Luftwaffe pilots involved in Battle of Britain dogfights were high on crystal-meth, according to a new critically-acclaimed book.
The mind-blowing drug that most people have come to know about from Breaking Bad played a huge role in the first forays of WWII, author Norman Ohler has revealed.
Blitzed: Drugs In Nazi Germany also reveals how Hitler became addicted to a heroin-like substance called Eukodel after a nervous breakdown in 1944 - and was high on the drug until he committed suicide.
But long before the dictator killed himself in his Berlin bunker, he approved the widespread use of the euphoria-inducing stimulant by his troops.
Military leaders ordered 35million Pervatin tablets on the eve of the invasion of France in 1940.
The tablet, which had been developed to help Hitler ’s so-called superior Aryan race go without sleep for up to 50 hours at a time, would be vital for the Blitzkrieg and “stimulant decree” was passed.
But the side effects meant the Third Reich had to set up rehabilitation hospitals for paranoid zonked pilots and military personnel, according to Mr Ohler.
He said: “There are many, many reports of German pilots who would take the Pervatin as they entered British airspace.
Military leaders ordered 35million Pervatin tablets on the eve of the invasion of France in 1940.
The tablet, which had been developed to help Hitler ’s so-called superior Aryan race go without sleep for up to 50 hours at a time, would be vital for the Blitzkrieg and “stimulant decree” was passed.
But the side effects meant the Third Reich had to set up rehabilitation hospitals for paranoid zonked pilots and military personnel, according to Mr Ohler.
He said: “There are many, many reports of German pilots who would take the Pervatin as they entered British airspace.
So you took one or two Pervitin tablets, and then you were all right again.
“I had a lot of night operations, you know, and of course, the commander always had to have his wits about him.
“So I took Pervatin as a precautionary measure.
“Imagine the commander being tired in battle.
“You wouldn’t abstain from Pervitin because of a little health scare.
“Who cares when you’re doomed to come down at any moment anyway.”
But the side effects clearly would not help while involved in a dogfight over the skies of the English Channel in bright sunlight, as another pilot reveals in the book.
He said: “After a while the effect kicks in. The engine is running cleanly and calmly.
“I’m wide awake, my heartbeat thunders in my ears.
“Why is the sky suddenly so bright, my eyes hurt in the harsh light. I can hardly bear the brilliance. If I shield my eyes with my free hand it’s better.
“Now the engine is humming evenly and without vibration - far away.
“It’s almost like silence up here.
“Everything becomes immaterial ands abstract. Remote, as if I were flying above the plane.”
But it wasn’t just in the air that such prolific drug use took place.
Ernst Udet - the most successful surviving First World War fighter pilot - was effectively in command of the Luftwaffe.
While he may have been a great pilot, his skills in ruining an air force were lacking - to say the least.
He served cognac all day during meetings and had to take “methamphetamine in enormous quantities to balance out the effects of the alcohol.” And when he got together with Goring, they liked to talk about the good old days ‘high on cocaine”.
With the failure of the Battle of Britain and stalemate in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, Udet imploded under his ever increasing responsibilities.
By 1941, he was taking up to seven Pervitin tablets for breakfast to keep up the lie that Germany was all-conquering, according to Mr Ohler’s book.
After he shot himself, Hitler ordered a state funeral to hide the fact he had committed suicide.
But Udet’s incompetence was later noted by Hitler who said: “Our defeat was caused by Udet.That man concocted the most nonsensical state of affairs ever seen in the history of the Luftwaffe.”
Although HItler tried to promote an image of a teetotal super human who did not even drink coffee, he slowly slipped under the influence of drugs. Even before the war, his own doctor was given him injections of vitamins, according to the book.
When Hitler fell ill in 1941, the vitamin injections that Dr Theo Morell gave him no longer had any effect.
So he began to ramp things up with animal hormone injections before moving on to ever stronger medication - eventually ending up heroin-like drug called Eukodal, according to the physician’s journal.
The extracts from Dr Morell’s records reveal he once complained that he could no longer inject the drug as nearly all of his patient’s veins had collapsed.
“‘I cancelled injections today, to give the previous puncture holes a chance to heal,” one entry reads.
“Left inside elbow good, right still has red dots (but not pustules), where injections were given.”
The narcotics regime had started after Hitler narrowly survived the 1944 assassination attempt known as Operation Valkyrie, when a briefcase bomb was planted under his desk.
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