Many Americans are familiar with the debate over which pilot scored the killing blow on the plane of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the planner of the Pearl Harbor attack, but few are aware of the controversy over the death of Germany’s five time Iron Cross winning Michael Wittmann, known as the ‘Black Baron’.¹ Wittmann, a member of the Shutzstaffel or SS, totaled around 138 tank kills and 132 antitank guns kills in Poland, Greece, the Soviet Union, and France. By the time he died Wittmann was an Hauptsturmführer, or Captain, in the Waffen-SS and famous throughout Germany for his impressive number of kills. On August 8, 1944 Wittmann came into a fire fight with members of the 1st Northampton Yeomanry near the town of Cintheaux in France. Tank gunner Joe Ekins scored the killing blow on Wittmann’s Tiger tank, ending the ‘Black Baron’s’ career against the Allies indefinitely. Although others have claimed the kill for themselves, a recent documentary proved definitively that Ekins fired the fatal blow.²

Full Article: British Granddad may have Killed the 'Black Baron.'