World War II: The Drug-Addled War
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 10 months ago
I was watching a History Channel documentary on Nazi Germany, and I knew that there was significant drug abuse among the Nazi high command, but didn’t realize until now just how bad the problem had become.
Basically, the entirety of the Nazi war effort was fueled by Crystal Meth, called Pervitin. Nazi Germany made hundreds of millions of the tablets during the war, and the Hitler’s military decisions were made while high on Crystal Meth, including the decision to open the Western Front. Pervitin was handed out like candy just before any major war effort, including the invasion of Russia.
The German soldiers were so hooked on Crystal Meth that their letters home frequently included requests for tablets of Pervitin when their own supplies ran low. World War II was a war fought on amphetamines, with the initial high and energy and feeling of invincibility, followed by hopeless addiction, paranoia, and eventual psychosis, sleep deprivation and health problems, with the corollary brutality, atrocities and savagery.
If the war hadn’t ended when it did, Nazi “doctors” had begun to fabricate a new drug, a cocktail mixture of Meth, Cocaine and Morphine (called D9) and would have deployed it to troops in the field had not the micro-submariners never returned from their four day missions to explain the effects of the drug. They all died during missions. Not even one of the submariners returned after being administered D9.
Even after the war, the East and West German armies continued to be supplied Pervitin, and the German civilian population was hopelessly hooked on Crystal Meth. World War II cannot be properly understood without understanding the role of drugs on the leaders and soldiers.
On February 16, 2020 at 10:47 pm, Cederq said:
Amphetamines were also “prescribed” to our soldiers and air crews. My dad flew cargo and bombers and to fly the stringent pace they did. My dad talked about just after getting reassigned to fly cargo planes of the shakes and tremors he endured until the Flight Surgeon cleared him for flying. My dad’s brother was a tanker and they partaken of the Amp as they called it.
On February 16, 2020 at 11:01 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Yes. I think it was primarily targeted towards bomber pilots.
On February 16, 2020 at 11:30 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
Yes, you are correct that in the case of the Allies, amphetamine use was especially common amongst aircrews, not just the heavy bomber crews, but those of fighter aircraft as well. Particularly prevalent on deep-penetration raids during the middle years of the war prior to the D-Day invasion when the Anglo-Americans did not have bases on the mainland of Europe. Flight times could reach 12 or more hours round-trip, and fatigue – if not hypoxia – was a constant problem given the high altitude at which missions were flown and the relatively primitive equipment for coping with the extreme cold and relative atmospheric thinness of the stratosphere. Amphetamines were made widely available to personnel for use on such missions.
In the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater, USAF cargo planes flew long supply missions at extreme altitude originating in India over the Himalaya Mountains, a.k.a. “The Hump,” to airfields in China and Burma. They faced the same hazards as their European counterparts – and probably used whatever stimulants were on hand to complete their missions.
The use of spare (relief) crew-members helped mitigate – but did not cure – the problems associated with ultra-long missions done under extreme conditions.
Amphetamine use aboard U.S. Navy vessels – especially men-of-war – would have been a different matter. Combat vessels operational 24-hours a day rotate crews on/off-duty, depending on the number of crewmen, mission and ops-tempo. If memory serves, alternating four-hour watches were standard. Fatigues crew could have at least grabbed a few hours of badly-needed sleep here and there.
There are records of U.S. Army troops being issued with amphetamines by medical officers and medics when operational demands were especially heavy, such as during prolonged battles, sieges or during other times when normal patterns of wakefulness and sleep were not possible.
The combat veterans I have interviewed over the years have always stressed how physically-draining it was to fight. Beyond any civilian experience they had ever had – whether occupationally or in sports. Adrenaline kicks in to keep the man going when things are at their most-demanding, but with lulls in battle the adrenaline “high” wears off to be replaced by profound fatigue. Even young, highly-fit men in the prime of life cannot hold up repeated episodes of such high stress without eventually breaking down in some manner. Combat eventually breaks all men – it is just a question of when.
Given the demands and the stakes, it is easy to see how troops might resort to whatever pharmaceutical aids are available to tip the balance in their favor.
On February 17, 2020 at 10:22 am, revjen45 said:
See: “Blitzed – Drugs in the 3rd Reich” by Norman Ohler for a good insight into this subject.
The Panzer crews’ supposedly amazing ability to do the unexpected was due not so much to any special inventiveness as to the random behavior induced by the best speed in the world and an imperative of “Forward to the ocean.” Normal people can’t do that for 4 days without stopping. It’s easy to get confused after a while on speed and it definitely gives one the “harder, faster” outlook. Ideal for the Blitzkrieg.
Schicklgruber himself was heavily into Pervitin and Eukodol (early Oxycocone) – nothing like speed and heavy narcotics to promote clear thinking. The course of history was charted under the influence thereof.
Vorwaerts!
On February 17, 2020 at 11:02 am, Eric said:
Dear Sir
I watched about 20 minutes of this show a few years back and walked away. I am no WW2 expert.
Over the last 50 years I have read approximately 30 books on the war, and over the last 2 years I have concentrated on biography and autobiographies of individuals from all branches of the Wehrmacht. I have personally talked in dept with a several WW2 bomber vets, including 4 family members in the war. Not once has there been any reference to a massive use of drugs on any side. I will continue my research on this, but to me this rates up there with the revisionist push that the War of Northern Agression was based on Slavery alone.
Eric
On February 17, 2020 at 11:22 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Eric,
Okay then. Tell me how many hundreds of millions of Meth pills were produced by pharmaceutical companies in Germany during WWII?
Do you know the answer to that question?
On February 17, 2020 at 12:10 pm, Eric said:
Dear Mr. Smith
No sir, I do not have an answer to that question. The drug issue and a few others are currently on my list of items I am looking for information on.
Eric
On February 17, 2020 at 12:36 pm, Curtis said:
“…over the last 2 years I have concentrated on…”
My uncle brought home a Pervitin cylinder container. He took it off a dead German soldier somewhere in Belgium.
“…but to me this rates up there with the revisionist push…”
I use to get the same answer from the National Socialist German, er… American Workers’ Party on Gab all the time when facts interfered with their “the Nazi Germans were a holy people.” And, “It’s the J00s! The J00s revised history!”
On February 17, 2020 at 2:55 pm, TRX said:
Goering was an addict; he had bowls of uppers and downers scattered through Karinhalle so he could scoop them out and pop them like Pez. It got so bad Hitler was warning him about it. After his capture, his trial at Nuremburg was delayed while the Allied doctors tried to taper him off the dope so he could be found legally fit to stand trial.
Hitler probably wasn’t even aware of his own addiction. He had suffered from depression and lack of energy, so his doctor gave him “pick me up shots” of all the latest National Socialist approved curatives – cocktails of amphetamines and heroin (“speedballs” in later druggie parlance), B-complex vitamins, strychnine (we’re talking about “Nazi medicine” here, not sanity), and “stuff”, apparently whatever struck his fancy at the moment. Hitler was hooked *hard*, and the many reports of screaming fits, carpet-chewing, and other bizarre behavior were probably withdrawal symptoms when he didn’t get his “medicine” promptly.
I’ve seen reports that drug use was widespread among the General Staff as well as the Party, but you have to keep in mind that Germany had much different ideas on what constituted “drug abuse” than the USA; heroin, for example, was a legal over-the-counter medication up until the 1950s, and Pervitin was a common prescription. Nazi policies on alcohol were originally quite lenient, but tightened up a lot after the war began.
On February 17, 2020 at 3:24 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Germany made available to its troops more than 350,000 Pervitin pills before the invasion of Russia just to start the process. Then there was the constant resupply during the campaign.
On February 17, 2020 at 3:42 pm, Saml Adams said:
Have read several accounts of hot cocoa mix laced with amphetamine that was available to Luftwaffe interceptor crews while in their ready huts during the air defense of Germany. Real coffee was in short supply so that was the drink of choice. And given the near round the clock bombing in the last year of the war, not surprising.
On February 17, 2020 at 6:48 pm, penses said:
The British Empire was built with a constant supply of grog for the soldiers and sailors. Evidence for chemical inducement can be found in the earliest records of warfare. It’s hard for anyone with a conscience to go out and kill with impunity without a “dose” courage. Fighting for you home, family, and country is easy because it is a God given right and moral imperative. Killing for empire not so much.
On February 17, 2020 at 8:59 pm, penses said:
Raising the smoking age to 21 was a mistake. A benign drug will be replaced by something worse.
On February 17, 2020 at 9:01 pm, penses said:
And don’t forget we have a mercenary army in Afghanistan that is not protecting the USA but the poppy fields for BIG PHARMA.
On February 17, 2020 at 9:03 pm, Steve said:
How many German soldiers were involved in the invasion of Russia? How long does the “high” from one pill last? it doesn’t seem like 350,000 pills would go very far. I agree with Eric this is probably mostly propaganda to justify our quest for empire. Herbert Hoover wrote a great book that should be read about this. It’s called Freedom Betrayed.
On February 17, 2020 at 9:10 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Steve,
Your comment makes no sense. I don’t have a “quest for empire.”
Read my comment above. “Then there was the constant resupply during the campaign.”
And I repeat my question above. “Tell me how many hundreds of millions of Meth pills were produced by pharmaceutical companies in Germany during WWII?”
Until you answer that question, you have absolutely no way to ascertain that this is “mostly propaganda.” You just made that up.
On February 18, 2020 at 12:31 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
Re: “Okay then. Tell me how many hundreds of millions of Meth pills were produced by pharmaceutical companies in Germany during WWII? Do you know the answer to that question?”
More pieces of the historical puzzle…
The Germans needed all of those pharmaceutical agents not just for their soldiers, but for the countless civilians, slave laborers and prisoners-of-war toiling away inside the Empire of Nazi Germany.
As the war turned against Germany, the burdens placed upon the civilian population began to grow much heavier. Workers in armament factories or elsewhere in defense-related industries often worked their normal hours during a given week, but were also called upon to do civil defense, firefighting, medical and other duties related to the defense of Germany from Allied air raids.
They were also called upon to clear rubble after the all-clear sirens had sounded, search for survivors, and otherwise restore some semblance of order and function to society.
As the meat-grinder on Ostfront (Eastern Front) began depleting reserves of military-age males to dangerously low levels, Germany began conscripting teenagers and the elderly into key jobs on the home front, as well as into the military proper – especially during the final stages of the war when the Big Three Allies closed in on Germany from all sides.
As the demands of the Nazi Party and the state became more and more extreme,
the whip began falling upon the German population to work ever harder. Slave laborers and others considered expendable were often worked nearly-to-death or literally to death.
Despite siphoning off food, water and other needed essentials from Occupied Europe – all of Holland nearly starved to death the last winter of the war – privation, malnutrition (if not starvation), and worsening conditions became the norm. People “dehoused” (to use the euphemism of British bomber command) by air raids often lived in temporary housing, open-air camps or air raid shelters.
In such circumstances, the use – perhaps mandatory – of stimulants and other drugs would be expected to rise, if not become epidemic. If you were a slave laborer and faced being shot to death if you did not work hard enough, the idea of taking methamphetamines or other stimulants might not have seemed so bad. Better than one in the neck and burial in an unmarked grave…