The Nazis were crack addicts!

[Gawdzilla]

Göring got hooked on opiates due to injuries from WWI. I imagine he wasn't adverse to doing some coke when it came by.

But yeah, the subject line needs work.

[ignoramus]

That's my bad guys ... An Aussie who doesn't know the difference between hard drugs names...
If a mod wants to change the title, go for it.

[Alex K]

Oh good, I thought I was getting rather confused.

[abaris]

Göring was hooked on morphine. And it wasn't due to a war injury. He got belly shot in the failed coup of 1923, which led to al kinds of speculations. Such as the The Colonel Bogey March with new lyrics invented by british soldiers: Göring has only got one ball, Hitler's got two but very small. Also, Julius Streicher openly speculated on Göring's ball condition and suspected him to be impotent and not the father of his daughter Edda. Which ultimately cost him his job as "Gauleiter" of Franken. There was also a contemporary German joke on the real meaning of the name Edda. "Ewiger Dank dem Adjutanten". (Eternal thanks to the adjutant). Which of course could earn you a place in a concentration camp if caught telling it.

When Göring got caught by the allies, he had moved on to Paracodein tablets. Burton C Andrews reported that he carried several bags of these tablets with him when being brought to camp Dustbin.

[Gawdzilla]

Yeah, I didn't bother looking it up, I knew I was wrong someone would be Johnny on the spot.

[Iroscato]

Personally, I've heard 'crack' be used as a catchall term for 'shit that fucks your shit the fuck up', ie particularly powerful drugs such as meth and crack cocaine.

'Crackhead' can also be used a blanket term for 'he who dabbles in some fucked-up shit', not necessarily someone who exclusively smokes crack.

[Faith No More]

It's been known for a while that Hitler and the Nazis used amphetamines and that those drugs were likely strong contributors to why the Blitzkrieg was so powerful. But like Abaris said, everyone was on something at the time. Drugs like morphine were put into all kinds of elixirs and sold as a cure for every kind of ailment you can think of. Doctors were amazed by the healing power of these new derivatives of opium and were prescribing it like doctors prescribe Viagra now. Nobody understood the side-effects of these drugs, but they did know the drugs made you feel awesome.

And no, "crack" cannot be used as general term for drugs. It represents a specific drug.

[abaris]

It's been known for a while that Hitler and the Nazis used amphetamines and that those drugs were likely strong contributors to why the Blitzkrieg was so powerful.

Where do you get that from? Yes, soldiers were on amphetamins because they had to stay awake and alert for a very long time. But the Blitzkrieg was mainly a result of a whole new tactic. Combining armored units, infantery and air force into one strike force was an entirely new concept the allies couldn't cope with at the start of the war. That's the lesson the German strategists, mainly people like Guderian, took from WWI. There are also small logistic details involved that contributed a lot to the initial success. Such as the German tanks being fueled up on the fly or that the german armored units were fully equipped with radios whereas the French still used flag signals.

[Faith No More]

Where do you get that from? Yes, soldiers were on amphetamins because they had to stay awake and alert for a very long time. But the Blitzkrieg was mainly a result of a whole new tactic. Combining armored units, infantery and air force into one strike force was an entirely new concept the allies couldn't cope with at the start of the war. That's the lesson the German strategists, mainly people like Guderian, took from WWI. There are also small logistic details involved that contributed a lot to the initial success. Such as the German tanks being fueled up on the fly or that the german armored units were fully equipped with radios whereas the French still used flag signals.

I'm getting a lot of my info from back in the day when The History Channel used to actually do history stuff, so take that for what it is. What I meant by amphetamines being a strong contributor is that they provide focus and energy that allows a person to work at peak performance. Sure, the majority of why the Blitzkrieg was successful is due to their military tactics and technology, but at the heart of their military strikes, are the amphetamines flowing through their veins of their soldiers. It would make any soldier formidable, short-term that is.

That kind of thing has been accepted knowledge for a while, as far as I know.

[abaris]

That kind of thing has been accepted knowledge for a while, as far as I know.

Not as far as I am aware. If you mean by accepted knowledge that they popped pervitin as if there was no tommorrow, I agree with you. There was even a nickname for that drug amongst the soldiers. "Panzerschokolade". But the reason for the early stages of the war being that successful is the fact that the allies still fought the war of 1918 whereas the Germans fought the war of 1940. Amphetamins are supposed to be uppers and would make you more reckless, but looking at the casualty numbers of the Polish as well as the French campaign, nothing points to that. In fact, for the day and age, the Germans were losing very few soldiers in these campaigns.