U-515

The U-boat 515, was laid down May 8, 1941 and is of the IXC Class. It was built by Deutsche Werft AG out of Hamburg. U-515 was commissioned on Feb. 21, 1942 and commanded by Werner Henke, who held the Knights Cross. She went through 7 patrols sinking 25 ships for a total of 157.064 tons and damaging 2 ships for a total of 7.954 tons.

U-515 was sunk on April 9, 1944 in the mid-Atlantic, north of Madeira, Portugal by the rockets from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft from the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and depth charges from destroyer escorts USS Pope, USS Pilsbury, USS Chatelain, and USS Flaherty. There were 16 killed and 44 survivors that were taken as prisoners of war.

Frank DeNardo was a signalman, 2nd Class, aboard USS Chatelain when it sunk U-515. The Chatelain was the ship that captured the captain of the ship, Werner Henke. He reports the story of what happend.

Our Captain, Capt. William T. Foley, ordered me with my Thompson submachine gun to get the German Captain, take him into the ward room, make him shower and guard him until he got to him. I found him and said, "Mark Schnell" which means march quick. He said to me, "I speak English". It turned out that before the war he worked in the Boston and Philadelphia shipyards.

I took him for his shower. While in the shower, one of our Lieutenants came in, shook hands with him, then turned his back to the German. The lieutenants holster flap was folded back and his 45 pistol was sticking out facing the German. Captain Henke looked at the gun and checked to see if I was watching. I made off I wasn't, so he started bending down, soaping himself lower. I flipped the submachine gun on single shot and followed him down with it. When he was even with the lieutenants 45 he checked to see what I was doing. He looked right into the barrel of my gun. I never saw anyone straighten up so fast. I pushed the lieutenant out of the way with a warning of what happened.

When Henke finished his shower, I tossed him a towel to dry off. I then ordered him into the next room where the two corpsmen were waiting. I instructed the corpsmen to work on his wounds from the back and from the sides so that I had a clear shot if necessary. When the corpsmen finished, they gave him a greyish sweat suit and sneakers. I then took him to the wardroom and had him sit on the couch while I stood guard at the end of the couch. A little while later our Captain came in, shook hands with Capt. Henke and introduced himself.

The first thing Capt. Henke said to Capt. Foley was "you have Italians aboard this ship?" Then he looked at me. My Captain said "No, I have no Italians on this ship." Then he looked at me where Henke was looking and said "many of my crew are Americans of Italian extraction." At which Henke said "yes and he would kill me." Capt. Foley asked me for clarification, which I gave him.

He told Henke yes, that I would have killed him if he had touched the 45 pistol. The Capt. then told me I could leave, he would handle Henke now, and knowing my Capt. I had no doubt he could. I left.¹