Raanan, Yaakov

Son of Avigdor and Stella. Born in Vienna on August 22, 1934. In 1939, when Yaakov was five years old, the family immigrated to Israel and settled in Bat Yam, where his first contact with the sea was made. A great deal of effort is needed to prevent him from entering into any water, and once when a friend of the family took him to the famous rock opposite the Bat Yam bathing area and left him there, he was not frightened and managed to swim alone to the beach and learned how to swim. During his youth, Yaakov belonged to the “HaPoel” boats in Daughter of-Yam, and he went on long voyages. After graduating from sixth grade at the high school in Holon, he decided to go to the sea and then joined the merchant fleet and worked as a deckman on the ship. Afterward, he moved to Gadna-Yam and from there, before enlistment, to the Navy, and in July 1951 he was drafted into the IDF. His first service in the navy was on the “A-16”, formerly an immigrant ship and at its beginning an ice-breaking ship. Where Jacob reached the rank of sailor, and later took part in a naval course he completed in 1955 and turned to torpedoes. He was a deputy commander of a torpedo and later a landing craft commander. In October 1957 Jacob volunteered for submarine service. His service was his life-dream. He was accepted to the diving course with the rank of lieutenant. Jacob went abroad to serve as a torpedo officer in the first submarine “Crocodile” and returned as deputy commander of the submarine. He began to concentrate more and more on “submarine warfare” and every book on the subject was passed by him. He was particularly interested in World War II and in fighting the German navy. After “Crocodile” was appointed commander of the patrol boat, “Noga”, it was a submarine-hunter, a period in which the “crocodile” underwent a series of renovations. Served for a while in shipships before taking command of a submarine, so Jacob served for a few months in the destroyer “Jaffa” and “Noga.” In 1963 he went to England and took a course of submarine commanders and when he returned he took command of the submarine Rahav “Yaakov went to study at the Command and Staff School and after completing his studies he was appointed to the Operations Officer of the submarine squadron. He had reached the rank of Major. Jacob organized courses in submarine warfare and guided officers on this subject. He also wrote a manual in Hebrew that deals extensively with the submarine warfare theory. In 1965, he returned to England with his family to oversee the renovations at Dakar and train its staff. This period was difficult – and sometimes even disappointment and even bitterness came over them. Jacob was bitter at the time about his inability to change things in the submarine or to determine things that were not seen to him. He was very restrained and restrained, and he would not easily have revealed his feelings. He always found time to talk to his children and loved talking to them as adults. He devoted a lot of time to them and took them for walks and sailing in boats. He had a special appreciation for a man who showed a desire for work. At the end of Dakar’s voyage, Yaakov (commander of Dakar) was to command the entire submarine fleet, but he was not so Simcha because he preferred to be inside the submarine and not to command the naval commando unit. He was an entrepreneurial leader, and a great resource. On January 7, his family separated. They left England to fly home. Not long after the submarine sailed home, and when it was on the sea route between Gibraltar and Haifa, the connection was cut off and it was not renewed. This was on the 24th of Tevet 5728 (25.1.1968). The Chief Rabbinate therefore determined that the date of the death of Yaakov, in the course of carrying out his duties together with the rest, was on the 30th of Tevet 5728 (30.1.1968). He left a wife and three sons. Since Yaakov was one of the missing crew members, a memorial monument was placed inside the monumentMembers of Dakar at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. In Eran Shorer’s book “Six Days in Decker” a number of pages were dedicated to Jacob, his thanks and him – as a person and commander. This picture was also presented in this book. On the 28th of June 1999, after years of searching, the INS Dakar submarine was found on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at a depth of 2,900 meters on its planned sailing route and 250 miles from the port of Haifa. A space whose burial place is unknown.