Question re German paras

[iaidoka2]

Hi all

I am reading the "African Trilogy" by Alan Moorehead at the moment and he refers to the allies finding dead German paras whose skin had turned green. Apparently it was the result of being fed drugs before dropping. He mentions an account of an Australian soldier finding some of the drugs and taking them. He described euphoria etc and his mates talked about having to restrain him from breaking cover and running into a heavily defended enemy position. Does anyone know more about German paras on drugs?

[Marc von Martial]

There is a lot of rumors bout this. But I finally found some evidence ...

[Plodder]

"Those damn mountain troops can keep their edelweiss!"

[iaidoka2]

[:D]

[JudgeDredd]

LMAO!

[captskillet]

Wow look at all the pretty colored tracer rounds going zing, zing!!! [:D] [;)]

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: iaidoka2
Does anyone know more about German paras on drugs?

There are reports coming from german Paras who served in the early years of the "Bundeswehr"(BW), the new german army of the Federal Republic of Germany (recreated in 1955), saying that their backup rations in those early years (1955-?) contained the Amphetamine "Perventin".
This substance (or a similar one) has been used by german pilots during WWII.

GIs being overrun and/or captured during the Ardennes offensive reported that a good amount of these german troops (who were supposed to be badly equipped and in bad shape at that stage of the war, according to Allied intel) fought fiercely and that many had a strange glow in their eyes. I recall an interview with a GI who said that many german soldiers came across as madmans and killing machines.

There are rumours that Perventin (or similar substances) had been handed out in the Battle of the Bulge for one reason: many officers felt that significant objectives could not be seized without extremely aggressive pushes.....so, looks like they had to try it with some early doping there. [:D]

Another rumour says that the men in Kampfgruppe Peiper (responsible for the Malmedy-massacre), spearheading the push towards Liège (Lüttich), have been using those substances as well.

Looking at the mentioned backup rations of BW paras in the late 50s, I'd say that they just copied this "tradition" from german paras in WW2, so it's possible that paras had better access to these substances than regular Wehrmacht troops. The critical situation during the Ardennes offensive might have forced the germans to use 'em to a larger extent.

Amphetamine or similar stuff has been used by USAF pilots during the first war in the Gulf (16+ hrs journeys in stealth bombers), and it looks like it has been/is still used in Afghanistan during bombing missions (long flights starting in Saudi Arabia or on carriers).

My 2 cents.