Lilly von Dunkel

Lilly von Dunkel "Lilly the Great" (April 18, 1915 - July 19, 1944) was a tank ace in World War II that struck fear in the Allied Powers. She was the first young, well educated woman to be a Tank Ace/Panzer Commander in the Panzerwaffe and the Wehrmacht. She had a record of over 590 Tank Kills, and more military medals than Kurt Knispsel. She didn't like Hitler like some Germans did. She saw him as cruel, and a Crazy man. She planned on joining in on her cousin Hans' plan of assassinating Hitler. The meeting date was never discussed.

She was finally killed at Operation Goodwood in Normandy, France when her Tiger II (Previously a Tiger I before 1944) was hit with a fatal blow from 3 rounds by three M4 Sherman Fireflies who cornered her in a small village crossroad.

Early Life
Lilly was born in Hanover, Germany, April 18, 1915 to a wealthy German Family. It was a year after the Great War began, her father is away at war fighting for Germany as a Officer. Lilly was a cousin of Hans Bixel, and was also her favorite cousin. She went to school like any normal child would have. Then one day, her father died at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. She was sad for her father's death, but angry at the Canadians (Who were then apart of the British Empire.) She later grew up hating all of the Allied Power Countries and wanted revenge. Her mother was later sent to a Concentration Camp in Belgium because she was a German Jew. Lilly couldn't do anything to save her.

Military Career
She enlisted in the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion, May 24, 1942 (20 days after the Division was started.) She bought her way into her enlistment voluntarilly. She signed her enlistment papers and was sent off to Basic Training in Sagan in Lower Silesia, Poland. She later graduated at the highest of her class and was promoted to Obergefreiter (Corporal) in the Wehrmacht.

She saw her first battle at the Third Battle of Kharkov in February 1943. In her first battle she killed 58 Russian T-34's. Then later at the Battle of Kursk she killed 243 Soviet Tanks, mostly T-34's and KV-1's which erned her a promotion as Stabsfeldwebel (Sergeant Major). She had an outrageous killing streak on 245 Soviet Tank's at the Korsun Pocket, and 138 at Budatpest.

She was later transferred to Normandy, France, June 5, 1944. On the next day, she saw combat action at Caen against British Churchill Tanks from the 7th Armoured Division. She killed 44 Churchill Tank's at Caen. In July of 1944, Lilly's Judgement day came, her Tiger II was cornered at Operation Goodwood by three M4 Sherman Fireflies blocking all three of her exits.

In a matter of seconds, all three Sherman Fireflies fired in a unison at her Tiger II and everything was all over. Lilly and her crew were dead within seconds of the impact. The depleted 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion was able to escape Operation Goodwood, but Lilly von Dunkel wasn't so lucky, and neither was her crew. Lilly was later buried by her fellow comrades in a near by field, later being moved to the Normandy National Cemtary.

Disturbing Findings
In 1945, after the British and American's have liberated France from the Germans. A US Ranger Battalion stumbles upon Lilly's Headquarter's located in an old iscalated Castle isloated 15 miles from Caen in a forest.. It was there that they had found countless Diary Entry's by her dated back one day after the Normandy Invasions began. Many of them were recorded interegation's from when Lilly had apparently torchured her captives while looking for answers of Allied Military locations and intelligence. (Her captives were mostly British and Canadaian Soldiers.)

Her most common method of torchure was something called, a "Transorbital Lobotomy," using a sharp pick, and a hammer to crack open a person's skull to get to the Frontal Lobe of the brain that she had laerned from her uncle, who was a lunatic surgeon. She would sometimes even saw off the fingers of her captives. They even found 8 audio diary recordings with the screaming of agony and pain of her captives as she torchured them to death till they finally cracked and told her what she wanted. It appears the death of Lilly's father has gotten to her, which cause her to go insane. Making her one of the evilest women alive. Her victims survived, but suffered horrible trauma and paranoia from her torchure.

"Damn the English, the Americans, the Canadians, and the Russians [Soviets]! Damn them all! My father died in the hands of the enemy fighting to protect his home, and me. I will not stop till all of their armies are dead." - Lilly, Kursk, 1943