Atrocity, Deviance, and Submarine Warfare: Norms and Practices during the World Wars

Acknowledgments

aCkNowledgmeNtS For many people in my generation, World War II was a major event. It certainly was such for me. My interest in that war and the cultural context in which it took place drew my attention to a few related research topics— the Masada myth, treason, assassinations, remembrances, and war movies. As happened for so many others, submarines caught my imagination and attention. I found fascinating the idea and practice of a few dozen sailors getting locked—willingly—in a steel tube and diving in that contraption into a water’s depths. Those familiar with the history of World Wars I and II know that naval battles were of major importance in both wars. There are even those who claim that the main battles in World War II were naval and that, in fact, that war itself needs to be thought of as a naval war. Submarines played a major role in both these wars (as well as in the Cold War). The number of books and movies focused on submarine warfare in these two world wars is very large indeed. I cannot confess that I have read or seen them all, but I have definitely seen most, if not all, submarine movies made in the United States and the United Kingdom. Also, I visited quite a few museums where submarines are displayed (e.g., at Gosport). While interested in the topic, I was not initially clear about what angle I wanted to take regarding an interpretation of the awesome and ruthless warfare submarines were involved in during the two world wars.Some questions that made me curious (but that did not result in any research) were, why were people willing to serve in these contraptions, and even more puzzling , why were they willing to serve when, for example, joining the silent service in some navies was not too far from committing suicide? As I was drifting in my deliberations, an angle that is both interesting and relevant occurred to me. That angle was to examine submarine warfare in the two x aCkNowledgmeNtS world wars through the prism of my training as a sociologist of deviance and culture. An examination from such a perspective, like from any other, makes some aspects very salient and squelches other aspects. The book you are about to read certainly reflects this bias. I start with a presentation of the cultural aspects of this work, exposing the main relevant tenets of the sociology of deviance and unconventional behavior, as well as the puzzles that need to be resolved. The main explanatory concept I use is that of cultural cores, those symbolic aspects of all cultures that provide the parameters for our daily behavior. The following chapters delve into the development of submarine warfare and some of its consequences and end with some conclusions. I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed the challenge of researching and writing it. It is a debt of honor to express my deepest gratitude to friends and colleagues that helped with listening and good advice along a lengthy and tormented road: Mimi Azjenstadt, Celia Fassberg, Dov Feurestein, Robert Friedmann, Jeff Goldfarb, Erich Goode, Miri Gur-Arye, Aharon Hauptman , Moshe Hirsch, Philip Jenkins, Gary Jensen, Uzi Amit-Kohn, David Miller, Amalya Oliver, Eliezer Rabinovici, Si Spillerman, Barry Schwartz, Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Vered Vinizky-Seroussi, Gordon Winocur, and Jean Wittenberg. I am deeply grateful to Kennie Lyman’s meticulous, challenging , conscientious, and indispensable editing and to Patrick Jackson whose insightful comments and suggestions have deepened and enriched my perspective and the book. Thomas Weis from the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in the Wuerttembergischen Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart and Rita O’Donoghue from the Imperial War Museum in London were very helpful in getting some of the figures in this book, for which I am very grateful. It is a great privilege to express my deepest gratitude and intellectual debt to Ron Gillis, Patrick Jackson, and Lester Kurtz, whose care, concern, and enormously useful and helpful comments and advice on a previous draft for this book were of the highest quality. I am deeply grateful to Susan Cronin and Melody Herr from the University of Michigan Press, whose wonderfully gracious and patient help, advice, and support throughout the lengthy process of reviewing and preparing this manuscript were essential. Also, the editorial care from Kevin Rennells is deeply appreciated. aCkNowledgmeNtS xi I am grateful to the Hebrew...