![]() Henke, always a gadfly and rebel, even without the separate route to his naval commission would have found integration into the corps difficult. 40% did not survive the war as compared to 13% of the equivalent class at Annapolis. His class went on to distinguish itself both militarily and in casualties. (Mulligan's description of life and training at the Castle as the naval academy was called, is quite interesting - German cadets had much more freedom than their American Annapolis counterparts, the Germans arguing that those who abused the privilege self-selected themselves out of the process, falling by the wayside.) Classes included, navigation, engineering,foreign languages, naval history and tactics in addition to sailing, fencing, gymnastics, field hockey, horsemanship (surely a useful naval skill if ever there was one), and boxing. Because of his six years at sea, the sailing cruise was waived for Henke as well as some of the infantry and non-naval instruction. German naval training emphasized practical knowledge including a cruise on a sailing ship, 14 months on a cruiser in positions of increasing responsibility and training in both infantry and ordnance. German officer cadets were trained differently than their American counterparts who spent their entire time at Annapolis. Coincidentally ,at about the time when Henke wanted to join they had lowered their standards (still very high - but a university education was not longer an absolute necessity if one had merchant marine experience.) He scored very high on the entrance tests and was admitted as an officer cadet in 1934. But this meant they were unable to meet the officer needs of Hitler's expanding navy. The German Navy, whittled down after the Versailles Treaty, had become a truly elite service with barely 2.5 percent of the applicants passing the exams. ![]() An option was to join the Reichsmarine (the name was not changed to Kriegsmarine until 1935.) Because of the depression, however, German shipping was also in the doldrums by the early thirties. For whatever reason, he decided to join the merchant marine where he passed his mate's license. Henke was a mediocre student at best, never attaining his abitur, a necessity for getting into university. Inflation cut into the family's income, but nevertheless, they had food on the table and a place to live. His family was reasonably fortunate because his father was a forester, a civil service position that was stable during the depression when most people were losing their jobs. Henke had grown up in Thorn, now part of Poland. ![]() Werner Henke committed suicide by leaping up on the barbed wire fence surrounding the POW camp where he was being held for interrogation by the Americans following the sinking of his command, the U-515, and the capture of his crew. He was immediately machine-gunned by the guards in the tower. He was thirty-five and considered one of the best U-boat captains of the war. Henke's confrontation with the Gestapo and a detailed account of the sinking of the passenger liner Ceramic further add to the story, revealing the complex reality behind an image too long dominated by propaganda stereotypes. The story of U-515 is also closely correlated to the overall conduct of the U-Boat war, including assessments of Karl Donitz's strategy, the influence of technological innovations, and the contributions of Allied signal intelligence. Examining the backgrounds and attitudes of the crew, including their views on Hitler and the treatment of the Jews, Mulligan sheds new light on the men who constituted an elite in Hitler's Wehrmacht. Though the story Mulligan relates is engrossing and action-packed, it is also a carefully documented study that breaks new ground in uncovering the sociological background of Henke and his crew in short, it is a study in German history as well as a biography of a U-Boat Commander. The story of Werner Henke-and a narrative outlining the history of his boat, U-515, and its crew-forms the basis for a biography of a man who defies the stereotypes of German character, who never fit in as a career officer in the German Navy, but who chose a suicidal death in acceptance of the code of the military service whose rules he continually bent and broke. This book relates the life and the death of the rebel German seaman who became one of the most successful U-Boat commanders of World War II.
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