Quote · Lex Fridman Podcast
#481 – Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA
Where this was said
Blitzkrieg and meth
At 1:07:00 · chapter starts 1:00:15
Before the attack, morale was poor — soldiers knew they were fighting the combined might of Britain and France and expected to lose. The meth changed that immediately: fear gave way to a 'party mood,' the rush of combat felt thrilling rather than terrifying, and the advance became self-sustaining. The tanks rolled day and night through the Ardennes, reached Sedan in three days, and cut the sickle behind Allied forces still positioned in Belgium. Rommel's division, using more meth than any other, drove at night through sleeping French villages in acts Ohler calls war crimes. The French, meanwhile, received three-quarters of a liter of red wine per man per day — they stopped at night; the Germans never did. Within six weeks, France was defeated. But the campaign's success planted the seeds of overconfidence.
