Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

by Alex Hutchinson

The drug was early version of crystal methamphetamine, and German military officials took a keen interest in the results. They piloted Pervitin later that year on military drivers deployed in the invasion of Poland, which triggered World War II; convinced of its usefulness, the Nazis distributed it to all branches of the military. Between April and July 1940 alone, more than 35 million tablets of “Panzerschokolade” (tank chocolate) fueled the Blitzkrieg across Europe, spurring lasting rumors of a Nazi superpill that gave soldiers extraordinary powers. (The dark aftereffects of crystal meth became clearer over time, and German officials restricted its used in 1941, though it remained widely used until the end of the war—and stayed part of the East German army’s war chest until 1988.)4

Interesting