Karl Henke (22 July 1896 in Berlin – 27 April 1945 in Neutief) was an engineer officer in the Reichsheer during World War I, in the German inter-war army, the Reichswehr, and in the Wehrmacht.

Henke was intended to lead Operation Nordlicht, the attempt to take Leningrad in 1942, but when this was cancelled was transferred to the Crimea, where the Seventeenth Army was eventually trapped by Soviet forces.

Promoted to major-general, and appointed the senior commander of Wehrmacht landing operations, Henke oversaw the evacuation of German troops from islands in the Baltic Sea and from Estonia late in 1944.

In this role he was in part responsible for the evacuation of up to a million civilians from East Prussia and through the port of Pillau, which was retained as long as possible; on 24 April, he was placed in command of the 290th Infantry Division, which had been transported by sea from the Courland Pocket.

Henke and his unit finally abandoned Pillau on 25 April for the nearby Batterie Lehmberg fortifications at Neutief (Noytif was Russian correspondence of Neutef before 1946) [1][2] on the Frische Nehrung.