The purpose of the study is to examine experience of creating psychological climate suitable for military environment among members of submarine combat crews and building a commanding officer’s authority in the eyes of subordinate submarine sailors of the Northern Fleet during the Great Patriotic War, to consider the issue of interpersonal interactions between naval service members from the perspective of contemporary military-historical anthropology. Scientific novelty of the study lies in introducing new sources into scientific use, namely, ego-documents of the combat veteran, navigation electronics technician of submarines “М-107” and “М-119” G. I. Sennikov. As a result, it is proved that a commanding officer’s authority was gained under extreme conditions during military campaigns, while interpersonal relations between crew members were characterised by family-like bonds and “paternalism” peculiar to power relations established between commanding officers of submarines (“war daddies”) and their subordinates.