No Meth = no Blitz?

Even if tooth to tail was one to four that would bump it up only to an average of 8 pills a month.

The Heer TTR was better than the US, around 50%. Then modify for being in continuous combat.

I don't think an average really works, but finding what the 'tip of the Spear' was taking would be informative, but don't think that data was ever collected.
 
The Heer TTR was better than the US, around 50%. Then modify for being in continuous combat.

I don't think an average really works, but finding what the 'tip of the Spear' was taking would be informative, but don't think that data was ever collected.

In which case you are down to 3 a month. My guess is that you had a number of units that used them fairly frequently with other units that used them little if at all.
 
It certainly wasnt restricted to the Germans. My Dad was RAF ground crew and he told me about the Berlin airlift everyone was working long shifts people were literally falling asleep on the job when the Medical Officer came round with "Vitamin Pills" for everyone.
 
It certainly wasnt restricted to the Germans. My Dad was RAF ground crew and he told me about the Berlin airlift everyone was working long shifts people were literally falling asleep on the job when the Medical Officer came round with "Vitamin Pills" for everyone.

Benzedrine wasn't considered a controlled substance till 1959. Pills and inhalers were common, in and out of the Military.
PanAm2.gif


PanAm.gif

Note inhalers under 'Service Items'
 
For an army of over 6 million men which comes out to 6 tablets per soldier over a four month period. That means that it was used fairly infrequently as a whole. There were probably some units that used it fairly frequently with the vast majority using rarely if at all.

In which case you are down to 3 a month. My guess is that you had a number of units that used them fairly frequently with other units that used them little if at all.

Glad there is someone else here that can do math.

Lets calculate it a different way. Polish Campaign = 3 weeks, 1940 campaign = 6 weeks, April 1941 - April 1945 = 208 weeks. Theres total of 217 weeks. Divide that into 35,000,000 = 161,290 tabs per week = 23,041 tabs daily. So potientially there were just under 12,000 two tab doses per day.

Compare that the daily coffee intake of the US Army & it looks fairly trivial.
 
Glad there is someone else here that can do math.

Lets calculate it a different way. Polish Campaign = 3 weeks, 1940 campaign = 6 weeks, April 1941 - April 1945 = 208 weeks. Theres total of 217 weeks. Divide that into 35,000,000 = 161,290 tabs per week = 23,041 tabs daily. So potientially there were just under 12,000 two tab doses per day.

Compare that the daily coffee intake of the US Army & it looks fairly trivial.

Or roughly a single division.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
What is missed, as @Johnrankins pointed out, is the scale involved.

Ten million sound like a LOT of meth, mostly because it is, but when you are sending it to a couple million troops over a four month period, it really isn't. Even of you shrink the number down to 500,000 troops, that is still only five pills a month. Most troops probably took it one in a while if they had guard duty (same reason a lot of guys use Copenhagen these days, extra little jolt can make all the difference) or were falling asleep behind the wheel.

Most usage was likely by drivers, tankers, and pilots. The U.S. used to issue Bennies to pilots for use "as needed" in capsule form. According to Bob Johnson, the pilots were told that if they needed a REAL jolt of energy they should open the capsule and dump the contents into their mouths (he describes it in some detail on hos classic book Thunderbolt).

The Heer fought too hard and too well to be full of tweakers.
 
The Heer fought too hard and too well to be full of tweakers.

Might explain some of the atrocities committed at the unit level, though.

Per my quote upthread, if it wasn't a problem in 1940, why the attempt to restrict usage in 1941?
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Might explain some of the atrocities committed at the unit level, though.

Per my quote upthread, if it wasn't a problem in 1940, why the attempt to restrict usage in 1941?
Don't know for sure.

Very possible that you did have some break-downs in discipline. There is also the simple reality that armies really are not big fans of soldiers getting medications through secondary sources.
 

Deleted member 1487

Though this is tangential to the main point, there have been number of books/articles about a methed out Hitler...I don't think that was the case. Looking at articles about personality disorders, Hitler's behavior is entirely explicable as a Type B Cluster personality disorder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_B_personality_disorders

To explain why I was looking into personality disorders...Trump fits the same profile. I hate Godwinning, but the shoe fits very well.
 

Wendigo

Banned
Did the IJA take any drugs to keep them active?

Because the only thing scarier than a bunch of brainwashed suicidal psychopaths are brainwashed suicidal psychopaths drugged out of their mind.
 
Top