Wittmann became a cult figure after the war thanks to his accomplishments as a "panzer ace" (a highly decorated tank commander), part of the portrayal of the Waffen-SS in popular culture.

By 1943, he commanded a Tiger I tank, and had become a platoon leader in the heavy company by the time Operation Citadel and the Battle of Kursk took place.

[10] Wittmann was awarded the Oak Leaves on 30 January for the claimed destruction of 117 tanks, making him the 380th member of the German armed forces to receive it.

Their objective was to exploit the gap in the front line, seize Villers-Bocage, and capture the nearby ridge (Point 213) in an attempt to force a German withdrawal.

[30] At approximately 09:00,[14] Wittmann's Tiger emerged from cover onto the main road, Route Nationale 175, and engaged the rearmost British tanks positioned on Point 213, destroying them.

[31][32] Wittmann then moved towards Villers-Bocage, shooting several unarmed transport vehicles parked along the roadside; the carriers burst into flames as their fuel tanks were ruptured by machine gun and high explosive fire.

[30] In less than 15 minutes, 13 or 14 tanks, two anti-tank guns, and 13 to 15 transport vehicles had been destroyed by Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101, the majority[42] or all[43] attributed to Wittmann.

[45][46] He recorded a radio message on the evening of 13 June, describing the battle and claiming that later counter-attacks had destroyed a British armoured regiment and an infantry battalion.

[30] Doctored images were produced; three joined-together photographs, published in the German army magazine Signal, gave a false impression of the scale of destruction in the town.

[46] The Waffen-SS may have fought with distinction during the Battle of Kursk but could not match the army's success, hence Sepp Dietrich's attempts to manufacture a hero out of Wittmann.

Under the cover of darkness, British and Canadian tanks and troops seized the tactically important high ground near the town of Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil.

Unaware of the reason the Allied forces had halted, SS Hitlerjugend Division Commander Kurt Meyer ordered a counterattack to recapture the high ground.

To the left or west, "A" Squadron Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment was located at a chateau courtyard broadside to the attack, where they had knocked firing positions through the stone walls.

A historian, Norm Christie, interviewed participants; Rad Walters, Joe Ekins and Ken Tout, and from their testimony and the two German accounts pieced the final battle together.

The British 75mm armed tanks engaged the lead Tiger (Iriohn) hitting it in the transmission, bogies or track and it started going in circles trying to withdraw.

[55] Nazi propaganda reported that Allied aircraft struck Wittmann's tank, stating that he had fallen in combat to the „dreaded fighter-bombers”.

Historian Brian Reid dismisses this contention as relevant RAF logs make no claim of engaging tanks in the area at that time.

[56] This position is supported by the men of Wittmann's unit who stated they did not come under air attack, and by British and Canadian tank crews who also dismissed any involvement by aircraft.

In a 1985 issue of After the Battle Magazine, Les Taylor, a wartime member of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, claimed that fellow yeoman Joe Ekins was responsible for the destruction of Wittmann's tank.

[60] Reid postulated the possibility that A Squadron of the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, positioned on the left flank of the advancing German tanks, was responsible instead.

[61] The unit had created firing holes in the property's walls and, based on verbal testimony, engaged the advancing German tanks, including Tigers.

[63][64][65] Historian Stephen Badsey has stated that the ambush Wittmann launched has cast a shadow over the period between D-Day and 13 June in historical accounts.

[4] With his action in particular at Villers Bocage, A.D. Harvey, writing in Military History, compared him to Sergeant Alvin York, the famed American soldier of the First World War; both single-handedly destroyed large amounts of the enemy.

[72] He highlights how Wittmann gathered his forces in a sunken lane with a broken-down tank at the head of the column, thereby hampering his unit's mobility.

Finally, Schneider opines that: "thoughtlessness of this kind was to cost [Wittmann] his life ... during an attack casually launched in open country with an exposed flank.

German documents from 1944 state that Allied technology had caught up with the Tiger I and "no longer can it prance around, oblivious to the laws of tank tactics".

Buckley argued that by wrongly attributing the entire German success to Wittmann, "many historians through to today continue to repackage unquestioningly Nazi propaganda".

[81] Wittmann became a cult figure after the war thanks to his accomplishments as a "panzer ace" (a highly decorated tank commander) in the portrayal of the Waffen-SS in popular culture.

He discusses the popular perception of a tank-versus-tank engagement as an "armoured joust"—two opponents facing each other—with the "more valiant or better-armed the eventual victor".

[74] Wittmann is featured by Kurowski in his 1992 book Panzer Aces, an ahistorical and hagiographic account of the combat careers of highly decorated Nazi tank commanders.