Who really got Michel Wittman?

[John McGillivray]

Many of the points put forward appendix E concering the end of Michel Wittmann, in Brian Reid’s book “No Holding Back” were previous stated in a 2001 dissertation for a Masters of Arts degree in history at the University of New Brunswick, by Lawrence James Zaporzan, entitled “Rad’s War: A Biographical Study of Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters from Mobilization to the End of the Normandy Compaign 1944”.

From the research by Zaporzan and Reid, the most likely scenario is that Wittmann fell victim to someone from “A” Squadron of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment. But who? Neither Zaporzan nor Reid names the tank commander who got in the kill shot.

However, one of Radley-Walters troop commanders Lt (later Capt) Thomas Garfield (Garry) Gould is quoted in the book “Rare Courage” by Rod Michleburgh as stating that the troop commander who got Wittmann was killed four days later ( i.e. August 12). The action on the 12th of August is covered in Radley-Walters biography and includes the following:

“Rad remembers that Barbery was quite a fight and that he lost one of his Troop Leaders there:

“At Barbery, [Lieutenant] Bill Logan was a Troop Leader. Bill was about 100 yards on my left. There was a SP gun out there somewhere and it fired and it knocked him out. I jumped out of the tank. They [the crew] seemed to be coming out very slowly. Bill tried to get out. but he got about half way out, but fell back inside. He got out again and flopped on the ground. By that time I had got over to him. He was hit in the chest. To me, I didn't think that he was hit too badly, [but] he was bleeding and so on. We put a field dressing on him and we started to move him but he said. "No Major Rad. Don't take me out [yet]. There is something I want. I always admired the orders that you gave us." He was one of the new Troop Leaders and he had his little notebook [for taking orders] in behind the radio set. He said, "If I am going out, please get my notebook." I thought. "Jesus, Who wants to crawl in that thing?!" There was [still] the SP a couple of hundred yards away. Anyway, I jumped in and grabbed the notebook and got out. By that time a couple of infantry were around and they had the stretcher bearers. I said, "Want a cigarette?" He had a cigarette and we moved him out. I never thought anything more of it. We were having casualties all the time. But, they never got him back to the casualty clearing station. He died on the way.”

So probably it should be Lt. Bill Logan of SFR who should be credited for the removal of Michel Wittmann.