 lieutenant commander werner henke (may 13, 1909 â june 15, 1944) born in thorn, germany (now toruÅ in poland) was the commander of  in the battle of the atlantic of world war ii. u-515 was sunk by the us task group 22.3, commanded by daniel v. gallery on april 9, 1944 and kapitÃ¤nleutnant henke was captured along with about 40 of his crew. ==early life== henke was raised in rudak, a small village just outside thorn. when thorn reverted to polish rule in 1920 after the end of world war i, the henke family moved to celle in the province of hanover. henke joined the reichsmarine in april 1934 after several years in the merchant marine.mulligan 1993 ==early naval career== henke attended the naval academy at mÃ¼rwik and served on the pocket battleship . in five years' training he spent only one week studying u-boat warfare. he spent nearly two years stationed at the pillau (now baltiysk) naval base starting in 1937. in may 1939 he was assigned to the battleship , where he participated in the first shots of world war ii in the battle of westerplatte. in april 1940 he commenced six weeks of training at the u-boat school at neustadt in holstein. before completing this training however, he was convicted of desertion and sent to a punishment unit. in november he was assigned to . in november 1941 he was sent to submarine commander's school, and on 21 february 1942 u-515 was commissioned with henke in command. ==u-515== henke was captured when u-515 was sunk at 1510hrs on 9 april 1944 in the mid-atlantic north of madeira at  by bombs from the us escort carrier  and depth charges from the destroyer escorts , ,  and . 16 of the crew were killed and about 40 survived. [[file:werner henke grave.jpg|thumb|left|upright|werner henke's grave a
1909_births 1944_deaths Deaths_by_firearm_in_Virginia German_military_personnel_killed_in_World_War_II German_people_who_died_in_prison_custody German_prisoners_of_war Kriegsmarine_personnel People_from_ToruA People_from_West_Prussia Recipients_of_the_Knight\'s_Cross_with_Oak_Leaves Recipients_of_the_Spanish_Cross Reichsmarine_personnel U-boat_commanders World_War_II_prisoners_of_war_held_by_the_United_States