Michael Wittmann

German Waffen-SS tank commander

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Lived 1914–1944, aged 30Germany

GermanyOther

Wikipedia
39 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1914–1944
Aged 30
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-11

A Waffen-SS tank commander whose fifteen-minute ambush at Villers-Bocage in June 1944 became one of the most argued-over actions of the Second World War — celebrated by some as tactical genius, dismissed by others as overstated myth.

Biography

About

Michael Wittmann was born on 22 April 1914 and rose through the ranks as a German tank commander in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. On 13 June 1944, commanding a Tiger I at Villers-Bocage, he ambushed elements of the British 7th Armoured Division and destroyed up to 14 tanks, 15 personnel carriers, and two anti-tank guns in roughly fifteen minutes before losing his own tank. Hitler personally upgraded his Knight's Cross with oak leaves on 2 February 1944, when Wittmann's credited total stood at 117 tanks; by war's end that figure reached somewhere between 135 and 138, though German…

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