War literature

Replied by Nikita on topic War literature

Once again, not really a book of war, because it doesn't talk about a specific war or a particular theatre of operations in history. About that, maybe this topic should rather be named "Military literature"...?

However, this is a really interesting book, written by someone who is far from being an amateur, and which tries to analyse, by four historical examples, in what the character and the personality of a supreme commanding can influence a war and what is it about it, present days, at the time of nuclear era.

John Keegan
The mask of command
ISBN : 978-0140114065



EDIT : This cobblestone weighs 696 grams, for motivated people only, so, may i ask : "Are you tough enough ... ?"

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Replied by Nikita on topic War literature

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About the use of drugs as weapons in nazi Germany.

Doubtless my next purchase.

Der totale Rausch
Norman Ohler
ISBN: 978-3-462-04733-2

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Replied by Nikita on topic War literature

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Well, this book was released in Germany just some days ago and, of course, i'll have to wait for the French translation, my German is quite inexistant except a couple of basic words. Doubtless yours is better so maybe you can dare the original version.

I was informed about this book by the interview in the local press here . Norman Ohler says that this topic was never really documented and he is maybe the first to make such kind of research, having studied the American and German archives during five years before writing this book.

He speaks about a massive use of Pervitin (methamphetamine, called "crystal meth" today) for the troops and Hitler himself turned as a junkie with Eukodal, derivative of opium and more powerful than heroin. I also had hear about experiments, but this book tends to prove that it was more than an experiment. Norman Ohler says : "One can say today that the use of drugs by the nazis had a major strategic role during WW2".

Anyway, we know also that other armies have also used combat drugs since WW2, by example in Vietnam and, more recently, in 2002 in Afghanistan, when two American fighters pilots killed four Canadian soldiers by friendly fire, after having take amphetamine ("go pills") on order.

There is a certain hypocrisy to criticize the nazis and do exactly the same in the name of "freedom" and "democracy" and blabla ...

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Replied by snowman on topic War literature

Thanks, but drugs still don't change who you are. They may have felt better for some moments, but those
soldiers were still the same fools. How can someone who is asleep fight better than one who is awake?

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"Straight and narrow is the path."

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Replied by Nikita on topic War literature

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Yep Snow, indeed these drugs as amphetamines and derivated are used not really for "psychologic" results but rather to push the soldier to his physical limits, because he doesn't feel any fatigue or need to sleep.

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