterred in 1983.