Amphetamines and Wars

In World War II there was both legal medically authorized use of amphetamines given the troops and of there was the black market ones that were illegal and were abused.

When Panzer troops from Germany took over Poland, Denmark and Norway then went through Belgium and France they did all this by taking a lot of methamphetamine that stopped them from being tired and gave them a stronger endurance.

Japanese soldiers and factory workers used as much or more of the drug than did the German army.

British war statistics  said the British forces alone, used 72 million doses of amphetamines.

The U.S. armed forces were not allow to regularly use amphetamines until the Korean War. The Army Air  Corps that had their station in Britain used them a lot. It was a known “secret” that many pilots had a bootlegging situation going on with amphetamines.

Medical officers and their aides in the military easily distributed amphetamines.

The British gave U.S. military men nearly 80 million Benzedrine tablets and pills. But that was not all that the men took. Army medics gave them 80-100 million more.

Women at British Army Auxiliaries – Stretcher Bearers (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)