Stackpole Military History – Michael Wittmann Volume Two

Michael Wittmann, to those with a more than passing interest in WWII German armour the name should be as well known as as Montgomery, Patton or Rommel. A Panzer Ace who carried out one of the most audacious single handed attacks of the Second World War when he drove a Tiger tank, guns blazing, down a column of British Armour into a town in France called Villiers Bocage where he destroyed several more tanks before having his tank disabled and then escaping on foot back to German lines. Pretty much a legend in some circles. So I guess understandable that the title of this book focuses on Wittman whilst being ostensibly a book covering all the various Tiger Commanders that served in the 1st S.S. Division “Leibstandarte ( Life Guards ) Adolf Hitler” ( LSSAH ).

Now normally I’d give a brief synopsis of an author just to give you an idea of his suitability to cover the material in the book, but with this book’s author Patrick Agte it requires a little more by way of explanation. Agte at the time of this book’s original publication was the publisher of Der Freiwillige, a newsletter for surviving members of the Waffen SS and was the Geschaftsführer ( effectively the MD ) of HIAG, an organisation of SS veterans seeking restitution of their rights as veterans. He is openly a pro-nazi revisionist.

But I think it is important to keep an open mind as being a revisionist pro-nazi is no different to any of the many U.S. war veterans who still believe they did the right thing in Vietnam or the many Englishmen who feel England carried no blame for the events that lead to WWII in the first place. People’s political views do not necessarily make them bad people, nor bad authors, I bring this up only that people are aware that whilst traditional “allied” originated texts will suffer a strongly rpo-allied bias, so then does this book swing to the other end, and from the two we may extrapolate the middle which is probably closer to where the truth lays.

Equally if you look into Agte you will find many people who dislike him and many who do. In general I have found that those who dislike him have never met him and cite heresay evidence stating that neither do LAH veterans, where-as pretty much without exception those who do like him do know him and often actually are LAH veterans. Again from this it is hard to decide who is right but what both seem to agree is that as the LAH official historian he does know his stuff and have access to records and resources that no-one else does.

So after that long winded intro what of the book ? Well in short if you’re interested in the 101 S.S. Panzer Battalion ( later the 501 SS Panzer Battalion ) then this is probably a must have book. The personal accounts, the level of information on tank crews ( down to naming entire crews ) and the photographs alone are worth the price of this book. Certainly the writing can be a bit meandering in places but when Agte writes on Wittmann he writes with a tangible passion. That he admires the man is without question and it’s easy to feel that same sense of admiration because let’s be honest, if an American, British or Commonwealth Tank Commander had achieved the same combat record we would have made endless movies about it.

Wittmann definitely takes centre stage in the first half of this book but after his death halfway through ( sorry if that was a spoiler ) it moves on to cover the remaining commanders of the 101/501 SS Panzer Battalion and the battles through Falaise, the Ardennes, Hungary and Austria till the final surrender in 1945. Throughout it manages to provide a very human view of many of these men that won’t be found in contemporary “western” publications.

From an armour fan’s perspective there is of course the various views on the combat history of the Tiger in Normandy, the King Tiger in the Ardennes, and the Jagdtiger right at the end, as well as several very handy references to engagements that included Panthers, Pz.Kpfw.IVs, as well as the Ostwind and Wirbelwind Flakpanzers. There’s also some brief historical references for the 12th S.S. Division “Hitlerjurgen” whilst the 101 SS Panzer Battalion were attached to them as support during the Normandy battles.

As I mentioned the photos in this are well worth having. They’re B&W and unretouched so they’re not the quality we’ve come to expect in books like Panzerwrecks but none the less there are some really good photos in here, and a lot of them, including many personal photos of many members as they were at the time.

Conclusion. If you think everything German was Nazi and that anything S.S. involved the sacrificial eating of babies then you’re best not to read this. If you have an interest in the S.S. Panzer units, in the armour battles of Normandy or the Ardennes, in Wittmann, or just in the German “side of things” then it is a book you really should read. Balance out some of the more extreme claims and this book gives a brilliant account of not only what happened, when and where, but what it was like to serve in a Tiger tank in the closing stages of the war.

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