During World War II, the National Socialist regime relied not only on military might or ideology to sustain its war machine, but also on the power of drugs.

One of the lesserknown secrets was the widespread use of pervitine, a form of methamphetamine distributed to soldiers to increase their stamina, aggression, and ability to fight for days without rest.

The substance was easy to produce, cheap, and extremely effective in the short term.

Thousands of soldiers, pilots, and members of the SS depended on these pills to keep them fighting under extreme conditions.

National socialist leaders such as Herman Guring and Adolf Hitler also used drugs.

Guring became addicted to morphine after being wounded in 1923.

While Hitler, according to his personal physician, Teodor Morell, used stimulants such as methamphetamine, painkillers, hormones, and nasal cocaine to treat pain and maintain his energy during the final years of the Third Reich.

Origin of Vice, the Blitzkrieg and the stimulant decree to drug soldiers.

The use of drugs to enhance troops effectiveness on the battlefield is nothing new in warfare.

From ancient times, we can see cases such as that of the Berserkers, Viking warriors with devastating combat performances that made even Julius Caesar tremble.

They would go into frenzies and fight naked against their enemies, biting and tearing them apart in the most brutal ways.

Many historians attribute this behavior to the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms or beer contaminated with lysurgic acid.

According to stories dating back to the 13th century, it’s no surprise that almost a thousand years later, Germanic armies continued this tradition.

Although drugs like cocaine and hashish were widely used medically in both the east and the west, we now know that Adolf Hitler’s forces had a very powerful narcotic that aided them on the battlefield, pervittin.

This state produced methamphetamine was deliberately given to troops during the invasion of Poland.

Although it improved the men’s physical abilities, it eventually caused a level of addiction that became a problem for the high command.

Blitzkrieg, or the lightning war, was the fundamental strategy to carry out this feat, and its main protagonists were the tankers of the panzer brigades.

The Blitzkrieg tactic wasn’t particularly elegant, but it was extremely effective.

It consisted of launching rapid and devastating attacks with a certain element of surprise while maintaining the offensive until the enemy’s defenses were exhausted.

After capturing a town or city, the tankers would advance toward the next objective.

For Blitzkrieg to work, soldiers had to sacrifice rest time, travel great distances at night, and maintain the concentration necessary to optimize their aim and gun reload times.

Otherwise, this would seem impossible.

And the fact that the Nazis achieved the feat of capturing Poland in just one month earned them the reputation of being super soldiers endowed with superhuman abilities.

But the truth is that the effectiveness of the Blitzkrieg depended less on the excellent training of German troops and even less on the quality of their light tanks which did not yet reach the impressive level of their successors in the Panza family.

Germany’s triumph was due to the fact that Hitler had an ace up his sleeve, a key element that was hidden from history for decades and which when discovered became the missing piece in the great puzzle of Hitler’s war makingaking prowess.

We’re talking about a derivative of methamphetamine, a drug capable of giving soldiers energy for days, enabling them to carry out a campaign that would otherwise have been impossible.

Although Germany forged a great mechanical tradition during World War II at its beginning, especially during the invasions of Poland and France, its tanks were not among the most powerful on the continent.

Models such as the Panza 3 and Panza 4 reached their peak production starting in 1942, while between 1936 and 1939, around 40 were produced per month.

2750 tanks participated in the invasion of Poland.

And although the exact figures for how many units of each model were deployed in the campaign are unknown, it is known with certainty that the majority were the light Panza Yaram and the two assisted by a minority of their larger medium siblings.

The number of vehicles at Germany’s disposal was overwhelming, but they had to hit their adversaries decisively and quickly so that weaknesses would not become a problem.

The only way to avoid counterattacks that would put the Panza brigades in check would be to never abandon the offensive.

Thus was born the Blitzkrieg.

However, when Adolf Hitler and his generals devised the concept of Blitzkrieg, they realized a very difficult detail to resolve.

For lightning warfare to work, the troop advance had to be relentless, devastating, and above all, constant.

If armies were divided into many small garrisons or if simultaneous targets were selected in a single campaign, the strategy became susceptible to failure.

Everyone agreed that the Vermacht could only be dissolved into two powerful fronts and that the only option was to eliminate troop rest periods.

This is how Hitler issued the stimulant decree, a law that authorized and promoted the use of drugs, especially methamphetamines, on the battlefield to improve troop performance.

And here appeared the key element that made Blitzkrieg possible.

Pervitin.

Pervitine.

The Nazi methamphetamine that caused the rise and fall of the Third Reich.

Pervatine was a methamphetamine, a psycho stimulant drug that acted on people’s adrenaline hormones, eliminating sleep and providing a heightened sense of physical power and mental focus.

It’s important to note that by 1939 these types of drugs were no longer illegal as they had been synthesized shortly after World War I.

In fact, deoxyaphedrin better known as methamphetamine from which pervatine was derived was created in 1919 in Japan and was widely used around the world in very low doses as a nasal stimulant to improve breathing.

Of course, at high doses, the effects change dramatically both for better and worse.

Methamphetamines were the missing piece for the Blitzkrieg to work the way Hitler and his generals wanted.

Under the influence of Pervetin, tankers could go up to 72 hours without sleep, maintaining their concentration, aim, and maneuverability, and even immerse themselves much more easily in the adrenaline of battle, as they believed themselves to be all powerful.

In this way, an infantry group along with several Panza brigades could enter a city, capture it completely in one or two days and then embark on a non-stop drive toward their next objective.

In this way, the Germans found their opponents unprotected, even without raising their defenses since they could arrive even before the news of the fall of the previous city.

Pervitin tablets among their troops at the beginning of the invasion of Poland, most of them to tankers and infantrymen.

The impressive effectiveness of Hitler’s forces not only allowed them to take over an entire country in 28 days, but also managed to shock Winston Churchill, who was coordinating the Allied defenses in the Western Front countries.

Churchill could not understand how German tankers managed to cover kilometers in a single day without stopping to refuel, and yet were able to lethally strike at the defenses they encountered.

The psychological effect of the Blitzkrieg’s omnipotence was brutal for Europe, which could do nothing but passively watch as a relentless wave of steel advanced westward, consuming every city in its path.

But the magic of Pervitine wasn’t eternal.

And while it offered enormous benefits once the adrenaline rush wore off, it had enormous consequences for the soldiers physical and mental health.

The men collapsed, exhausted after nearly a week of pushing their bodies to the limit and had to spend days recovering as if from an illness.

Furthermore, the drug supply chain had to be highly efficient since if it failed, those who stopped receiving their dose suffered intense withdrawal symptoms.

Physical and mental discomfort, anxiety, violent outbursts, and even psychotic episodes coupled with extreme fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting were some of the effects that the absence of Pervitine caused.

As the campaign progressed throughout 1940 and the following year, Germany ramped up methamphetamine production, but the blow to its forces where they couldn’t supply pills meant the long-term costs outweighed the benefits early in the offensive.

German society had become addicted to pervetin, and where controlled and limited supplies were attempted, large-scale rebellions erupted within the barracks, even developing a black market until Nazi authorities eventually shut down production to stem the tide.

The superdrug Dix, the impressive
cocktail to create super soldiers that would replace Pervitin.

In 1941, some attempted to curb the distribution of pervatin, but the measure was not entirely successful.

And towards the end of the war, in fact, something more potent was sought.

Methamphetamines, although they had a curious reputation within the Third Reich, as they were publicly condemned, but then distributed to soldiers, had proven to be valuable when the army needed them in times of high morale.

In 1944, with the advance of the Allies, the situation was completely different.

Nazi Germany needed its super soldiers more than ever and several pharmarmacologists began developing a new drug, an experimental performance enhancer for a vermach that was losing men at an unsustainable rate.

This is how several compounds were born, codenamed D for Droger and which went through 10 iterations between DI and DX.

Pharmarmacologist Ghard Otsovski and a group of other researchers were commissioned in Ke to develop this drug.

They developed a formula that contained 5 mg of oxycodone, 5 mg of cocaine, and 3 mg of methamphetamine pervatine in each tablet.

To understand the impressive drug cocktail this product represented, we must discuss the two components that enhanced pervatin and sought to give soldiers superhuman abilities.

Oxycodone is a prolonged release opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain.

It is highly addictive and often leads to physical dependence, making it a commonly abused drug.

Pain relief typically begins within 15 minutes and lasts up to 6 hours with the immediate release formulation, although the extended release formulation can last longer reducing the relief.

It is now often sold in combination with acetaminophen, ibuprofen, nlloxxone, nalrexone, and aspirin.

But in the midentth century, it was still used in injectable form, which in large quantities not only relieved severe pain, but also generated an adrenaline rush similar to that of cocaine.

Oxycodone was first manufactured in Germany in 1916 from the Bane as part of an effort to treat the wounded during World War alleviate the ailments of veterans.

Common side effects include euphoria, constipation, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, drowsiness, dizziness, itching, dry mouth, and sweating.

However, serious side effects can include addiction, dependence, aggression, mania or depression, hallucinations, hypoventilation, gastroparesis, bradicardia, and hypertension.

Those allergic to codine may also be allergic to oxycodone.

Among these problems which affected Nazi soldiers was opiate withdrawal syndrome if use was discontinued.

Cocaine originally called benzolemethylchanine according to the international common name is a tropane alkyoid and strong stimulant currently used primarily as a recreational drug.

The mental effects it causes include loss of contact with reality, aggression, heightened alertness and persecution mania, an intense feeling of happiness and psychoot agitation.

Physical symptoms include a rapid heart rate, sweating, and dilated pupils.

High doses can cause high blood pressure and increased body temperature.

The effects begin just seconds after consumption and last between 5 and 90 minutes.

While its consumption is illegal in most of the world today, during the early 20th century it was a fairly common medicinal drug.

So much so that in 1858 it was listed in the United States Pharmacopia.

Some European countries it was used as a tonic and psychological figures such as Sigman Freud used it as part of their treatments and as an anti-depressant.

Cocaine’s stimulant action derives primarily from its ability to inhibit the re-uptake of the neurotransmitters nor neuropinephrine, serotonin, and especially dopamine at brain synapses along with its psychological effects on mood, cognition, instincts, and consciousness.

Cocaine-induced neurotransmitter release also lowers the seizure threshold, causes tremors, changes in electrical activity, emmesis, hyperarexia, tachicardia, hypertension, delayed urination and fecal elimination, muscle contractions, and facial
flushing.

This made it a great drug for soldiers by inhibiting most of the natural reactions experienced by humans.

Whether it was having to go to the bathroom or trembling in fear in the face of an enemy, it gave them an adrenaline rush.

However, like pervittin, repeated cocaine use produced tolerance and dependence.

So, withdrawal symptoms became increasingly common.

Now that you know the three drugs, imagine this.

A cocktail mixing pervertin cocaine and oxycodone in high doses injected directly into a psychologically unstable soldier after 5 years of non-stop war.

What could possibly go wrong? The effects of this drug were brutal, but they achieved their goal.

Those who received it became powerhouses, immune to pain.

You could shoot a rifle directly into the leg of an injected soldier.

And for a few hours, the soldier injected with Dix would continue running and fighting as if bitten by a mosquito, but with great power.

It also came with significant side effects.

The drug caused severe paranoia and altered mental health in users, primarily manifested as a disconnection from reality, which was very dangerous for someone armed with a machine gun.

Therefore, the scientists who developed Project D first tested the drugs on a group of forced laborers from the Zaxenhausen concentration camp.

One study group was given a dose of this miracle drug and was recorded as being able to walk up to 88 km without resting while carrying 20 kg packages.

If the adverse effects were not taken into account, dite was truly a miracle of modern science.

It is important to note that these test subjects were prisoners who had spent years in inhumane living conditions, weakened, starved, and beaten.

This led scientists to believe that dite would be even more effective when injected into healthy German soldiers who were well-fed and on a rest regimen that would reduce the psychological effects.

However, the super drug was only tested on some crew members of some [ __ ] submarines as the war ended before Dight was put into circulation with the rest of the Vermacht.

Although the Nazi sailors demonstrated greater resilience than the prisoners at Saxonhausen, the adverse effects persisted.

One group remained awake, fully energized for 24 hours, singing songs and working their butts off.

But after this period, they would pass out, losing consciousness for a long time.

The fall of the Reich halted the development of the next version DX.

Although some historians claim that the recovery of this drug was part of Operation Paperclip, the Allied efforts to research and recover technology and science created by Nazi Germany.

Leonidis Squadron, the Nazi kamicazi pilots created by drugs and mental conditioning.

The word kamicazi often conjures up the image of a Japanese man who was willing to give his life for Emperor Hirohito by crashing his plane into an American aircraft carrier shouting banzai.

But the suicide pilots of World War II were also blonde and held German nationality.

The Nazi Luftvafer sought to turn the tide of war when Allied bombing raids on German territory were incessant in 1944 and 1945.

To achieve this, it opted for a new tactic.

Using its own fighters to crash in the air into the great American fortresses, the B24 Liberators that roared over Germany before dropping their deadly cargo on a population that endured prolonged agony as if it were a biblical punishment.

The German air force was discredited and above all greatly weakened by the loss of aircraft and its best pilots.

Urgent action was needed and Herman Guring heard a bold initiative from the young Colonel Hajjo Herman who proposed sending hundreds of Mesosmidme 109s to ram enemy aircraft in midair.

The idea was not new.

Sometime earlier, Nazi fanatics such as pilot Hannah Reich and SS Commando Chief Otto Scocozeni had already proposed emulating the Japanese kamicazis by creating a unit of expendable men who would try to stop American bombers.

Zerena considering it unnecessary and proposed creating unmanned gliders, primitive drones.

But a few months later, Kamicazi seemed the only way to stop the reign of fire.

So he gave Guring his authorization.

On March 7th, 1945, a special combat group was formed dubbed the Ela Sonda Commando because its headquarters were located near the river.

These men would be tasked with carrying out a mission hitherto unheard of on the European battlefield using suicide as a weapon.

2,000 volunteers initially joined the unit to save the homeland, although only 300 were ultimately selected.

This number was no coincidence.

To give the sacrifice a more epic character, Guring used the story of the 300 Spartans who died defending Sparta against a million Persians at Thermopili, hence the unit’s name, the Leonidas squadron.

They were confined to the Stendal Air Base near Magdabberg, although they were destined to die, the Luftvafa.

He told the soldiers they had a 10% chance of survival.

They were young men between 18 and 21 years old, optimistic as their age dictated, who didn’t think they were going to die.

They trusted in having the opportunity to jump seconds before impact.

The consequences of the Allied bombing, especially for loved ones, children, women, and the elderly, brought out their patriotic feelings.

They had to do something.

Most of these pilots lacked combat experience.

So they had to undergo 10 days of instruction in approach and in-flight ramming techniques.

However, for this training, they didn’t have many resources, not even fuel for a test flight or parts that would allow the aircraft to be checked before flying.

However, they didn’t require extensive training because the attack mechanism was very simple.

All they were required to do was ram the giant Allied bombers from the rear from the 6:00 position in air combat terminology and smash the bombers’s tail with their steel propeller, disabling the vertical stabilizer and thus destroying its maneuverability.

However, other ramming methods were also developed in the theoretical phase.

These included ramming the wing section closest to the engines or piercing enemy formations, firing at all their members.

Finally, they overtook the B-24s before turning sharply and crashing violently into the cockpit of the lead aircraft, acting like battering rams that sliced through the wings and the steel and aluminum structure of the Allied aircraft.

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