World War Speed: New documentary investigates Allied drug use during World War II

BBC
Katie Law @jkatielaw29 August 2019

That the Nazis widely used drugs to help them in battle during the Second World War is already well-documented but the story really only came into the public sphere in 2016 with the publication of Norman Ohler’s history, Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany.

Thanks to its accessible tone the book became a bestseller, even if, as some historians asserted, his conclusions about the narcotic consumption of both ordinary Germans and Hitler himself were inaccurate.

James Holland, a popular historian and author of more than 30 books about the 1939-45 war, has made an hour-long documentary, which was written and directed by Steven Hoggard, originally for the US channel, Secrets of the Dead, revisiting this fascinating subject, and usefully adding to it by examining the extent to which the Allied commanders also embraced drugs to help level the playing field.

“Did WWII unleash the world’s first pharmacological arms race and what role did drugs play in combat?” asks co-narrator Ella Kenion. The quest begins in Norway, when Holland visits the Flyhistorisk Museum near Stavanger to look at the remains of a Luftwaffe Heinkel bomber, rescued from the depths of a fjord and still in almost pristine condition.

Presenter: James Holland (right) hosts the documentary
Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for IWC

Among the items recovered with the plane was a “rescue pack” the aircrew carried with them. Sadly for Holland, missing from the otherwise perfectly preserved pack were the amphetamine pills — Pervitin — that it had contained, because, as the museum’s director explains, they dissolved when the curators tried to clean them. Pervitin, it seems, was standard issue, designed not only to keep pilots awake for long periods and impervious to the cold but also to banish fear and make aircrews more aggressive. “The performance of Nazi dive bombers lead to theories of so-called ‘Stuka’ tablets.”

It wasn’t long before the British discovered what the Germans were up to. A letter from Churchill’s physician Charles Wilson to the prime minister suggests issuing benzedrine to the military. A flight surgeon called Roland Winfield began testing it on pilots during RAF missions, noting that the optimum time to take the pills was an hour and a half before dropping bombs to combat the sudden extreme fatigue that comes with a post-adrenal crash.

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While discussing how these drugs were used on both sides, Holland makes some interesting points about the role of fear. If suppressing fear and promoting extreme aggression had its upside, he suggests a downside: that it could also have resulted in reckless behaviour and a disregard for personal safety.

Could the 20mg a day doses of benzedrine taken by the 24th Armoured Brigade fighting at El Alamein, approved by General Montgomery “to boost morale”, even have played a part in the high mortality rate?

While Holland sheds much new light on the subject, parts of the narrative remain conjecture. It’s a compelling story brought vividly to life by extensive real-life footage and Holland’s own investigations and interviews. It is also very moving and I defy anyone not to shed a tear at the clip of soldiers removing the charred remains of their comrades from a burned-out tank.

World War Speed: The Drugs That Won WWII is on BBC 4 tonight at 9pm.

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