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Witness the legendary U-515 as it faces an enemy unlike anything seen in the war before.
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00:01As the Second World War drags on, a German U-boat crew beats the odds to defy depth charges
00:06and aircraft to continue to sink Allied ships and still return to port.
00:12The fact that they overcame the damages, that they were able to survive constant air interruptions,
00:19I believe that on this patrol there were 73 crash dives and still make it home in one
00:26piece is remarkable.
00:28But in early 1944, a new Allied hunter-killer group targets the U-boats, and now U-515
00:37faces the ultimate test.
00:42In World War II, a subsea weapon allows warriors to fight from beneath the waves.
00:54With cunning, force and tenacity, their enemies strike back.
01:04But still sometimes primitive, it's a desperate bid to change the course of war.
01:13Their stories are legend.
01:23November 18th, 1943, Nazi U-boat U-515 spots a massive Allied convoy off the coast of Portugal.
01:3512 escorts guard 66 ships, including 11 tank landing ships destined for the D-Day invasions.
01:44Gross Admiral Karl Dönitz had assigned 26 submarines to find the convoy.
01:48Because of the size of this convoy, because it was picked up by German intelligence, Dönitz decided
01:57to make an all-out effort to try to intercept this convoy.
02:00U-boat commander, Kapitan-Leutnant Werner Henke, must share the ship's location with the other
02:05submarines.
02:06He surfaces 12 miles away to transmit a message.
02:13But an Allied plane attacks, forcing Henke to dive.
02:18The U-boat is unable to transmit its crucial message.
02:24U-515 is on its own.
02:28The plane banks away, but while at periscope depth, Henke sights two warships breaking off
02:33from the escort screen, they are coming right for him.
02:39This is Henke's fifth war patrol.
02:42His first was only the year before, when he racked up an impressive nine kills.
02:49He has already earned the title of U-boat Ace.
02:53This achievement is impressive, as German U-boats now struggle against Allied air and radar superiority,
02:59and have been forced to retreat from the main convoy routes across the Atlantic.
03:05Henke's success makes him notorious.
03:08He is named in an Allied propaganda broadcast in March 1943.
03:12They will blame Werner Henke for the shooting of survivors of the British liner Ceramic.
03:20And Henke is also unpopular at home.
03:24He's very much an outsider within the German Navy, in a service that values reserve, reflection, and self-discipline.
03:34Werner Henke is kind of the opposite of all of those.
03:38His own crew sometimes resents him.
03:41He keeps them aboard U-515, when many of the petty officers would qualify for a higher rank or promotion aboard other U-boats.
03:50But Henke has an important ally in Dönitz.
03:54Dönitz appreciates a maverick.
03:57Dönitz was willing to make exceptions for Henke when he sees that he does produce as well as he does.
04:06Now, Henke leads his men to face two enemy warships alone.
04:11The ships have a top speed of 20 knots, and Henke can't outrun them.
04:16The only way U-515 can survive is to attack.
04:21Henke prepares to launch one of the Kreeksmarine's nearest weapons, the T-5 acoustic torpedo.
04:28It was a cutting-edge technology of the time.
04:31Now you had a kind of acoustic homing device.
04:35After the torpedo left, this homing device directed it to the source of the greatest noise,
04:46which usually was the propeller of some kind of vessel.
04:50But the torpedo misses.
04:52The ships continue their charge and close in on U-515.
05:00While sonar usually helps to find submerged U-boats, it isn't perfect.
05:06Importantly, the ships can't detect their target as they travel at high speed.
05:10When they slow down and hone in, they have another problem.
05:14When you're carrying out an attack, you lose contact before you fire depth charges over the stern.
05:18Henke remains determined to surface and send the message to U-boat headquarters.
05:22When the ships fail to launch their depth charges, he creeps back to periscope depth.
05:28It's a mistake.
05:30The periscope is the main sensor of the submarine in many ways, certainly the main visual sensor,
05:34but the trouble is if you put it up, you become vulnerable.
05:36You say, I am here, come and attack me.
05:38But with a view of his target, Henke orders the men to fire another homing torpedo.
05:45Lois!
05:49Topside, Lieutenant Commander Robert Bristow orders HMS Chanticleer to charge toward the
05:54last periscope sighting, about 2,000 yards away.
05:59He directs his men to ready 10 depth charges.
06:02The crew launches the first two.
06:05Just then, Henke's torpedo hits home.
06:14The rod was actually blown out of the water and comes crashing back onto the ship.
06:20Very nasty damage indeed.
06:22The blast kills 30 crewmen.
06:25But Henke doesn't even know he scored a hit.
06:30A depth charge explodes at almost the same time.
06:38Henke dives deeper to evade.
06:40Despite the damage, Chanticleer's crew fights on.
06:46You can't keep a good ship down if this ship is in sonar contact.
06:49Even though it's in deep trouble, then it will continue to engage.
06:53Within minutes, Chanticleer's sonar does regain contact of U-515.
06:58The ruined ship's gunners fire rapidly at the bubbling water,
07:01but the depth charges have just gone off.
07:04They hope to further wound the U-boat if it starts to surface.
07:10While seawater gushes in through U-515's exhaust valves.
07:17The depth charges of Chanticleer cause major damage on the U-boat.
07:21Major damage, but not deadly damage.
07:23So, for instance, the air compressor was torn off his mountings, but it was not damaged.
07:29Henke wants to escape the attack with the U-boat's natural advantage – diving.
07:34If he can get away and resurface, he can inform headquarters of the convoy's location.
07:41But above, the second enemy ship now tracks U-515's every move.
07:48Over the next three hours, HMS Crane Sonar pinpoints U-515's location seven times.
07:55We've got a sonar contact range 1500 yards bearing 270.
07:59Each time, they draw patterns of 10 depth charges.
08:11With each barrage, Henke's men desperately plug leaks and make essential repairs.
08:15But time, and their air, is running out.
08:30A World War II U-boat, when it was submerged, had only a very limited supply of air.
08:37With a raised Dressler, the crew consumed more oxygen.
08:41Even more if they were hard working, doing emergency repairs.
08:45U-515 has struck one British warship.
08:49The U-boat's survival requires they escape another.
08:54Henke orders they change course rapidly, twisting and turning U-515 to evade the depth charge attacks.
09:00Finally, the U-boat shakes off HMS Crane.
09:11The hydrophone operator tells Henke that the enemy ship has moved off.
09:16U-515 comes to the surface for some much needed fresh air and to assess the damage.
09:23The U-boat had suffered tremendous damage and was heavily punished by the depth charges.
09:29There was not only leaks, they had to try to counterbalance the U-boat and stop it from sinking.
09:37Henke's engineering staff report on the U-boat's condition.
09:42Senior engineer officer Georg Manken recommends returning to port to have the submarine repaired.
09:48Junior engineer officer Gunter Altenberger disagrees.
09:53To return to Lorient, they must cross the Bay of Biscay, also known as the graveyard of the U-boats.
10:01The Allies can heavily patrol this body of water with aircraft based out of the United Kingdom.
10:06Damage to U-515 would make them easy to find.
10:10They also lost oil and of course this oil went up to the surface and left a trail.
10:17Very much like a blood trail leading a hunter to a wounded deer.
10:23In U-515's current condition, Altenberger argues, they'll be as good as dead.
10:31Henke must decide.
10:36November 1943.
10:38After a deadly encounter with British warships, U-boat commander Werner Henke must choose.
10:47The senior engineer officer thinks the damage is so severe, they must return to port immediately.
10:54Junior engineer officer Gunter Altenberger recommends they repair the worst of the leaks and damage
10:59before making the long journey home.
11:02Henke decides to follow the junior engineer officer's advice.
11:05On November 22nd, U-515 tucks in near the Canary Islands.
11:20Hidden from sight, the crew repairs the U-boat as best they can.
11:26Mostly due to Altenberger's exceptional work, U-515 is operational in just two days.
11:31Of course, there is a limit for every U-boat about the damage it can take.
11:38So this was the warning by the engineer, just to avoid any further damage to make sure that they
11:44could get back to the home base safely.
11:47Despite the recommendation, Henke cannot avoid the lure of enemy ships.
11:54He sinks two British freighters in a motor ship on the West African coast before he finally heads to port.
11:59The U-boat virtually is a floating wreck. The only thing they can do is try to limp home.
12:07It proves difficult to even maintain power. The attacks also damage the batteries and they won't
12:13hold a charge. Since then, they've had to recharge constantly. Until now, it hasn't been a problem to
12:20remain on the surface. But they still have to return to Lorient through the Bay of Biscay.
12:26And without battery power, the U-boat loses its ability to dive to protect itself.
12:33January 10th, 1944. U-515 enters the Bay of Biscay. Henke tries to surface four times to recharge
12:43their batteries. Each time, enemy aircraft force U-515 back under.
12:52Submerged, they travel very slowly off the coast of neutral Spain.
12:59At 4 pm, after 22 hours, the batteries finally die. The electric motors lose power and cut out.
13:08In the deep waters of the open ocean, this would be a disaster.
13:13Fortunately, the waters along the coast are shallow. The U-515 settles on the sea floor.
13:23Henke has enough power to get to the surface one last time, but must wait until nightfall.
13:29The RAF patrols over the Bay of Biscay have been unrelenting.
13:34By this period in the war, anti-submarine measures are extremely effective.
13:38The bay offensive, as it's called, is becoming pretty effective. You have airplanes equipped with
13:45high-frequency radar, if the submarine is trying to cross. The sensors are now available to make the
13:50airplane a very effective weapon indeed.
13:52The U-boat crew knows it is futile to resurface before dusk. The men stay down for another
14:01excruciating three hours. Once darkness falls, Henke orders U-515 to the surface with a last blast of the
14:09ballast tanks. The diesel engines roar to life. If another patrol plane spots them,
14:23they're in trouble. They may not be able to dive and resurface again,
14:27but their luck holds. The sky remains clear of enemy aircraft.
14:33Henke tries to take the least risk to get back to his home base. He follows the coast of Spain,
14:42because Spain is neutral, and then he tries to get only about the minimum stretch of open sea back to
14:50Lorient and into safety. On the morning of January 14th, U-515's relieved lookout spot two German
14:59minesweepers, an armed escort into port. Just as they near the finish line, two British fighter
15:06bombers come out of nowhere and launch an attack. The U-515 will not be defeated this close to home.
15:21All three German vessels open fire to force the aircraft to retreat.
15:36U-515 finally limps into Lorient at 6 p.m.
15:41The most remarkable achievement of this fifth patrol of Henke is not his sinking successes.
15:48He was far more successful on his former patrols, but it's this mere achievement of getting back
15:55alive to his home base with a badly damaged U-good. And I think this is a good sign for his qualities as a
16:02commander and of course the quality of his crew. In this stage of the war, this is absolutely astonishing.
16:10Nearly 11 weeks later, a revitalized U-515 departs from Lorient on March 30th, 1944.
16:22That same day, the Allies launch a task group from Casablanca, about 1,000 miles to the south.
16:30They call it a hunter-killer group. A tactical combination of destroyers, escorts, carrier,
16:36and aircraft. It's unlike anything seen in the war before. The hunter-killer group is the result of
16:44Allied successes and enhanced factory production. By June 1943, Allied shipyards produce more destroyer
16:52escorts. German dominance in the Atlantic wanes and vessels are freed up from convoy escort duties.
17:00The released ships partner with escort carriers in a special campaign to prevent a German U-boat resurgence.
17:08The hunter-killer group is supposed to connect with a U-boat where we know approximately where it is,
17:13but not quite. That's the hunter part. The killer part is once they find it, they have sufficient
17:17resources to kill it. U.S. Navy Task Group 2112 consists of escort carrier USS Guadalcanal,
17:25carrying approximately 23 Avenger and Wildcat aircraft screened by four destroyer escorts.
17:31With an escort carrier with a convoy or an escort carrier near an attack, airplanes are there when
17:38they're wanted. Suddenly, instead of a base 1,500 miles away, you're looking at a base 50 miles away.
17:46That's all the difference in the world. It's a mobile airfield, and that's really what carriers are about.
17:54They sail under the command of the U.S. Navy's Captain Daniel Gallery. Gallery was born and raised in
18:00Chicago, Illinois. In 1942, he commanded the U.S. Navy Fleet Air Base in Reykjavik, Iceland,
18:07where he received the Bronze Star for exceptional combat operations against the U-boats.
18:11In 1943, the U.S. Navy gives him command of his own hunter-killer task group, on board the escort
18:19carrier USS Guadalcanal. Captain Gallery was an aviator. He was creative, and he wanted to see what
18:28he could do with his ship. That's a good captain. That's a good officer. But his first patrol would
18:34prove challenging.
18:35USS Guadalcanal's first cruise was something of a disaster. They lost one aircraft that the pilot
18:46simply got lost. They had an airplane crash as it was landing on the deck, and it blocked the deck in
18:54such a way that the other airplanes weren't able to land. Gallery then simply had the couple of
19:01remaining aircraft just land in the water, and they retrieved the cruise. So they lost the airplanes
19:08that way. At the end of the cruise, they actually had, out of 21 aircraft they had started with,
19:13they wound up with six that were still operational. Gallery was prepared for some damage here, but
19:21it was rather more than probably anybody really expected. Determined to put their costly lessons
19:29to good use, Gallery and his crew are ready to return to the Atlantic.
19:37Hundreds of miles away, U-515 escapes the deadly Bay of Biscay unscathed and moves out to the open sea.
19:45They receive orders to return to the African Gold Coast to sink Allied shipping.
19:50If the mission for Henke has not changed, it's simply about sinking as many vessels as possible.
19:59April 8th, 1944. On board USS Guadalcanal, the atmosphere is charged. Conditions are perfect for an
20:08experiment. Night landings have not been attempted on these ships yet, but if they work, it will be a great
20:16advantage for the Allies. Gallery is keen to try. He got interested in night operations. Once you're
20:23in the air, night flying is reasonably safe. Your problem comes when you try to land. And you're
20:30landing on a small deck. There isn't a lot of lighting because that'll give away the carrier's position.
20:36And oh, by the way, you're in the Atlantic Ocean, which does this to your carrier.
20:43At 6 p.m. Greenwich meantime, four Avenger aircraft take off from the deck of USS Guadalcanal.
20:49Go ahead.
20:58But at their first check-in, the pilots report that a storm is building.
21:02Gallery is disappointed. He had planned a later flight to test the planes in full dark.
21:10The weather conditions force him to cancel.
21:17But a chance sighting may prove a game changer.
21:25U-515 has been spotted by one of Gallery's hunters.
21:28They must escape before the rest of the task group close in for the kill.
21:34April 1944.
21:38German U-boat U-515 heads to Africa's Gold Coast to hunt Allied shipping.
21:50These waters used to be safe from land-based Allied aircraft, especially at night.
21:55The Avenger has launched from the carrier deck of a new hunter-killer group.
22:01The task group commander has also begun to experiment with night flying.
22:08Sir, they made contact with you both.
22:09Oh, wow.
22:10In the confusion, word of the sighting does not make it to Captain Daniel Gallery.
22:19The Avengers return to the USS Guadalcanal.
22:25Gallery is debriefing the pilots, and in the process of that, one of the pilots says,
22:32you know, Skipper, I almost had him.
22:35And Gallery is astonished because he hasn't heard about this at all.
22:38And the pilot explains, the submarine, didn't you get my message?
22:43No.
22:45Gallery decides the sub must be pursued.
22:49In spite of the storm, he orders the men to wait an hour to lull the U-boat into a false sense of security.
22:56Then the Avengers will go on the hunt again.
22:59If there's one lesson the Allied had learned in the First and Second World War,
23:05fighting the U-boats, was keep them busy, keep them away.
23:10Aircraft are the best weapons for the job.
23:13Two Avenger torpedo bombers launch at 11.15pm.
23:19In just over an hour, one spots U-515 again on the surface.
23:25The Avenger unloads two depth bombs.
23:27Still on the surface, the men of U-515 return fire with their deck gun.
23:40Then, Anka orders the U-boat to dive.
23:48The Avenger loses contact.
23:49Though they have just been spotted again, Anka rejects the suggestion to shake off their pursuers by reversing course.
24:03It is not clear to him that the aircraft came from nearby ships.
24:06As long as he has not contact with his hydrophones, he probably thinks he's quite safe.
24:14So danger is not imminent. But, it turns out, he's wrong.
24:23Gallery's night flying experiment is already a success.
24:27With two U-boat sightings in just a few hours.
24:30He is eager to put the rest of the task group to the test.
24:36April 9th, 1944. Easter Sunday.
24:40Once again, Anka's batteries are running out of power.
24:44Anka has to surface his boat, whether he wants it or not.
24:48Because, without a minimum charge of the batteries, he is virtually helpless.
24:56He can't dive. He can't evade any danger.
25:01There has been no sign of their stalkers for hours.
25:05Anka decides to surface.
25:14He is careful to put as many lookouts and gunners as he can on deck.
25:19The skies stay clear, but only for 45 minutes.
25:23Lookouts spot something off the port quarter.
25:25They identify warships, including an aircraft carrier, heading their way.
25:35At that very moment, an Avenger drops out of the sky, right on top of them.
25:39The U-515's gunners fire on the enemy, but the 37mm gun jams.
25:50Luckily, the twin-mount 20mm guns still work.
25:53The Avenger pilot drops death bombs.
26:00But U-515's retaliation forces him to bank away.
26:07Thanks to the gunners, the bombs fall short of U-515.
26:10On board USS Guadalcanal, along with more fighter planes,
26:26Gallery orders destroyer escorts USS Pillsbury and Flaherty to locate and engage the enemy.
26:34All ahead, flank.
26:35Destroyer escorts carry a new weapon called the Hedgehog.
26:43It was called the Hedgehog because it looked like a bunch of porcupine quills.
26:46They fired 24 mortar rounds.
26:50They made a circular pattern in the water.
26:52The actual new feature is that you can keep your sonar contact with the yearboat while attacking.
26:59They don't interfere with your detection signal,
27:03so you can keep the contact and go in for another attack.
27:08Henke has ordered U-515 to dive to about 660 feet.
27:14For an agonizing 30 minutes, the men wait for the expected depth charges.
27:19Then they hear propellers, so they know the ships are closing in.
27:25With USS Flaherty in support, Pillsbury launches a Hedgehog attack.
27:29Open fire.
27:40One round makes contact and explodes.
27:42It must have struck with a glancing blow.
27:53Had it landed squarely on the U-boat and exploded, the pressure hull would have cracked.
28:00Desperate to escape, Henke has a risky plan.
28:03At 600 feet, U-515 nears the maximum diving depth of the submarine.
28:10He will have to dive deeper to evade the hedgehog rounds, but he may push the U-boat past its limits.
28:21April 9th, 1944.
28:24German U-boat U-515 is pinned down by a hunter-killer group.
28:28It's destroyer escorts drop rounds of hedgehog mortars.
28:33In a bid to escape, U-boat commander Werner Henke orders his submarine deeper, below maximum diving depth.
28:43No U-boat commander knows actually the crash depth of his U-boat.
28:48There's a safe margin, and everything over this safe margin is simply a matter of trial and error.
28:58So far, the U-boat is holding.
29:03Henke still needs to find a way to escape the ships.
29:07He still has an ace up his sleeve, a decoy device called a bold.
29:12It's a small cylinder filled with a chemical.
29:15He presses outside to a special tube, and as soon as this chemical gets into contact with the water,
29:22it starts to make bubbles. It's almost like an Alka-Seltzer in a glass of water.
29:26So, these gas bubbles in the water give the imagination of a new boat.
29:31The compound of calcium and zinc create masses of underwater bubbles and simulate the echo of a submarine.
29:38It works. The decoys confuse the destroyer escorts.
29:51Henke's men can hear the propeller sounds moving away from them.
29:54Above, destroyer escort USS Chatelaine joins the search with Flaherty and Pillsbury.
30:01They're all going the wrong way.
30:06They search for two hours, but the U-boat has vanished.
30:09Gallery keeps planes in the air on constant lookout, but they find nothing.
30:15That means that if the submarine is close and they've lost track of it,
30:21there is a chance that the submarine commander won't feel he's on the run, that he'll turn the tables.
30:26Gallery calls in his fourth destroyer escort, USS Pope, to protect the carrier.
30:31Sonar contact.
30:34Pope's sonar picks up a contact 700 yards away.
30:37Baring 090.
30:41We've got contact bearing 090.
30:44They found U-515.
30:48Launch hedgehogs.
30:49USS Pope launches the first of two hedgehog attacks.
30:53Both miss.
30:57They realize that the submarine is probably too deep for a hedgehog attack to work.
31:03Instead, USS Pope launches continuous patterns of depth charges.
31:07One of the detonations of the depth charges creates a leak in the boat.
31:24And the problem is, because of the depth the boat is sailing, there's a high pressure of water.
31:32So this water rushes in, and in a very limited period of time, a huge amount of water is getting into the boat,
31:40and so it's getting out of balance.
31:43To compensate, they shift water around internally,
31:47moving it forward from one tank to another to rebalance the U-boat.
31:54Meanwhile, topside, USS Pope slows to 10 knots to get a read on where their prey is hiding.
31:59USS Pope prepares a pattern of depth charges at point-blank range.
32:09Henke tries to anticipate his enemy's next move.
32:13He attempts a hairpin turn to evade the attack.
32:15He decides for a last-ditch maneuver.
32:18He tries to swing out his U-boat out of the range of the depth charge.
32:22He's trying to play every trick he has ever learned, and probably finding some new ones,
32:27just to evade the next depth charge.
32:30Everything depends on the U-boat's turning ability.
32:33If it doesn't move fast enough, U-515 could suffer severe damage.
32:39USS Pope launches 13 depth charges directly above them.
32:42The U-boat moves just far enough.
32:57The depth charges strike U-515's aft deck and roll off before detonating.
33:02The depth charge does not have to hit the U-boat.
33:17We have a nearby explosion.
33:19The shockwave rips open one of the ballast tanks and breaks some pipelines.
33:24More water, now mixed with fuel oil, floods the after torpedo room.
33:34The weight of the water drags the stern of the U-boat down by over 20 degrees.
33:40Altenberger works frantically to plug the leaks while crewmen run forward,
33:45trying to bring balance to the U-boat with their own weight.
33:47On the surface, USS Pope's captain keeps a constant watch for the telltale signs of a submarine sinking.
34:00USS Chatelaine comes to assist in the attack.
34:04On U-515, an exhausted Altenberger has plugged the most critical leaks.
34:10He warns Henke that U-515 cannot take any more damage.
34:14Drop depth charges.
34:17But USS Pope lays three more patterns of depth charges.
34:36The last round knocks Altenberger's improvised plugs loose.
34:39The leaks spring open again and the situation becomes more and more hopeless for the boat and the crew.
34:46They try to secure the watertight hatch to the motor room so the water doesn't go any further into the U-boat.
34:52But one of the bolts is broken. Rising water continues to stream in.
34:56If the electric engine room is flooded, if the electricity supply breaks down, you're absolutely helpless.
35:05You can't use your pumps anymore. You don't have any propulsion anymore. So the vessel is a dead wreck.
35:13U-515 plunges as the water rushes to the rear of the submarine.
35:19Henke increases speed and jettisons fuel.
35:22He fights a desperate battle to level the U-boat and stop it from sinking.
35:26April 9th, 1944.
35:35U-515 plummets by its stern after a severe depth charge attack.
35:43U-boat commander Werner Henke and his crew work frantically.
35:49And finally blow the main ballast tank.
35:50By replacing the water in the tank with air, it should lighten the submarine.
35:58At last, at a depth of about 660 feet, U-515 returns to balance.
36:06But then the submarine overcorrects.
36:10Water from the stern moves forward, which makes the bow heavier.
36:13Instead of gaining an even keel, the entire U-boat now rises rapidly to the surface by the stern.
36:34Topside, however, the Americans haven't gone anywhere.
36:37As the U-515 is rapidly ascending, the Pope loses its sonar contact.
36:44But now, USS Chatelaine's sonar operator has been able to get a lock on the submarine.
36:49Bridge, CIC, we have a confirmed U-boat contact.
36:51Her commanding officer orders a depth charge attack.
36:56All of a sudden, the U-boat breaks the surface out of control and at a very sharp angle.
37:07U-boat! U-boat!
37:18Henke gives the order to abandon ship.
37:25He climbs onto the bridge.
37:28The destroyer escorts Polk, Chatelaine and Flaherty encircle U-515.
37:34While Pillsbury and the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal close in.
37:39The American vessels surrounding him and airplanes flowing over his head.
37:47And yeah, so this was the moment of defeat.
37:51The Allied ships mistake Henke's surrender for an attack.
37:54The Germans are pouring out of the U-515.
37:58Gallery and his men think that the Germans are attempting to man their guns and open fire.
38:05So they open fire first.
38:07Open fire.
38:08Fire!
38:09Fire!
38:11Fire!
38:13The three inch shell strikes the lower platform of the cannon tower and ignites hydrogen bottles that are stored there.
38:34They immediately set off ammunition so that there's a huge fire and an enormous plume of white smoke pouring up from the submarine.
38:47Avengers also target U-515 with rockets.
38:50Gathered in the forward compartments of the U-boat, some of the men don't hear the order to abandon ship.
39:04As word gets passed, others escape through the hatches and avoid the heaviest fire.
39:09Wildcat fighter planes continue to strafe the U-boat carrying several crewmen in the water.
39:22Cease fire!
39:23Cease fire!
39:24Cease fire!
39:39What happens to Henke immediately after the sinking of the U-515?
39:47He's rescued by the Chatelaine and that same day he's transferred to the Guadalcanal.
39:52The Gallery's task group would go on to sink U-boat U-68 the very next day.
40:02His night-flying sorties from escort carriers are so successful that the U.S. Navy adopts them full-time.
40:10Knowledge gained from the sinking of U-515 inspires Gallery to capture a U-boat.
40:16On his next patrol, he seizes U-505 intact.
40:21Gallery understood how much that mattered. He was a beneficiary of that kind of intelligence.
40:26And he knew that he wanted a help. He wasn't capturing it as some kind of trophy.
40:31He was capturing it specifically because of what it would yield.
40:34That's a lot more sophisticated than people might imagine.
40:40Werner Henke's story would end very differently.
40:44On board Guadalcanal, he reveals to someone that he had once been named a war criminal
40:49in a broadcast by the Allies.
40:52Word travels to Captain Gallery, who hopes Henke will answer questions more fully
40:57if he fears being turned over to the British.
41:00Gallery uses the opportunity to present a forged letter from British officials
41:05asking for Henke's transfer to their custody to be tried for war crimes.
41:09As Gallery pointed out in his memoirs, he would never, ever have turned over
41:20the men that he'd captured from his unit's efforts to British authorities.
41:25Therefore, Gallery always intended they would come to the United States.
41:31On May 3, 1944, the U.S. Navy transfers Werner Henke from its custody to Fort Hunt,
41:37a secret interrogation center outside Washington, D.C.
41:42Henke has pledged that he would cooperate in his intelligence interrogations.
41:47Henke now refuses to answer their questions.
41:50He would say later that this pledge for me was obtained under duress,
41:56and as a German naval officer, it is improper for me to cooperate, and he does not.
42:02Authorities decide that the best thing to do is to send him to Canada,
42:07where many other U-boat POWs are held.
42:10Henke learns of the transfer.
42:12In his mind, he is now going to be turned over to the British
42:18for what will obviously be a show trial and likely execution.
42:26On the evening of June 15, 1944, Werner Henke goes out for his daily hour-long exercise period.
42:3355 minutes into that exercise time, he suddenly makes a bolt for the first barrier of barbed wire.
42:45After crossing the barbed wire, he starts to climb a fence.
42:49He is called on to stop by a guard in the sentry tower.
42:53When he refuses to stop, he is shot.
42:56One bullet will strike him through the head.
43:01Two others at least will strike him in the body.
43:05Captain Leutnant Werner Henke, one of Germany's last U-boat aces, is dead.
43:11There is no other U-boat captain who achieved as much in the way of sinkings,
43:16as did Werner Henke from September 1942 to 1944.
43:21So for the Kriegsmarine, every loss, especially the loss of quite a prominent U-boat commander,
43:28is of course a serious drawback also to keep up war morale.
43:33It's a severe loss.
43:34The deadly toll would continue.
43:43But as the sinking of U-515 clearly showed,
43:47U-boat commanders like Werner Henke had mastered the tactics so well,
43:51the Allies had to commit powerful resources to finally defeat the U-boat threat.
43:56U-boat armor in the air.
43:59On the left, it turns to be a gym.
44:07They will not wait to die.
44:09But on the right,
44:10the worse ones are going to die.
44:13The more than one.
44:14During the eighth,
44:15the more than one.
44:16The biggest thing about the SSI for the night is not at all.
44:18China is losing the time of amending.
44:20China is losing the time of time.
44:22China is losing the u-boat-season and the sky is losing the power.
44:22Asia is losing the power of strong-making.
44:23China is losing the pressure in the sky.
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