Although the war in Russia began with Operation Barbarossa towards the end of June, the Leibstandarte wasn’t initially committed, so the war in the Soviet Union for Michael Wittmann actually began a month later, in July 1941. It was like a second baptism of fire for Wittmann, who faced an attack by 18 Russian tanks on his Sturmgeschütz Battery’s first day in action.
He had encountered nothing like this in Poland and Greece, but Wittman was a natural fighter and he succeeded in knocking out six enemy tanks in succession. The rest fled the field in disarray. This was Wittmann’s first striking success, and the incident provided the first signs of his supreme talent as commander of an armoured fighting vehicle.
On 12 July 1941, in recognition of his great feat on his first day in action in Russia, Wittmann was decorated with the Iron cross - Second Class.
But there was little time for celebration, as the advance continued.
The short 75mm gun of the German Assault gun in the early war years was an inferior weapon to the long 76mm gun of the Russian T-34 tanks, but despite this disadvantage Wittmann proved himself a master of armoured warfare.
Men of the 11th Panzer Division advance cautiously through the streets of a Russian village in December 1941.
Combat in Russia placed terrific demands on the assault gun crews. Frequently, Wittmann and his crew were on their own, separated from the rest of the assault gun battery. In this hostile environment, he showed himself to be a successful lone fighter with initiative. Nevertheless, he remained popular with his comrades. Wittmann’s gunner at that time, Otto Schalte, described him as a modest man;
“Michael was a quiet, gifted, friendly NCO with firm goals in front of him.”
With 2,000 miles of front to fight over, the German armoured forces were spread incredibly thinly. It was lucky for Wittmann that he was such a good lone warrior, as the assault guns were rarely employed en masse, as the standing orders required, so his skills were forged in the hard battles of the summer of 1941. Unit commanders were always happy to have an assault gun assigned to their sector, particularly one commanded by him.
The German advance along the Black Sea began in the first weeks of August 1941. Wittmann fought near Sasselje and Nowyj Bug from the 10th-17th August and on the 19th at Kherson. In the course of the fighting for the port city of Kherson, a bizarre incident took place as the assault guns commanded by Wittmann and Beck engaged first an enemy gunboat, then a submarine. The gunboat was sunk, but the effects of the fire directed at the submarine are not recorded.
Wittmann had destroyed ten enemy tanks by this point in his career. But his luck was about to change for the worse, as a direct hit on his vehicle, though it failed to penetrate the armour, nonetheless left Wittmann wounded in the face and back by shell fragments. However, Wittman’s tally continued to rise to 25 enemy tanks and 32 anti-tank guns destroyed. Yet combat losses were not just on the Russian side. Those on his own also rose steadily.
In February 1942 the depleted assault gun battery was brought up to battalion strength through new additions from Germany, and the transfer of a battery from the SS Wiking Division.
As a result of this expansion, Wittmann was made an SS officer candidate in early 1942. He left the battalion in June in order to attend the Candidate Training Course at the SS-Junkerschule in Bad Tolz. Wittmann learned tactical lessons which he combined with his practical battlefield experience. The 28-year old Wittman now served as Platoon Commander in the 2nd Company of the SS Panzer Replacement Battalion.
A mixed force of Panzer IIs and IIIs halt for the night in a Russian village at the time of Operation Typhoon in December 1941.