Werner Henke

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Werner Henke (1943)

Werner Henke (born May 13, 1909 in Thorn , † June 15, 1944 in Fort Hunt near Alexandria (Virginia) ) was a German naval officer and submarine commander in World War II . With U 515 he sank 23 ships on six companies and damaged four ships, killing 1,145 people. The sinking of the British passenger liner Ceramic on the night of December 7, 1942 alone resulted in 655 deaths. After the sinking of U 515 on April 9, 1944, in which 16 men died, he and 43 of his men were taken prisoner in the United States . Fearing extradition to the British and execution for the Ceramic -Versenkung he tried from the US interrogation center in Fort Hunt to flee and was shot on the run.

Life

education

Werner Henke initially worked in the merchant marine. On April 8, 1934, he joined the Reichsmarine as an officer candidate . After his officer training, Henke joined the ironclad Admiral Scheer . From March 1939 to March 1940 he served on the Schleswig-Holstein liner . Then he was transferred to the submarine weapon. On November 15, 1940, Oberleutnant zur See Henke got on as second watch officer on U 124 , under Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Schulz . After two enemy voyages, he became the first officer on watch on this boat in the summer of 1941. In this function he took part in two other missions. On the last voyage as IWO, Lieutenant Johann Mohr was his commandant. In November 1941, Henke completed the commanders course in Memel . After a short time as a test group leader with the torpedo recovery group Gotenhafen , he got his own boat with U 515 in January 1942 , which he took over on February 21, 1942.

Submarine commander

Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke undertook six enemy voyages with U 515 in the period from August 12, 1942 to April 9, 1944. He was able to sink a total of 25 ships with approx. 155,000 GRT. These included the destroyer depot ship Hecla and the sloop Canticleer . Another ship and the destroyer Marne were damaged. This made Henke one of the most successful submarine commanders of the Second World War. He was awarded the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

Werner Henke (standing, 3rd from right) on board a submarine

On its second patrol, U 515 sank the British passenger ship Ceramic on December 7, 1942, west of the Azores . This immersion was to be decisive for Henke's fate. He was publicly accused , apparently by the UK (in fact, the allegation was spread by the US ), of shooting at survivors. This was reported by 85 alleged survivors of Ceramic . In reality, only the man U 515 brought on board to learn about the ship's destination and the troops on board had survived . The rest of the shipwrecked on the Ceramic were killed in the heavy seas.

On April 9, 1944, U 515 was tracked north of Madeira Island by the U-Hunting Association of Captain Daniel Vincent Gallery . The escort carrier Guadalcanal's planes and four destroyers attacked the boat. It eventually had to show up badly damaged. Henke and 43 of his men were captured, while 16 crew members were killed.

captivity

Since Henke was convinced that the British would try him before a court- martial, he wanted to be brought to the USA under all circumstances. He made the mistake of reporting the Ceramic incident to the American commander . Gallery wanted to use this fact to get secret military information. He had Henke sign a written declaration in which he undertook to cooperate with the American authorities. Otherwise he would be extradited to the British. The threat, however, was a bluff to get him to testify and cooperate.

After arriving in the USA, Henke was taken to the American interrogation center Fort Hunt in Virginia . Here he was interrogated several times a day without success. He only made his statement under duress. The Americans then announced that they would take him to Canada, where he would be under the influence of British authorities. Henke was convinced that the British would sentence him to death . On the evening of June 15, 1944, one day before the planned move to Canada, he climbed over the camp fence, did not respond to the warning calls and was shot by the guards. He was taken to a hospital, where only his death could be determined. In a report requested by the Swiss Embassy it was later stated that the post had acted according to the regulations and that Henke was responsible for his own death.

Henke's grave is in the War Cemetery at Fort George G. Meade , Maryland . He was promoted posthumously to captain of the corvette .

Henkes grave in Fort Meade on Memorial Day 2008

Ranks

Awards

literature

  • Rainer Busch / Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War, Volume 3: German U-Boat Successes from September 1939 to May 1945 , Verlag Mittler & Sohn Hamburg-Berlin-Bonn, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4
  • Rainer Busch / Hans-Joachim Röll: Der U-Boot-Krieg, Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945 , Verlag Mittler & Sohn, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0
  • Rainer Busch / Hans-Joachim Roll: German U-Boat Commanders of World War II: a Biographical Dictionary. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press 1999
  • Franz Kurowski : Werner Henke. In: Franz Kurowski: Hunter of the Seven Seas. The most famous submarine commanders of World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1998 (2nd edition), pp. 296-312. ISBN 3-613-01633-8 . (Biographical, representation of the patrols)
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars , Urbes Verlag Hans Jürgen Hansen, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7
  • Timothy P. Mulligan: Lone Wolf. The Life and Death of U-Boat Ace Werner Henke . Praeger, Santa Barbara 1993. ISBN 0-275-93677-5

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Hans Herlin: Damned Atlantic. Fate of German submarine drivers. Weltbild, Augsburg 1993, ISBN 3-89350-553-9 , p. 187.
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 281.
personal data
SURNAME Henke, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer and submarine commander in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Thorn
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1944
Place of death Fort Hunt, Virginia