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Blitzkrieg on crystal meth?

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  • Blitzkrieg on crystal meth?

    Hitler's propaganda stressed the importance of keeping fit and abstaining from drink and tobacco to keep the Aryan race strong and pure.

    But in reality his soldiers were taking addictive and damaging chemicals to make them fight longer and more fiercely.

    A study of medicines used by the Third Reich exposes how Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits with pills to help them fight longer and without rest.
    The German army's drug of choice as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France was Pervitin - pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth.

    By the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were doped up on it. Records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945.

    Nazis fed speed to infantrymen and tested cocaine-like stimulant in concentration camps | Mail Online
    No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

    To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

  • #2
    Wow, now they're digging out studies from the 1940s?

    Pervitin usage in the Wehrmacht is well-known. By the way, in contrast to the Daily Mail article, most of it was used in the early wars - Poland, France, the Balkans campaign in particular. By July 1941 it became a prescription drug only (and fell under the opiate law), and usage therefore pretty much dropped to next to nothing - only a couple dozen million tablets were handed out between then and the end of the war, mostly after 1944.

    US and British forces used Benzedrine for the same purposes btw (US usage 1941-1945: 200 million doses), the French also used "Maxiton", another methamphetamine.

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    • #3
      The USAF (to my knowledge) still uses dexedrine, simple "speed", for extreme flying. Part of our pilot training included taking the drug to ensure there were no adverse reactions.

      Flight surgeons would dole them out for ocean crossings. Not a bad idea, considering "you sleep, you die" was a rule of thumb in a single pilot jet. They were also on hand to re-set the body clock for immediate combat ops during REFORGER and similar.

      I remember the effect as being similar to a VERY strong cup of coffee, but no "jitters." There was no doubt they worked.

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      • #4
        The Wehrmacht used caffeine-enriched chocolate for that effect; the stuff is still being sold, contains about 200mg Caffeine per 100g box (today) - about the same as four cups of espresso, or 2.5 times as much as a can of Red Bull or similar energy drinks. Was part of in particular the Luftwaffe rations during WW2.

        There are people who confuse that product - Schokakola - with the meth btw, and claim it is (or rather was) laced with crystal meth. Pretty widespread error. The meth was handed out separately from that, while Schokakola was part of the regular rations.

        Schokakola actually used the "you sleep, you die" line in an ad in the 70s btw ;)
        Last edited by kato; 02 Apr 11,, 14:48.

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        • #5
          Very interesting... IMO caffeine is a lame stimulant, because getting enough in you to do anything worthwhile also tends to reduce fine motor coordination. But the dexedrine worked. It produced a very strong focus, and a hint of euphoria, as in "all is well in the world." We were told "Take one if you need to, but you must take another every 3 hours, to prevent a crash." Literally and figuratively.

          After many years of red-eye flying, coffee no longer works for me. I must have a massive tolerance to it. Kind of a bummer, because there are occasions where I'd really like it to work. Beware the red-eye flying... those guys up front are not shift workers, and falling asleep in the cockpit is a genuine problem. They are just as tired as everyone in back!

          I remember once (before 9-11), somewhere over Arizona at maybe 3:00 A.M., letting myself out of the cockpit for a cuppa joe. The entire airplane was dark, and every single person that I could see was sawing logs, sound asleep, including the flight attendants. Very strange.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Chogy View Post
            The USAF (to my knowledge) still uses dexedrine, simple "speed", for extreme flying. Part of our pilot training included taking the drug to ensure there were no adverse reactions.

            Flight surgeons would dole them out for ocean crossings. Not a bad idea, considering "you sleep, you die" was a rule of thumb in a single pilot jet. They were also on hand to re-set the body clock for immediate combat ops during REFORGER and similar.

            I remember the effect as being similar to a VERY strong cup of coffee, but no "jitters." There was no doubt they worked.
            My Dad ferried b26s across the Atlantic during ww2 I will have to ask him if they gave him pills the next time I see him.
            Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
            ~Ronald Reagan

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            • #7
              IMO, There is a significant difference between a soldier taking stimulant pills with medical oversight, and a methhead sniffing and injecting crude bathtub drugs with no supervision and no good reason at all. There is a whole family of amphetamines, they are all similar; metha-amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, and plain amphetamine (Benzedrine) - they still use them for ADD and ADHD as well - routinely giving them to kids along side Ritalin, a similar drug. The Japanese were notorious for using amphetamines to bolster their forces as well, it appears that this use was/is almost universal.
              sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
              If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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              • #8
                The Nazi Death Machine: Hitler's Drugged Soldiers - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
                Nazis fed speed to infantrymen and tested cocaine-like stimulant in concentration camps | Mail Online
                "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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                • #9
                  I think the point is, that almost all of the major powers involved in WW2 (and beyond) looked to modern medicines to enhance performance. And when done in a controlled manner, I don't really have any huge objection. If I've got 2 privates in holes on Guadalcanal who are pulling sentry duty, and there is a strong chance they'll doze off due to the intense pace of combat ops, I'd probably want them on some amphetamine, when the alternative is death and mayhem for everybody due to fatigue.

                  When dosed and controlled by doctors, I don't see that much of a downside. It looks like the problem with "Pervitin" was its over-the-counter status before 1941.

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