That Other Symbolic Scene

After mentioning some of the various double-meanings in my last post, I've been reminded of another such scene. At one point during the movie, after a successful attack on a tanker (primarily what these wolf packs went after at this point in the war), the majority of the U-96 crew got the *chance* to see the direct consequences of their actions in the faces of the many crew-members from the tanker diving into burning water (remember, it's a tanker that had been torpedoed) from their burning ship. The men are all horrified. This most clearly is another symbol of the German struggle and the rude-disillusionment that much of the country went through: the sudden realization of what had actually been going on for so long and what *they* had been entirely responsible for without truly understanding it. I again, hearkening back to my earlier post concerning the "innocence" of Germany, don't think this was a way for Peterson to try and acquire sympathy, but to truly portray how much of the nation most likely felt as things unfolded under Hitler over the course of the war (and more). Perhaps this is another moment in which Peterson is attempting to disconnect the SS from the regular German military (the officer doesn't react at the crew does).