Michael Wittmann was a tank commander in the 1st SS Panzer Division, a unit of the Waffen-SS, during World War II. He is most famous for his actions on June 13, 1944, at Villers-Bocage in Normandy, where his sudden attack caused devastating losses to a British armored column. While celebrated by German propaganda as a hero and credited with an extraordinary number of enemy tanks destroyed, the exact figures—like ~138 tanks~—remain debated by historians. His service within the Waffen-SS, a force