Maximising Sensory Perception: Watch and Battle Station Choices Aboard US Navy Submarines in the Second World War

S P MacKenzie
RUSI Journal, 31 May 2019
United States, Americas, History

Submariners were carefully selected for tasks based on their ability to perceive their surroundings.

Tasks undertaken by those who manned US submarines during the Second World War were only in part governed by training and rate. S P MacKenzie explores how those in authority aboard individual boats also sought out those with specific sensory abilities for certain tasks, and shows how the development of an optimum corporate sensorium was once considered vital.

BANNER IMAGE: USS Kraken running on Lake Michigan, 1944. Courtesy of US Naval History and Heritage Command