It was approximately 9:30 o'clock on the 13th June 1944. A long column of tanks and armored vehicles from the 4th County of London Yeomanry meandered along the road of Villers-Bocage, an important road junction running to the south of Bayeux. The second chief of this group, which constituted the vanguard of the 22nd Brigade of the 7th Armored Division, scrutinized the surrounding field by looking out from the turret of his Cromwell tank. Everything seemed quiet, but Commander Carr did not know that he was being observed. Looking through the eyeholes of the turret of his tank, Captain Michael Wittman took a mental note of the movements of the British. Wittman was alone with his tank against the entire column, but with him was his crew, always the same one with which he had fought in Russia and, after barely nine months, destroyed 119 Russian tanks. If Carr had imagined it, maybe he would have adopted a wiser tactic. On the contrary, the column, regularly spaced, continued advancing along the road. Unexpectedly, the German tank rushed along an esplanade which ran parallely to the road. The first shot from the 88-millimeter cannon of the "Tiger" tank destroyed a half-track vehicle which preceded the movement of the column, closing so the pass. Then it was the turn of a tank, then of a Bren Carrier... The only two attempts which were made to stop that mechanical fury failed, and the catastrophe continued until the tank disappeared from the scene. But after few minutes, having replenished its ammunitions, it came back and the hellish hammering started again. In a matter of few tens of minutes the lone "Tiger" had managed to destroy 20 tanks, four tank destroyers, one command tank, 14 armored personnel carriers and 14 Bren Carriers. The "Tiger", which would become the German tank par excellence, was born from a study started in 1937 by the Henschel company in prevision of an armored element which were capable of replacing, whenever it were necessary, the Panzerkampfwagen IV which had just entered service. At the beginning of the hostilities the studies for creating this tank were intensified, and in the spring of 1942, from the diverse prototypes presented, regarding the hull it was preselected that from Henschel, whereas for the turret it was preferred a model designed by Porsche and built by Krupp, by means of casting (limited to the sides and rear). The tank presented an interesting wheel arrangement with interspersed wheels, which worked with tracks of 52 centimeters in width for going on roads and of 72.5 centimeters in width for crossing snowy or soft grounds. The replacement of the tracks could be made in about quarter of an hour. The interior of the vehicle offered the maximum comfort which a tank could present. For driving, the driver used a normal steering wheel besides the two levers which are common in tanks, and the instrument panel was one of the most complete and perfect which existed back then. The armament comprised a 88-millimeter 56-caliber cannon and two or three 7.92-millimeter machine guns. The Panzerkampfwagen VI, as this exceptional armored element was officially denominated, debuted in the autumn of 1942 in the Russian front, to fight in every sector until the end of the war.