This Date in History: April 22

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Michael Wittmann, SS-Hauptsturmführer, born on April 22, 1914 in Vogelthal, Tiger tank commander with over 130 confirmed enemy tank kills with the 1st SS Panzer Division “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” and the 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion, winner of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, killed in action on August 8, 1944 by enemy tank fire near Gaumesnil in Normandy; his last words were: “Attention!  Attention!  Anti-tank guns to the right!  Back up!”  His remains, as well as those of his crew, were discovered and identified in 1983 and subsequently buried at the La Cambe German Military Cemetery in Normandy.  (2000 Quotations from Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich)

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Hans von Seeckt, Army Colonel General, born April 22, 1866 in Schleswig, ranking officer of the Reichswehr (Chef der Heeresleitung) until 1926, winner of the Pour le mérite in World War I, resigned after a conflict with the Reichswehr Minister – Otto Gessler, author of Thoughts of a Soldier, military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek in China, died December 27, 1936 in Berlin, nicknamed: “The Sphinx”, on his authority during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch: “There is only one man in Germany in a position to organize a Putsch, and that is me.  But the Reichswehr does not putsch.”  (2000 Quotations from Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich)