A while back i asked for a bit of help for an aricle on Michael Wittmann i was about to write. But after reading some comments on Witmann, especially the V-B inident, i realised i have now where near the amount of reascherch material i need. So, can any one suggestsome good books on Wittmann, wether his whole carrer or just certain actions. Thaks guys, now i can count on you all

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

I'll be watching this one with keen interest !

First of all DON'T buy or even attempt to read 'Tiger Ace' by Simpson.

I'd recommend ( in order ) :

'Panzers In Normandy - Then & Now' by Eric LeFevre
'Villers-Bocage Through The Lens' by Daniel Taylor
'Steel Inferno - 1 SS Panzer Corps In Normandy' by Michael Reynolds
All recently published. There must be some other good ones . . . .

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Ye, got Steel Inferno, an his other two, great books. The main reason i put off wriing the article was because of V-B. There is so many conflicting acounts, so i want to get as many accounts as i can to get. Luckyly i am in no rush, i have plenty of other stuff to write about.

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

Bish :

I think Martin's second recommendation is probably the most authorative of the three. I have the first one only and it is a bit brief but has some nice pics which have been seen elsewhere.
I have heard about the "thru the lens", and even for the expensive price it seems to be the way to go if you want first person details of Villers Bocage.

E

Thanks guys. martin, do you know the publishers and ISBN numbers of hose two books.

Erich, did you manage to get hold of that U-boat book by Rossler.

[ 29 June 2002, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: Bish ]

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

Bish :

Yes I received the Rössler tome U-boat a couple of months ago. Quite detailed and probably THE book on the German U-boot for technical aspects......

E

Hi Bish. OK -

'Panzers in Normandy - Then and Now' by Eric LeFevre ( After The Battle 1983 & several reprints ) ISBN 0 900913 29 0

'Villers-Bocage Through The Lens' by Daniel Taylor ( After The Battle n.d - I think around 1998 ) ISBN 1 870067 07 X

The first one even has a very nice painting of Wittmann on the cover, the second book is a minutely-researched, shot-by-shot analysis of the action featuring just about every photo taken there - it is totally essential reading.

By the way, somewhere I've got the privately-published account of 7th Armoured in NW Europe. I seem to remember that V-B is glossed over in a sort of 'Hrrrmph, bit of a setback that, old boy, the other chap had the sun behind him' manner !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I've just checked out After The Battle's website : -

http://www.afterthebattle.com

'VBTTL' is still available direct from them at £17.95 plus postage.
You won't be disappointed !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Thanks Martin, they've both been added to my books to get list.

That comment about 7th Armoured is not really surpriseing. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to bost about. Considering its probably one of the best actions by a single tank commander ever, its amazing how many documentaries and movies overlook it entirely. Now, if it had been a British tank comander...

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

Just to confirm, Bish -
I've trawled throught my Normandy book collection and all of them ( Carell, Hastings, McKee, d'Este, Belfield&Essame, etc ) cover V-B very briefly, for the most part with the same sketchy detail.
No, for Villers-Bocage, '-Through The Lens' is IT.

Now come on, fellas - how about the rest of Wittman's career ?

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Didn't the 1st SS gemeinschaft do a book on him through their representative ? I think it covered the Abteilung and his career. Big thick book and the title escapes me. I do not own enough Panzer books ....

rats ! E

Martin, i'm the same. All the books i have that coiver Normandy in one way or another only give mention to the action. I really need to get more specialist books on particulay batles rather then books which cover a much wider period.

I'm now starting to realise that Erich. I had enough books for the articles i've done, but am now rather stuck. Looks like i'll have to do some sucking up to the wife to convince her how badly i need some more

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

I've been rummaging around the internet; there seem to be two more books specifically about Wittmann ( that's if you exclude 'Tiger Ace'...)

There's one by James Lucas called 'Michael Wittmann' ( I think ) and then one of those massive J J Federowicz books by Patrick Agte called 'Michael Wittmann & the Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte' (ISBN 0-921991-30-4) - this looks like a fifty-quid book.
I haven't read either of these so cannot recommend - maybe someone else can comment ??

Also, there seems to be a Wittmann 'cottage industry' on the 'net. Some of them are rubbish but quite interesting is 'Wittmann's Attacke' on
www.home.t-online.de

Happy hunting !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Martin :

You have got it sir ! The Patrick Agte book. Massive it is and very well the most complete book yet on Witmann and his associates. A mass of detail from the representative for the 1st SS Pz., Patrick Agte. A very well done volume from what I have heard.
another fine volume that is in French and English and written through Heimdal pubs......
Invasion Journal Pictorial 6 June - August 22, 1944. As the name suggests it covers the whole campaign with some good observations and wonderful pics, some very new to me. The book is about 3 inches thick and is large format with 528 pages. This item still may be available through:
www.rzm.com

E

Bish along with his other numerous cyber combat awards today, had been presented a cyber Order of the British Empire. This is for his unselfish helpings to me for some things and for being such a good gentleman. I will post his "citation" later this week.

Signed: Jude Law--AKA, Vassily Zaitsev.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Thank you Carl, its worn with pride

To the rest of you, thanks. I will be giving you a mention when the article is written, thats once i get hese books Thanks again.

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

And as for me, looks like I'm going to have to start scraping pennies together for that Agte book !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Just thought i would bump this up. As we seem to have had a lot of new members latley, and i need all the recommendations i can get. So, any of you guys got any re sugestions to those above. Thanks.

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

I'm *bumping* this one up from the darkest depths to see if anyone can offer first-hand recommendations - or otherwise - for Patrick Agte's 'Michael Wittmann And The Waffen SS Tiger Aces of the Leibstandarte'.

Since our first discussions, the book has seen a paperback reprint in two parts which are now available from Amazon at quite reasonable cost.

Any thoughts......?

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Try here for the other side of the hill. Lots of little snippets about the 4th CLY side of the story.

http://www.sharpshooters.org.uk/News...oter_index.htm

slow to download and plod through but good information.

Brian Reid - No Holding Back. A superb recent account of Totalize, the op in which Wittmann met his end. It has an Appendix that examines all the claims regarding his demise - and concludes, very convincingly, that the Canadians killed him rather than the Northants Yeomanry.

Rgds, Paul

Thanks for the recommendation, Paul - I wasn't aware of that book ; it's one I'll now be looking out for.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

..the Lucas volume is a novel..quite readable if you like that sort of thing..
Agte's large hardback is worth getting for the photos alone - although I have the German language edition ..the text is the sort of sympathetic portrayal that you might expect although I haven't read my copy from cover to cover...last time I was there my friends at http://www.militaryhistorybooks.co.uk had copies... around 45 quid. I expect the Stackpole reprints of the Fedorowicz edition are quite good, with less photo content ....one title I haven't seen mentioned here is Schneider's Tigers in Normandy (Fedorowicz)