The 26th winner of the OAK LEAF CLUSTER to the KNIGHTS CROSS was Kapitanleutnant Werner Henke, Skipper of U-515.

Werner Henke was born in Rudak on 13 May, 1909 & he was in the Class 1934. Final rank was KorvettenKapitan. Henke was one of the outstanding Skippers who trained on U-124, the famed 'EDELWELIVS-BOOT' of the great WILHELM SCHULZ (162-+-1986).

He took U-515 into combat 21 Feb., 1942 and was very successful with this Type IX-C boat.

One of his greatest successes turned out to be the albatross around his neck and the ultimate cause of his own death - the 18,713 ton British troop transport SS CERAMIC. The weather was rough and they could not, or would not, pick up survivors. The British were understandably furious over this loss.

On 8 April 1944, U-515 was sunk by the destroyer escorts attached to the USS GUADALCANAL Task Force and Henke was captured. His boat 'hung' on the surface so long that Captain Dan Gallery got the idea to train a boarding party for the next possible chance to capture a U-Boat, and two months later, they did capture U-505.

Dan Gallery played a trick on Henke. He had charts of the harbor entrance of Gibraltar laid on the chart table, then called Henke in for a talk. He grilled Henke for answers, but before he did, he told Henke that the Brits wanted him to turn Henke over to them. Gallery said that the decision was his and it really didn't matter, and if Henke didn't want to talk with him, he would turn him over to the Brits.

When Henke was in the secret interrogation camp at Fort George Meade, the weight of events apparently became too much for Henke and he calmly walked to the wire fence in full daylight, and began to climb the fence. Despite shouts from the guards, he continued to climb. He was shot dead. The official record says that he was 'shot while trying to escape' but one must wonder if it was really Henke's way to commit suicide

Henke won his KNIGHTS CROSS on 17 December, 1942, and his OAK LEAF CLUSTER posthumously on 5 November, 1944. He was the 26th U-BootFahrer to receive the OAK LEAF CLUSTER and the 645th to win this award in the German forces.