World War II was Fueled By Methamphetamine.
The Eighth Light Field Ambulance was attached to Bernard Montgomery’s British 8th Army, furiously trying to force the Germans out of North Africa in the opening rounds of the Second World War. In an experiment in September 7th, 1942, Montgomery gave the whole unit a mixture of Benzedrine and Methylamphetamine. In another British division two infantry squads were give amphetamines and put through 56 hours of continual fighting drills. The result warmed the cockles of Montgomery’s heart. The units had performed significantly better in almost every category than units without the drugs.
Furthermore, intelligence had revealed that the Germans had supplied 35 million doses of Pervitin, a methamphetamine just to help them invade Russia. If amphetamine was the impetus behind the lightning success of the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union, then the Allies could play at that game as well. The arms race was now a drug war.
On October 6ths, in Algeria, the 24th Armoured Brigade, with 103 tanks and a fully tweaked personnel corps fought their way into an area called Kidney Ridge.At one point they overtook high ground and had to be asked to stop because they were firing into friendlies. This unit fought until they were decimated.
It was a blocking move that the 24th Armoured Brigade provided that stopped Rommel from reinforcing his entrenched positions at El Alamein. Soon enough Sir Arthur Harris, the British Air Minister requisitioned Bennies for his bomber crews. And yes, much of Germany’s infrastructure was destroyed by air-crews high on meth. In “On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine” By Nicolas Rasmussen, the author makes the point that Japanese pilots were given a drug dose referred to as Senryoku Zoko Kai, or “Inspire Fighting Spirit”.
At Normandy, SS troops defending Point Du Hoc were high on Pervitin, and one unit began firing out of their redoubt at forces that weren’t there, until they ran out of ammunition. By the end of the war, commanders learned that sufficiently high units would fight to the death and often suffer extreme hallucinations. But it is important to realize that some of the largest battles in World War II were fought by people who were in the slang of meth users: tweaked.
The surprise here is that many large engagements were fueled by drug and on both sides. It is a topic of discussion rarely discussed.
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