Tank Crew Remains

Tank Crew Remains – The Sherman was much better than the Panzer I, II, III and IV and could kill the Panther V and VI, and was more reliable, maintainable, and mobile than the Panther V, VI, and VII. The Panzer VII was a waste of resources as it could not be fielded in meaningful numbers and was useless in the attack because it was highly unreliable.

The Grant’s baptism of fire was the battle of Gazala in North Africa in the spring of 1942. The British Army deployed 167 Grants against Panzer III and IV tanks from the German 15th Panzer Division.

Tank Crew Remains

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco. His work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Esquire, The National Interest, Car and Driver, Men’s Health, and many others. He is the founder and editor for the blogs Japan Security Watch, Asia Security Watch and War Is Boring.

From Export To Expeditionary

Perhaps the most famous victory accomplished by Michael Wittmann is the one at the Villers-Bocage. He was stationed in France in 1944, as part of the defense force against the Allied invasion. At the time, Wittmann was entrusted to guard the town of Villers-Bocage together with five other Tiger tanks apart from his own.

They were stationed near the town at the point codenamed Hill 213. That may sound impressive, but the Grant packed two guns because the Americans lacked a single gun capable of engaging both infantry and tanks.

The Grant’s layout also gave it a high profile on the battlefield, making it easy to spot … and thus destroy. The statistics are often not what one would think: for example, in Normandy the number of allied tanks destroyed were only slightly higher than the number of German tanks destroyed, even though the advancing tanks would generally be more exposed than the defending tanks.

U.S. intelligence had assessed the Sherman as equal to the Panzer IV, the mainstay of the German tank force. America concluded the Sherman was good enough. Unfortunately, the U.S. had failed to accurately forecast production of newer, more powerful German designs such as the Panther and Tiger.

First Years Of Action

He returned to the battlefield in 1943, right on time to participate in the biggest tank battle in history ― The Battle of Kursk, or as the Germans called it ― Operation Citadel. His death count began to rise.

Wittmann destroyed 12 Soviet T-34 tanks in the first day alone. On this occasion, he rescued Helmut Wendorff and his squad who were pinned down by the Red Army armor. This was on July 5, 1943. The battle which included the bloody battle for the city of Kharkov ended on July 17 and Wittmann’s score included 30 tanks and 28 anti-tank guns.

The Sherman had better armor than the T-34; early Shermans had better armor than the T-34/76 and later Shermans had better armor than the T-34/85 and both tanks could destroy each other. In fact, when the Sherman faced against the T-34 in Korea the Sherman had a superior kill ratio.

This article is wrong! The Sherman tank was a good tank for the U.S. See the speech given by “The chieftain” on YouTube, “myths of American armor tankfest”. What you see is often a function of where you sit.

Enter The M- Sherman Tank

As a new tanker, you want the one tiger. As a GI, you want 30 Shermans. As a general, you want 30 Sherman’s, fewer total deaths! If hit, you want the Sherman so you will live!

The lead elements of the British 7th Armored Division (the famous Desert Rats) were on the move with one of their objectives being the taking Villers-Bocage. Wittmann didn’t expect the Allies to arrive so soon. Even though they were undetected at the time the British tanks were approaching the town, it was clear that they would soon be spotted and overrun.

The British took Villers-Bocage without a fight, but the following morning all hell broke loose. While the main bulk of the Allied column continued towards Hill 213, Wittmann organized a surprise attack. This claim was dismissed due to substantial evidence that proves that Wittmann fell victim to British gunner Joe Ekins from the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, who was manning the gun of a Sherman Firefly.

Other units were suggested, such as the 1st Polish Armored Division, the 4th Canadian Armored Division, the 144th Regiment Royal Armored Corps, but all these claims were dismissed following a thorough examination conducted by a historian, Brian Reid.

Strategic Brilliance Or Reckless Bravery?

The crew of the destroyed tank was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1983, the German war graves commission located the burial site. Wittmann and his crew were reinterred together at the German war cemetery of La Cambe, plot 47—row 3—grave 120, in France.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the United States began supplying the United Kingdom with tanks. Losing France was a staggering blow to the Allies’ industrial production—the U.K. couldn’t produce everything it needed on its own.

As adequate as the Grant was, the war was forcing the creation of faster, more lethal tanks almost by the month. A new, more lethal version of the Panzer IV, the so-called “Mark IV Special,” had appeared three months before the battle.

Others, like the German tank commander and historian Wolfgang Schneider, dismiss the ideal image that was bestowed upon the figure of Michael Wittmann, deeming his actions reckless and hasty. He considers that Wittmann irresponsibly left the rest of his squad to face the British who had by that time already in the defensive position.

Historian Steven Zaloga attributed many of his victories on the Eastern Front to the superb technology of the German armor and firepower, thus discrediting Wittmann’s cult status. He indicates that Wittmann lasted for only two months on the Western Front because the Allied tanks had reached the necessary criteria to battle the Germans equally.

The idea that the Sherman was slaughtered in WWII is not correct. There is a lot of mythology about the Sherman tank that is misleading, based partly on Shermans advancing into prepared German defenses in which any attacker would suffer high casualties and often written by people who were not directly involved in the battles.

As the Liebstandarte SS was initially formed as Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit, its tank divisions were considered elite. The unit comprised several future tank aces such as Hannes Philipsen and Helmut Wendorff. Wittmann earned their trust and respect, even though he was only operating as a recon vehicle driver.

Wittmann went through the Polish campaign as part of the 17th Panzer Scout Company of the Liebstandarte SS. After Poland, he received additional training in Berlin and was transferred to the SS-Sturm-Batterie (assault gun battery – Sturmartillerie) of LSSAH, equipped with Sturmgeschutz III assault guns.

It was from this point on that Wittmann showed his miraculous skill which would launch him into legend. By this way of thinking, tanks shouldn’t take on other tanks. Instead, the armored vehicles should exploit gaps in enemy lines, rush in, start blowing up stuff.

Infantry, airplanes, artillery and tank destroyers—vehicles similar to tanks, but lightly armored—would engage the enemy’s tanks while American tanks were running rampant. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast.

In 2009 he co-founded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. The Army was well aware that German and Soviet tanks were getting bigger and more powerful, but the United States would have problems keeping up.

German and Russian tanks on the Eastern Front could move by train, but American tanks had to be loaded onto and off of cargo ships—a much more expensive mode of transportation that imposed lots of its own constraints on vehicle design and production.

Even though Wittmann showed enthusiasm and ambition to be a tank driver, due to his rank and inexperience (and despite his talent), he was attached to a recon unit within the 1st SS-Panzer Division. He was given command of an armored car Sd.Kfz.232 (a six-wheeled heavy armored car).

A great number of theories concerning Wittmann’s death have been suggested. One source stated that a bounty was put on his head by the British after the Villers-Bocage skirmish, but the British Army denied this claim.

Nevertheless, Wittmann died in battle on August 8th, 1944, when his Tiger tank (number 007) was destroyed during an ambush near the French town of Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil. The SS wanted to depict his death as heroic by stating he died in an RAF raid of which he was helpless, thus emphasizing the cowardly character of the Allies.

The Army Ground Forces, which oversaw the ground combat branch’s equipment, kept an eye on the long game. Mindful of the Army’s poor experiences fielding equipment in World War I, the AGF wanted mature, reliable vehicles.

Tanks built in Detroit only to break down in France were worse than worthless. Michael Wittmann wasn’t the only one contributing to the success and superiority of German armor ― he was always surrounded by a hand-picked top notch crew.

Even though he changed a number of crew members, he spent most of the war accompanied by his aim-gunner, Balthasar “Bobby” Woll. Woll was famous in the German Army, as much as Wittmann himself. Making matters worse for American tankers, the Army’s inability to properly forecast German tank production—which was much higher than anyone predicted—meant there were a lot more of these tanks on the battlefield than the Army had originally counted on.

After a successful campaign in the Balkans, where Wittmann proved his value driving a Stug III (especially in Greece), his division was transferred to assist the German troops on the Eastern Front. Only a month into the campaign, he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for superb service against enemy tanks.

Wittmann was wounded but refused to abandon the battlefield, which won him a Wound Badge. His Iron Cross became First Class after knocking out 6 Soviet tanks in a single engagement. He advanced through the ranks and was offered additional training after which he was finally introduced to his weapon of choice ― the PzKpfw VI Tiger.

The U.S. did eventually field a new, heavier tank in early 1945. Sporting a 90-millimeter gun and thicker armor, the M-26 Pershing rectified many of the Sherman’s worst failures. In the fighting around Cologne, the M-26 bested German Panthers — even if the new American vehicle was underpowered and less reliable than the Sherman.

Wittmann earned the nickname The Black Baron, as a reference to Manfred von Richthofen, who was known as the Red Baron. This nickname did not only reflect his success on the battlefield, but also the chivalry that he practiced.

There is an anecdote stating that Wittmann knocked out a Soviet T-34 on one occasion and the enemy crew was on fire as they bailed out of the flaming hull of the tank. Wittmann stopped his tank and ordered his men to assist the enemy crew covering them with blankets to extinguish the fire.

After it was all over, the two sides parted, both preserving their military honor. This was largely due to the fact that American forces were by now permanently stationed in Europe and did not have to rush overseas in the event of war.

American tank designers were limited only by their imaginations—and cost. Woll’s ability to shoot targets while the tank was moving at high speed was astonishing. Wittmann and Woll proved to be quite a team. They spent most of their time on the Eastern Front, acquiring kills on a daily basis.

The two were close friends and Woll even served as a witness to Wittmann’s wedding. Balthasar Woll was awarded Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross in 1944. Soon after, he was given command over a tank of his own.

He was seriously wounded in 1945, in France when his tank squadron was bombarded by Allied planes and decimated. Woll was in a hospital when the war ended. Afterwards, he became an electrician in West Germany.

He died in 1996. Even at the time of introduction, the Sherman was really nothing to get excited about. Protection was unremarkable and required constant improvement—such as an extra inch of steel plate welded to the hull to protect main gun ammunition, plus a “wet stowage” system which bathed the ammunition in water to prevent it from detonating in the event of a direct

hit. A lot of armies depended on American factories to keep them in Shermans. Assembly lines had to keep moving, no matter what. In order to maintain a high level of production, managers kept design changes to an absolute minimum.

Between the myth and reality lies a figure of great importance in the history of armored warfare. Michael Wittmann, the most successful panzer ace of the Second World War and in the history of warfare was a charismatic person and his accomplishments on the battlefield were often met with praise.

Before he became the famous Ace, he served as a private, joining the Army in 1934. After two years of service in which he gained the rank of non-commissioned officer, Wittmann joined the SS and later applied for the newly-formed 1st SS

-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler where he acquired his driver training. After participating in the occupation of Austria and Sudetenland, he became a Nazi Party member. Accounts differ as to what happened next. Historians record that, following the destruction of the OP tanks, Wittmann dueled briefly without success with a Sherman Firefly before withdrawing.

The Tiger is then reported to have continued eastwards to the outskirts of the town before being disabled by an anti-tank gun. However, Wittmann’s own account contradicts this; he stated that his tank was disabled by an anti-tank gun in the town center.

In less than fifteen minutes, thirteen or fourteen tanks, two anti-tank guns, and thirteen to fifteen transport vehicles had been destroyed by the Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101, the vast majority attributed to Wittmann. Alone, he proceeded to attack the rear of the column while the other four Tigers battled the British front.

Wittmann caused mass panic by knocking out 8 Allied tanks and a number of half-tracks and anti-tank guns. He then charged the town of Villers-Bocage. The element of surprise fueled his blitzkrieg even more, as the Allies failed to respond quickly while Wittmann neutralized their tanks, suffering minimal damage.