[Wolfkin]

Hello John!

I noticed your post on the ML Forum and responded there as well. I also noticed that a lot of people seem to have the opinion that it does not matter who got Wittmann. For the most part, I disagree with the opinion that it does not matter who killed Michael Wittmann because for the sake of historical accuracy it does matter. Of course I understand the opinion that it doesn’t matter as long as such a dangerous foe was killed but as a researcher, as many of us are, one should strive to know the facts. The facts are that a Canadian Sherman Firefly fired the lethal shot that destroyed Michael Wittmann’s Tiger and killed him. I think that anyone that reads the research in the book by Reid would see that this is the true fact.

I just wonder how much attention this research would be given if it was a U.S. tanker that got him? We would probably never hear the end of it. Perhaps we Canadians do not celebrate our war actions enough, so it is probably our own fault that actions involving Canadians are largely ignored. But when you think about it, a Canadian seems to have been involved in a lot of famous actions: Australian or Canadian got the Red Baron, Canadian got Rommel, Canadian got Wittmann. We Canadians should celebrate these actions more.

I read the part in the book "No Holding Back" about Wittmann a little while ago and was very impressed. I have been researching WWII Panzer battles for many years now and most sources always stated that the Canadian tanks in the area were not in a position to engage Wittmann's Tigers on that day. This part of the book is very interesting to me, because the author proves with a pretty reasonable argument that the Canadians were in fact in the area and were in fact in a position to be able to engage the Tigers! I think this is very groundbreaking information and very well-done research on the part of Brian Reid!

This is excellent for Canadians too, being a Canadian I always kind of wanted the Canadian version to be true but it always looked like the evidence was against it. For Major Sidney Valpy Radley-Walters, Lieutenant Logan, Lieutenant Gould and the rest of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment this is such an achievement!

Thank you John for posting excellent additional information about this action!

Cheers,

Jon Fitzgerald
Calgary,AB,Canada