Battle of Villers-Bocage

Template:Battlebox The Battle of Villers-Bocage (June 13, 1944) was an unusual clash between the British and Germans in northern France during World War II. Michael Wittmann, an SS-Obersturmführer, led a unit of six PzKpfw VI Tiger tanks of the 501st Battalion to secure the N175 road near Villers-Bocage, south of Caen. They arrived on the night of June 12-13 and set up to the north-east of the village.

At around 0830hrs on the 13th, a British force approached from the north-west, two battalions - one of armor the other of motorized infantry, both of the 7th Armoured Division. Wittmann's tank was in an advanced position and he recklessly charged his vehicle into the British column, splitting it and then engaging the British forces at very short range before passing along and across the British line into the village. The other tanks of his unit moved up and the British column suffered heavy losses.

The British vehicle losses for that day were more than 20 Cromwell tanks, 4 Sherman Fireflies, and a number of Stuart light tanks, as well as 30 halftracks or gun carriers. During the fierce fighting, the village was almost totally destroyed.

Contents

1 Background 1.1 Allied forces 1.2 German forces 2 Opening moves 3 The Battle 4 Aftermath 5 Reference

Background

For nearly a week after the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy, the Allies had progressed towards the interior of France as the Battle of Normandy unravelled. West of Caen, the push towards Caumont-l'Éventé by the U.S. Fifth Army was so strong that the German 352nd Infantry Division was forced to move back and leave the flanks of the Panzer Lehr Division exposed. Field Marshal Montgomery, conscious of the opportunity this offered to him, decided to launch Operation Perch; the British 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats]] would attempt to circle around the front of the Panzer Lehr Division and, by a wide turning movement of the U.S. Fifth Army and the British XXX Corps, make a surprise attack on the rear of the Panzer Lehr while also taking the hamlet of Villers-Bocage.

The British were unaware that the 2nd Heavy Tank Company of the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 (101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion), led by Michael Wittmann had received orders to take and hold point 213, which was located above the crossroads at Villers-Bocage. After having reached his assigned position during the night in order to avoid detection by Allied aircraft, Michael Wittmann and his tanks were in position approximately 150 meters south of RN 175. Wittmann’s force consisted of 6 Tiger tanks whereas the British column consisted of approximately 200 armored vehicles.

Allied forces

• 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars
• 4th County of London Yeomanry (CLY); assigned to capture and hold point 213.
• 1/7th Bn Queen's Royal Regiment; assigned to Secure the Villers-Bocage exits (except that of L'Eglise). HQ located in the bottom of Villers. Company 'A' located in the area around the railroad station. Company 'B' located in the center of town. Company 'C' located in Pasteur and Clémenceau streets. Company 'D' located close to the cemetery.
• 5th Royal Tank Regiment; assigned to capture and hold the area of Maisoncelles-Pelvy (3km SW) south of D71 which connects Caumont to Villers and Point 142 which overlooks the city at the bottom of the valley.
• 5th Royal Horse Artillery; assigned to capture and hold the other exits from the city: Battery of Sextons assigned to take position to the north of D71 and in the small valley where the roads to Coudray and Chouquet Bridge run.
• 1st Rifle Brigade, A Cpny.

German forces

• 2nd Heavy Tank Company (Tigers N° 221, N° 222, N° 223, N° 231, N° 233 and N° 234) of the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101

Later joined by

• 1st Heavy Tank Company of the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101
• Elements of Panzer Lehr

Opening moves

Germans, who had to move several times in the night following artillery barrages and waiting for a favorable moment to intervene, observed the progress of the British.

Wittmann saw the British column of the 4th CLY Squadron leave Villers-Bocage and move towards point 213, near his tanks. The British, however, proceeded bumper-to-bumper in a defile on the way up the hill. Wittmann now decided to attack between Point 213 and Villers-Bocage, completely cutting off 'A' Squadron of the 4th CLY. Since Tiger N° 233 was bogged down by a track problem, Wittmann moved towards his Tiger N° 205 but, wanting to save time, he went to the nearest Tiger, N° 234. However, after only a few meters, this Tiger developed engine problems. Wittmann then jumped into the Tiger that followed it, N° 222 of Kurt Sowa, and proceeded north to join RN 175.

He ordered the two remaining operational tanks to hold their position while he carried out the attack. Wittmann counted on the effect of surprise to inflict the greatest possible losses on the British while waiting for reinforcements. Describing his actions Wittmann later said, "I had not been able to gather my company. I had to act very quickly because I must suppose that the enemy has already located us and intends to destroy us at the starting position. I left with my tank. I ordered the two other tanks to move back at once but to hold the terrain."

The Battle

At 0900hrs Wittmann's Tiger starts off. A few minutes later, in the direction of Caen, he destroyed 3 tanks; 1 Sherman Firefly and 1 Cromwell tank on the right, 1 on the left, before proceeding to Villers and attacking the lightly armored vehicles of the Rifle Brigade without stopping. During this engagement, he destroyed 9 half-track vehicles, 4 Carden Loyd Carriers, two other carriers, two 6-pounder anti-tank guns and then proceeded to destroy 3 Stuart light tanks and 1 other half-track vehicle. Entering the city, he destroyed 3 of the 4 Cromwells in position at the top of the Lemonnier farm.

Wittmann entered Villers-Bocage alone. He followed Clémenceau Street where his tank destroyed 2 Sherman command tanks of the 5th RHA before putting out of combat 1 scout car and 1 half-track vehicle. As Wittmann arrived at the Jeanne d'Arc square, he ended up opposite the Sherman Firefly of Sergeant Lockwood of Squadron B. At that time Sherman Fireflies were the only vehicles capable of going head to head with a German Tiger. The Firefly fired four 17-pounder shells towards Wittmann’s Tiger. One shell hit the hull of the Tiger which reacted by knocking down a section of wall on the Sherman. Wittmann then made a half-turn, his tank lightly damaged. As Wittmann returned down Clémenceau Street, the Cromwell tank of Captain Dyas that had not been destroyed, confronted him, firing two 75mm shells, but failing to harm the Tiger. Wittmann immediately responded, and with just one shell from his 88mm gun managed to put the Cromwell out of action.

As Wittmann proceeded on the road leaving Villers-Bocage, his tank was hit by an 6-pdr anti-tank shell in the left track. This forced him to stop on the street, in front of the Huet-Godefroy store but not without engaging all targets that were within its range. Thinking that the tank might be salvaged and repaired later, Wittmann and the crew abandoned it without destroying it and left the place of the engagement on foot and without weapons.

They then ended up joining the HQ of the Panzer Lehr Division, located nearly 7 km from Villers-Bocage. Consequently, 15 Panzer IV's of IInd Battalion of the 130th regiment left Orbois in the direction of Villers-Bocage under the command of Captain Helmut Ritgen with the aim of blocking the exits to the North. But before reaching their objective, they came under the fire of British anti-tank guns and their advance was effectively blocked. Fritz Bayerlein, commander of Panzer Lehr, notified of the situation, ordered the Panzer IVs to fall back and regroup at Villers-Bocage. The tanks take the direction of the castle of Parfouru on Odon, where, after repairs are made to the 14 survivors, they set out again to attack under the command of Hannes Philipsen: four tanks attack from the south (2 are destroyed whereas the 2 others fall back) and ten by Clémenceau Street (2 destroyed).

Wittmann was then brought back in his Schwimmwagen to Point 213, where he joined with Karl Mobius, commander of the 1st Company, and discussed about the second attack that the 101st Abteilung was about to deliver. The tanks of the 1st Company entered the city along the d'Evrecy Road and joined those of Panzer Lehr at the marketplace in order to coordinate their offensive. The forces were distributed so as to occupy the city from the Pasteur Street towards the Jeanne d'Arc square, on Saint-Germain Street, on Emile Samson and towards the crossroads of Jeanne Bacon Street and Joffre Boulevard. However, British resistance was by now organized and the effect of surprise was no longer decisive. One 6-pounder anti-tank gun of the 1/7th Queen's, placed in the Jeanne Bacon Street, managed to score hits on 3 Tigers of which only one could be repaired.

At 1600, the acting CO of the 4th CLY ordered a retreat of his forces from the town

By the end of the afternoon, and in spite of an attempt at a turning movement by the tanks of the 'B' Squadron, Villers-Bocage remained in German hands as yet another symbol of Montgomery's failure during the Normandy campaign.

Aftermath

The British losses in the battle were:

• 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars: a number of Stuarts
• 4th County of London Yeomanry: 20 Cromwells, 4 Sherman Fireflies, 3 Stuarts, 1 Half-track vehicle, 3 Scout cars,
• Rifle Brigade: 9 half-track vehicles, 2 Bren gun-carriers, 4 Carden-Loyd Carriers
• 5th Royal Horse Artillery: 2 Cromwell, 1 Sherman.

On the German side, only 6 Tiger tanks were put out of action (of which 3 were later repaired) and 5 Panzer IVs.

German propaganda at the time needed a hero: the events at Villers-Bocage were thus ascribed almost entirely to Wittmann alone who was given credit for 27 of the 30 destroyed British tanks. However, under close examination Wittman's kill record is that of 12 tanks (5 Cromwell, 3 Honey/Stuart, 4 Sherman) plus 1 Scout car, 10 Half-track vehicles and 4 carriers. The total adds up to 27 vehicles, but not 27 tanks. The German tank ace, hero of the Eastern Front, had just been spotlighted once more. His superior, General Sepp Dietrich, awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords, a decoration which was given to him personally by Hitler on June 25 at Berchtesgaden. Wittmann then returned to France only to be killed just weeks later in August during the hellish fighting in the Falaise pocket.

Reference

• Lefèvre, Eric. Panzers in Normandy Then and Now. After the Battle, London, 1996. ISBN 0900913290
• Agte, Patrick. Michael Wittmann and the Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte. J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc., Winnipeg, Canada, 1996. ISBN 0921991304
• Jentz, Tom and Doyle, Hilary. Tiger I Heavy Tank 1942-1945. Osprey, London, 1993. ISBN 1855323370
• Restayn, Jean. Tiger I on the Western Front. Histoire & Collections, Paris, 2001. ISBN 2913903134
• Taylor, Daniel. Villers-Bocage Through the Lens of the German War Photographer. After the Battle, London. ISBN 187006707X

War Diary of 4th Ccounty of London Yeomanry (http://www.warlinks.com/armour/4_cly/4cly_44.html)