Meyer's unconventional tactics paid off. The panzer charge escaped the B-17s and drove headlong into the Polish armoured regiment and the British 33rd Armoured Brigade. The terrain was open and the Allied tanks had little cover from the German 75mm and 88mm high-velocity cannons. Wittmann's Tigers swung off Route 158 and hit the Canadian 4th Armoured Division. It was stopped dead, losing scores of tanks, but two Tigers were knocked out. Undeterred, Wittmann pressed on eastwards against the flank of the British Northamptonshire Yeomanry, blasting another 20 Shermans as he went. Hopelessly outnumbered, Wittmann pressed on towards St Aignan-de-Cramesnil. British Sherman Firefly tanks, armed with the powerful 17-pounder gun firing tungsten sabot rounds, were waiting in ambush for the Tigers. A squadron of the Yeomanry is credited with putting an end to Wittmann's career which, to his credit, took in 138 tank kills. Five tanks zeroed in on Wittmann's Tiger, and consequently the turret was seen to explode - there were no survivors.

A final victory

More Panzer IVs now joined the battle from the south, intercepting the 1st Polish Armoured Division's lead regiment and putting 24 Shermans out of action. Hitlerjugend 88mm flak guns were also in action against the Poles, to great effect. Again, the intervention of the Hitlerjugend Division had thwarted the Allied plans. Scores of Shermans were burning and the Allied advance was brought to a halt. Meyer ordered his forward kampfgruppe to fall back to a new line centred on the high ground around Point 140, 5km (3.1 miles) to the south, where the bulk of Max Wünsche's panzer regiment was now gathering.

In the confusion, the Canadian 28th Armoured Regiment and the Algonquin Infantry Battalion slipped through their lines to occupy Point 140. The result was a massacre. In a three-day battle, the Canadians lost 80 tanks and the Poles admitted to the destruction of 66 of their tanks. The battle had not been all one-sided, with Meyer suffering 414 casualties. His tank strength was now reduced to 20 Panzer IVs and 15 Panthers. Thanks to the arrival of additional tanks from the 102nd SS Battalion, he now boasted 15 Tigers. This was the last notable defensive success for Meyer's division. The great Allied jaws were now closing around the German armies in Normandy.

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