From: utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: net.movies
Title: Re: Nazi? Scmatzie! 
Article-I.D.: utzoo.2323
Posted: Sun Aug  1 00:40:39 1982
Received: Sun Aug  1 00:40:39 1982

"Combat turns most infantrymen into pacifists" isn't from Das Boot,
it just seemed relevant.  It's from Bill Mauldin's book "Up Front"
(which, despite being a thin frame of text wrapped around a collection
of WW2 cartoons, is a vivid portrayal of what it was like to be an
infantryman in Italy and France).  There are similar observations
in "How To Make War", an excellent book on the realities of modern
warfare.  I actually can't vouch for which place the exact wording
came from.