Wittman tactics

[lancesergeant]

To be truthful the reason Lafayette Pool didn't get the recognition he deserved can be down to one deciding factor - propoganda. Look at the war footage of Wittman, he is put on a pinnacle, Rudel, Prien, hardcore nazis put at the front as the example of the teutonic/aryan warrior.

[Za Rodinu]

Lafayette Pool among many other heroes did not have the luck of having a Dr. Joseph Goebbels working for him. In my humble opinion Goebbels was the most thoroughly competent man the Axis had working for them. As a matter of fact his work still survives today and will thrive for many years on the strong imprints he managed to make in many minds, in his time and incredibly long after his death.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Ah Yes, Dr. Goebbels, "The poison Dwarf" as his rivals nicknamed him was an extremely ruthless and intelligent man and he revolutionised propaganda into an Art Form

[Owen]

Going back to Wittmann. The Villars Bocage ambush, of which most of the kills were half-tracks and Bren carriers, is what he is most famous for to us in the West.
Didn't he get most of his kills on the Ost Front?
Wide open spaces for killing Soviet tanks and SPGs.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Yes indeed he did Owen. He served with 1st SS Leibstandarte which was based almost solely on the Eastern Front and was used in a "fire Brigade" role, basically helping to snuff out any red army attacks that may have occured in its sphere of operations. So there was plenty of chances to amass some kills!

[mcgrunt]

Very interesting !

[von Poop]

Spending most of his 'active' career in stugs and armoured cars in the East and yet only being known by most for the Normandy business with Tigers, couldn't agree more with Za's Goebbels point, 'Signal' still affects us even today.
We (westerners) really do tend to forget/not know about (even disregard) the east.

[von Poop]

Just remembered I've got what appear to be Wittman's personnel records saved as about 50 Jpegs or a 3.11Mb Zip file. Too big to upload here but I'm happy to email them if anyone feels a need?
Cheers,
Adam.

[T. A. Gardner]

Why would anyone want to study Wittmann's tactics in the West? Basically, he had learned and applied all the wrong lessons from the Eastern Front, as did many German units fighting in the West against the Allies for the first time.
In Normandy, Wittmann led his Tiger platoon with the same aggressive "lead with your face" style used in the East. That is, he charged forward shooting up whatever came across his path. There was no attempt to coordinate such actions with infantry, artillery, or reconnissance elements. At the previously mentioned Villers-Brocage battle Wittmann did manage to shoot up the Sharpshooters etc moderately well. But, in doing so he lost not only his tank but his entire attacking force. As he had no infantry or artillery support his attack there accomplished absolutely nothing.
In his last battle he was charging across a wide open field towards a line of Canadian tanks including several Fireflys. As it is unlikely he even realized their presence prior to his own tanks starting to brew up, it shows once again how the lack of combined arms and knowledge of the enemy's location and strength worked against him. This time it cost him and his crew their lives.
If anything, Wittmann's (and for that matter, most panzer actions in the West from D-Day on) tactics, such as they were, should be held up as a clear example of what not to do in a tank battle against competent organized troops.

[dbf]

Looking for somewhere to plonk this in the forum, hope it is appropriate enough.
Newspaper clipping:





dbf