Werner Henke
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Werner Henke (May 13, 1909 - June 15, 1944) in Thorn, now Torun, Poland was the commander of the German submarine U-515 during the Second Battle of the Atlantic of World War II. U-515 was sunk by the American task group 22.3, commanded by Daniel V. Gallery on April 9, 1944 and Kapitänleutnant Henke was captured along with about 40 of his crew.
Kapitänleutnant Henke had been accused, by the British, of shooting survivors of the SS Ceramic, a passenger ship, that U-515 had sunk on December 7, 1942. Knowing this, Captain Gallery, hoping to extort intelligence from him or his crew, idly threatened to turn him over to the British if he did not cooperate. Captain Gallery was successful in getting Kapitänleutnant Henke to sign a paper agreeing to cooperate with interrogators. Henke, of course, reneged on the agreement but upon seeing that their captain had agreed to talk, many of his crew signed similar agreements and lived up to them.
Kapitänleutnant Henke was interned in the interrogation center in Fort Hunt, Virginia. While there his interrogators threatened to hold him to his agreement to cooperate or be extradited to England to face war crime charges. On June 15, 1944, he calmly walked to the fence of the interrogation center and began to climb over. He continued to climb after a guard ordered him to stop and he was fatally shot.
Kapitänleutnant Henke was posthumously promoted to Korvettenkapitän and is interred at Soldier's Cemetery in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, along with 33 other German POW's.
A ceremony is held at the gravesite every year on the anniversary of Henke's death. Flowers are not uncommon to see in front of the grave, as well as a wreath with a ribbon the colors of the German flag.
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