Charles Winn brings civilian expertise into naval command

Childhood polio left Charles Rodger Noel Winn with impaired legs and a stooped posture, but he studied at Oundle, Trinity College Cambridge, Harvard, and the Inner Temple before the war. At thirty-six he volunteered to interrogate German prisoners, bringing fluent German and a barrister's analytical training into naval service without a conventional naval career behind him. His ability to infer U-boat tactics made him valuable in operational intelligence, where he rose to command the Submarine Tracking Room in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and finished the war as a captain. The institution allowed a civilian specialist to advance, and Winn proved unusually effective at persuading difficult senior officers. His mission to the United States, where he advocated convoy adoption and reportedly left on friendly terms with Admiral Ernest King, shows how anti-submarine warfare depended on diplomacy between allied institutions.