During the closing days of World War II, the Nazi regime became increasingly desperate for soldiers given the severe casualties sustained on the Russian and Western fronts. Since recruitment drives were failing to keep up with demand, they decided to solve the problem by using chemicals to enhance the performance of those soldiers they already had. Despite Adolf Hitler's public stand against drug and alcohol abuse (ignoring his own bizarre dependence on amphetamines), Nazi scientists had long experimented with different drugs that could be used as performance enhancers in soldiers. Even before the war began, Germany began amassing millions of amphetamine tablets for use by the military though this supply was quickly exhausted.
Then came a new drug, Pervitin, that had recently been brought to market by Temmler Werke, a German pharmaceutical company that had enthusiastically promoted the drug for military use. Basically a methamphetamine compound, Pervitin quickly caught the attention of Otto Ranke, then-director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology at Berlin’s Academy of Military Medicine and, not coincidentally, a member of the Wehrmacht.
After military researchers learned that Pervitin could reduce hunger, thirst, pain sensitivity, and the need for sleep in soldiers, it was soon distributed to troops fighting on all fronts, often without their knowledge. Given the official Nazi stand on drug and alcohol use, the millions of Pervitin tablets distributed to soldiers were labeled as "Panzerschokolade," or "tank chocolate" (also known as pilot's chocolate" or "pilot's salt" when distributed to air force pilots). Even Adolf Hitler became an enthusiastic Pervitin user and had his personal physician, Theodor Morell, prescribe the pills in large doses.
At first, it appeared that Pervitin was a major success. Nazi troops stormed through Europe in a Blitzkrieg made possible by soldiers high on amphetamines and other drugs. Stories continued to be reports of soldiers, often on the verge of exhaustion or collapsing due to sub-zero temperatures, being able to return to normal duty with large amphetamine doses. Naturally, the drawbacks of Pervitin abuse became all too apparent soon enough. Not only did many soldiers become addicted, but the side effects, including insomnia, psychotic behaviour, and, in some cases, heart failure grew increasingly common. Then, there were the withdrawal effects, including sweating, dizziness, hallucinations, and depression which continued to plague soldiers long after the war ended. Though the Third Reich's Health Leader, Dr. Leonardo Conti, tried restricting the drug, many soldiers simply turned to black market sources to feed their addiction.
Finding a Better Drug
Even as Pervitin was being distributed to German troops across Europe, Nazi scientists began searching for even better performance-enhancing agents to help the war effort. It probably helped that they had an unlimited supply of involuntary research subjects in death camps such as Dachau and Auschwitz. At Dachau, for example, scientists explored the "mind control" effects of mescaline by administering large doses to French and Jewish prisoners. To their disappointment, they found that mescaline made prisoners even harder to control since they became incapable of following even simple orders.
For that matter, Nazi scientists even conducted drug experiments on themselves, largely to help deal with the pressures of wartime service. One of the doctors, Dr. Franz von Wertheim, a medical officer stationed near the Western Wall, wrote the following in his diary entry dated May 10, 1940: “To help pass the time, we doctors experimented on ourselves. We would begin the day by drinking a water glass of cognac and taking two injections of morphine. We found cocaine to be useful at midday … as a result, we were not always fully in command of our senses.” As you might expect, addiction became a major problem for military doctors with morphine addiction rising more than 400 percent over the course of the war.
By early 1944, as the German war effort was becoming even more desperate, Vice-Admiral Hellmuth Heye asked German scientists to develop a new drug that could work even better than Pervitin. Something that, in a sense, would make them into "super soldiers" able to overcome fatigue, boost self-confidence, and make them better at fighting. Soon afterward, pharmacologist Gerhard Orzechowski announced a new drug, available in pill form, that combined cocaine, methamphetamine, and a morphine-based agent to increase pain tolerance.
This new drug, code-named D-IX, was first tested on Jewish prisoners at Sachsenhausen, a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany. The prisoners who took part in the tests were all required to take the experimental drug and then forced to march up to 50 miles (75km) without resting, carrying 50-pound (20kg) packs. In describing the experiments, one prisoner later wrote "At first the members of the punishment battalion whistled and sang songs. [But] most of them had collapsed after the first 24 hours." Though many of the prisoners who participated in the "Pill Patrol" later died due to physical exhaustion, the Nazi doctors overseeing the experiment hailed it as a success, and plans were soon made to mass-produce D-IX tablets and distribute them to all Nazi troops. These plans fell through when the war ended and D-IX quietly faded into obscurity.
Not that Germany was unique in providing amphetamine tablets for military use during the war. Whether inspired by their German allies or not, the Imperial Japanese armed forces also distributed amphetamine tablets to their own troops. For soldiers sent on special missions, including kamikaze pilots, there was Philopon which basically consisted of tablets containing methamphetamine and green tea powder (the Emperor's crest was stamped on each tablet). As for American and Allied troops, amphetamine use was just as pervasive with millions of tablets being distributed to soldiers with little real warning of the potential dangers. In a real sense, amphetamines were a major part of every soldier's "first aid kit" as a way of countering exhaustion.
The Alcohol Alternative
And then there was that familiar standby, alcohol, which, along with amphetamines, was widely available for all troops, German, Japanese, and Allied, alike. The Nazi high command was especially motivated to keep their soldiers well-plied with alcohol considering that the shortage of older recruits meant bringing in new soldiers who were little more than adolescents. To ensure they maintained the necessary "courage", Nazi officers often distributed alcoholic beverages as a special reward whenever possible.
Walther Kittel, a general in the Nazi medical corps defended the use of alcohol by saying that only a fanatic would refuse to give a soldier something that can help him relax and enjoy life after he has faced the horrors of battle, or would reprimand him for enjoying a friendly drink or two with his comrades. Along with the liquor supplied by the officers, there was also the bootleg variety supplied from local bootleggers, or even the occasional still run by soldiers themselves.
But, much like amphetamines (which soldiers often mixed with alcohol), problems soon developed, including public drunkenness, soldiers fighting with each other, insubordination, and “crimes involving unnatural sexual acts.” Between September 1939 and April 1944, over seven hundred soldiers died in various alcohol-related mishaps (though the actual number was likely higher). Then again, the alcohol craze was hardly limited to Nazi troops alone. Not only were American soldiers eagerly buying up all the beer and liquor they could find, but they even resorted to making up their own "brews" mixing juice with Aqua Velva aftershave (pure alcohol was one of the ingredients).
For soldiers who couldn't get enough real alcohol, there was also methyl alcohol which was widely available as a solvent and antifreeze. It definitely had a " kick " with a 98 percent alcohol content leading to some soldiers being either killed or blinded. Even with aggressive crackdowns, including well-publicized executions of bootleggers, the demand for bootleg alcohol was strong enough for it to continue being a danger throughout the course of the war.
After the War
For soldiers desperate to escape the horrors of war, even temporarily, drugs and alcohol remained an essential part of military life. While officially discouraged by Allied and Axis commanders, most turned a blind eye to substance abuse so long as it didn't interfere with a soldier's ability to fight. Long after the end of hostilities, drug and alcohol addiction continued to plague many soldiers trying to return to civilian life. It probably didn't help that many of the drugs they used were extremely common, including amphetamines and opiates, and many doctors prescribed them freely for problems ranging from depression to obesity. As for the veterans themselves, they often had little real help available to them, especially for treating addiction given that the widespread use of drugs and alcohol during the war remained a "dirty little secret" for decades and the specter of addiction would crop up in later wars as well.
Though programs to help veterans cope with trauma and substance abuse are more widely available today, this was only after decades of political activism by veterans' groups demanding better access to mental health treatment. Even today, however, drug and alcohol use remains far too common among active and retired service personnel, many of whom face the same issues that plagued WWII servicemen decades before.
