![Holding the Line - by Richard Taylor](Holdingtheline-2.jpg)
Holding the Line
by Richard Taylor
- Michael Wittmann- |
Skillfully led by their mercurial commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann, the Tiger Tanks of s.SS-Pz. Abt. 101 blaze through a shattered French village in the days following D-Day, June, 1944. Their destination – Normandy. Wittmann, holder of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords was one of the most successful tank commanders in history, destroying more than 138 enemy tanks and over 140 artillery pieces. A veteran of Kursk, he is particularly famous for his actions in Normandy, when, on 13 June 1944 during the Battle of Villiers-Bocage his small company halted the advance of the British 22nd. Armoured Brigade, destroying 30 British tanks, 14 half-tracks and 16 Bren-gun carriers. He was killed in action on 8th. August 1944. |
Overall size: 24" x 36½" | Image size: 17½" x 31" | |
The Archive Presentation |
This limited edition print signed by two German tank crew and one paratrooper, has been conservation mounted with triple-mats and a shadow-box layer to include the original signature of the legendary tank commander Michael Wittmann. Also included in the mount is a reproduction Panzer Assault badge. |
Archive presentation | Signed by two Panzer crew and one paratrooper - includes the original signature of Michael Wittmenn |
Michael Wittmann signature The original signature of Michael Wittmann as it appears in the mount. |
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The Signatures |
Michael Wittmann enlisted in the German Army in 1934. He joined the SS in October 1936 and was assigned to the regiment, later division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler on 5 April 1937. A year later, he participated in the annexation of Austria, the occupation of Sudetenland, and joined the Nazi Party. Wittmann's unit was transferred to the Eastern Front in the spring of 1941 for Operation Barbarossa, the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. He was assigned to SS Panzer Regiment 1, a tank unit, where he commanded a StuG III assault gun/tank destroyer as well as a Panzer III medium tank. By 1943, he commanded a Tiger I tank, and had become a platoon leader in the heavy company by the time Operation Citadel and the Battle of Kursk took place. On their first day in battle at Kursk, Wittmann and his crew scored eight tanks and seven anti-tank guns destroyed. In November 1943, Wittmann, still serving in Leibstandarte’s heavy company, was involved in armored counterattacks against the Russians around Zhitomir. On their first day in action against the Soviets, Wittman’s crew destroyed ten T-34s and five anti-tank guns. “By early January 1944 his combined total of destroyed tanks would rise to sixty-six. In April 1944, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler’s Tiger Company was transferred to SS Heavy
Panzer Battalion 101. Wittmann was appointed commander of the battalion's second company,
and held the rank of SS-Obersturmführer. On 7 June, the day after the Allied Invasion of
Normandy began, the battalion was ordered to move from Beauvais to Normandy. The move,
covering 165 km , took five days to complete.
On June 12th., anticipating the importance the British would assign to the high ground near
Villers-Bocage, Wittmann's company was positioned near the town. Nominally composed of 12
tanks, his company was 50 per cent under-strength due to losses and mechanical failures. Wittmann's Tiger emerged from cover onto the main road and engaged the rearmost British
tanks, destroying them. Wittmann then moved towards Villers-Bocage, shooting several unarmed
transport vehicles parked along the roadside. Moving into the eastern end of the town, he
engaged several light tanks, followed by medium tanks. On 8 August Wittmann himself was ambushed, this time in an apple orchard south of Caen, when his Tiger was destroyed by a timely hit from the 17-pounder anti-tank cannon of a British Sherman Firefly. The legendary Panzer Ace was dead. |
Sturmann Karl-Heinz Decker Joining the army in 1943 Decker trained as a tank crewman and transferred to the 12th. Waffen SS Panzer Division in Belgium in 1944. Staying with this elite unit in France during the Allied invasion he fought throughout the Normandy campaign, on D-Day and at Falaise. He was eventually taken as a P.O.W. |
Obergefreiter Henry Metelmann Called up in 1941 Metelmann joined the 22nd. Panzer Division as a tank driver, serving in the Crimea during the winter of 1941 and participating in many tank battles including the Battle of Stalingrad. After evading capture in 1944 he joined a Panzer division in the west, defending the Rhine against Patton's US 3rd. Army. |
Feldwebel Heinz Fellbrich A veteran of the German Normandy campaign Fellbrrich served as a paratrooper providing ground support for various Panzer divisions. |
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