Hermann Dahlke was a Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921...

(Second Lieutenant) in the Waffen SS who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...

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Early years

He was born on 11 February 1917 in Greifswald. In 1933 he joined the Hitler Youth

Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...

, then later joined the volunteer labour service and then applied to join the SS and was posted to the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.

World War II

Dahlke was awarded the Knight's Cross on 3 March 1943 as an SS-Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant), when in a well executed attack, his unit broke into the enemy's southern positions during the Third Battle of Kharkov

Third Battle of Kharkov

The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of offensive operations on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by the German Army Group South against the Red Army, around the city of Kharkov , between 19 February and 15 March 1943...

. His platoon threw back the numerically superior enemy in hand-to-hand fighting and thus made a decisive contribution to the successful advance of the battalion and the whole battle group. Promoted to SS-Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant), he was given command of the 3rd Company, 1st SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment LSSAH and was killed in action on 5 July 1943 on the Russian Front near Belgorod.