From Kirkus Reviews
The riveting, resonant tale of an outsider who achieved success as a U-boat skipper in WW II Germany's Kriegsmarine--and met a unique fate on dry land far from home. Drawing on contemporary documents and interviews with his subject's surviving shipmates, naval archivist Mulligan offers a vividly detailed account of a renegade whose career belied the stereotypically barbaric image of unterseeboote commanders. Born in 1909, Werner Henke moved west in 1920 to a suburb of Hamburg when the Versailles Treaty ceded Poland a corridor to the Baltic, expropriating his family's property. Having joined the merchant marine in 1925, he switched to the regular navy ten years later in the wake of Hitler's decision to rearm the Third Reich. Though frequently at loggerheads with superiors and Gestapo officials, Henke was named master of U-515 early in 1942--and proved a happy choice for the Nazi war machine. On six patrols, his sub sank two dozen Allied vessels, ranking Henke 14th on the list of U-boat aces and top among those who operated after Allied hunter-killer teams began to turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic. With an assist from Ultra intelligence intercepts, a US task force sent U- 515 to the bottom offshore Spain on Easter Sunday 1944, taking its captain and most of the crew prisoner. Under interrogation, Henke was led to believe that he would be returned to England for trial on trumped-up atrocity charges. Apparently determined to stay out of British hands, he made a suicidal escape attempt and was gunned down on the wire at Fort Hunt, a secret POW center near Washington, D.C. In recounting the twisty path taken by one casualty of a global conflict, Mulligan sheds considerable light on the tactics and technology employed by a loathsome regime's silent service. Military history, then, of a high--if circumscribed--order. (Photos and schematics) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
?General readers will enjoy this book as will specialists. Highly recommended for all levels.?-Choice
?In recounting the twisty path taken by one casualty of a global conflict, Mulligan sheds considerable light on the tactics and technology employed by a loathsome regime's silent service.?-Kirkus Reviews
?Lone Wolf is thus a great addition to the history of World War Two and the German navy, whilst at the same time being a must read for anyone interested in the Battle of the Atlantic.?-The Journal of Military History
?Offers fresh insights into the Battle of the Atlantic through the story of a U-boat service that would ultimately lose three quarters of its men, and a portrait of one its most successful and controversial commanders.?-Publishers Weekly
?This excellent volume uses a comprehensive array of primary and secondary sources to paint a vivid portrait not only of this maverick of the Kriegsmarine but of a whole generation of German naval officers, especially U-boat veterans.?-Booklist
"General readers will enjoy this book as will specialists. Highly recommended for all levels."-Choice
"In recounting the twisty path taken by one casualty of a global conflict, Mulligan sheds considerable light on the tactics and technology employed by a loathsome regime's silent service."-Kirkus Reviews
"Lone Wolf is thus a great addition to the history of World War Two and the German navy, whilst at the same time being a must read for anyone interested in the Battle of the Atlantic."-The Journal of Military History
"Offers fresh insights into the Battle of the Atlantic through the story of a U-boat service that would ultimately lose three quarters of its men, and a portrait of one its most successful and controversial commanders."-Publishers Weekly
"This excellent volume uses a comprehensive array of primary and secondary sources to paint a vivid portrait not only of this maverick of the Kriegsmarine but of a whole generation of German naval officers, especially U-boat veterans."-Booklist
From the Back Cover
This book relates the life - and death - of the rebel German seaman who became one of the most successful U-Boat commanders of World War II. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
About the Author
TIMOTHY P. MULLIGAN is an archivist specializing in captured German and World War II era U.S. military and naval records. He edited the volume Wolf Packs in the Time-Life series The Third Reich (1989), and wrote the book, The Politics of Illusion and Empire (Praeger, 1988).
