| To save you the trouble, here is that Wiki excerpt I mentioned: "In fact, in late 2008 and again on March 9, 2009, the History Television channel in Canada broadcast an hour long investigation into the various claims of who fired the killing shot in the Wittmann affair. "Battlefield Mysteries," hosted by historian Norm Christie, examined the evidence in great detail and conclusively proved that it had to be a tank belonging to the Sherbrooke Fusiliers of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. Using all of the evidence currently available, and working from the very field that Wittmann was killed in, Christie used global positioning hardware to measure the distances to almost the exact meter and found that the Northamptonshire Yeomanry's tanks were almost a full kilometer (970 meters) from Wittmann's Tiger tank, but had nevertheless killed three closer Tigers involved in the counterattack, corroborating Tout's and Ekins' account. However, Wittmann's tank, furthest from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, was found to have been only 143 meters (a mere 469 feet) from the position of the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers' Sherman Fireflies and that the Tiger had received the mortal wound in its left rear quadrant, its lightly armoured Achilles heel. It is impossible for the Northamptonshire Yeomanry to have fired a shot from the opposite direction and hit his tank from the side the Canadians were on. Indeed, they were a kilometer away and 180 degrees out of position, while the Canadian tanks were by far the closest to Wittmann's Tiger-dead meat for their Firefly's 17 pounder gun at such close range. Or even a regular Sherman's 75 mm gun, considering the closeness of Wittmann's Tiger and the thin armour in the position it was penetrated. Bearing in mind the fact that German eyewitnesses testified that Wittmann's gun was turned somewhat to the right before the turret blew off, and that the death blow arrived from his left, Wittmann and his crew likely never knew what killed them." |