One may wonder whether Wittmann really destroyed the company of half-tracks single-handed or whether maybe he got help from another Tiger laying in ambush in a little apple plantation behind the cross-road. Two eye-witness accounts lend some credence to this possibility. The day after the battle, at a house in Villy where he had taken shelter after deserting, a young Slovenien soldier who had "volunteered" for the 130 Artillery-Regiment of the Panzer-Lehr-Division overheard a version of this episode in the conversation of two German officers. In addition, according to local inhabitants, there was a Tiger on the spot which may even have ran out of fuel, as rumor later had it. Without moving, this tank was indeed capable of intervening and taking part in the destruction of the British vehicles around the Cavalry, from the moment Wittmann launched his attack and after his passage, while he carried his actions into town.
It may also be at this second tank that the riflemen aimed the anti-tank gun at the rear of the column.
Brigadier Hinde, who had decided to leave his 22nd Armored Brigade HQ and take his radio-operator Sgt. George Kay, along in his scout car to point 213 to take stock of the situation with Lord Cranley, doubled back on hearing approaching gun and machine-gun fire. Following behind came another scout-car, perhaps that of Lieutenant Charles Pearce, a reconnaissance troop liaison officer, and which had stopped on the left-and side of the Rue Georges Clemenceau on the sidewalk in front of N.55, the home of Mr, Delafontaine, who was a gendarme.
Lieutenant Pearce reported that when he arrived, he saw a German tank some 600 yards ahead of the RHQ tanks. Being powerless to do anything in his scout car, he raced up to the leading Cromwell to warn the tank commander and advise him to find someplace where he would not be a sitting target. He saw the Panzer break cover, spring towards the stationary column and later expressed his astonishment that no British tank opened fire. He felt afterwards that had the German Tiger had been taken on right-away by the 4th CLY's Cromwells and Fireflies, it could have been damaged and the outcome of the encounter would have been very different.
At the locally named le Calvaire, at the intersection of the highway and the Bayeux road, half of the regiments reconnaissance troop was ahead of the HQ tanks, with the other half to the rear, actually in Villers. With 3 Honey light tanks armed with the 37mm guns, this unit followed behind Lieut. Ingram's tank. Wittmann knocked out at least 3 tanks and also a half-track following behind.
The driver of Lieutenant Simmond's scout car, Lance-Corporal Donald Hammacourt, recalls the episode as follows:
"On the 13th June, Lt. Simmons used his recce tanks and I had Corporal Cooke as my commander. Just as I got to the corner in the main street, all hell broke loose when German tanks ambushed our column at very close range. In the confusion which followed, Lt. Simmonds moved for the troops to follow him back the way we had come. The Germans mortared our positions and there was intensive sniper fire. Unfortunately I got caught outside and away from my scout car and I took refuge under a tank. After what seemed an eternity there was a lull in the battle and the remnants of the troop managed to break out, we eventually met up with other units of our regiment."
Lieutenant Simmonds was taken in by civilians who tended his wounds, gave him shelter and saw him off once they felt the danger had passed. Meanwhile, the commander of the leading Honey "Calamity", Lieutenant Ingram, had been killed in action.
Lieutenant Rex Ingram’s Stuart Mk V, nicknamed “Calamity Jane II.” Here, a German officer inspects the wrecked machine (Bundsarchive)
