Lone Wolf: The Life and Death of U-Boat Ace Werner Henke

In this scholarly study, Mulligan, an archivist at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., 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. In 20 months as captain of U-515 Werner Henke sank or crippled 26 allied ships. Impetuous and self-willed, he was constantly at odds with Nazi authorities. This behavior, shows the author, reflected not principled resistance, but intolerance for rear-echelon heroes. When U-515 was captured by the U.S. and Henke was sent to an interrogation center, he rushed the camp's fence and was shot and killed. Partly motivated by fear of being tried as a war criminal, Henke, concludes Mulligan, was also a product of Nazi conditioning, which emphasized the duty to choose death when hope of victory was gone. His story stands as a paradigm for the fate of countless others during warfare. (Nov.)