By late '44, with his navy in tatters, the
Fuhrer looks to a bizarre wonder weapon; that
with the help of amphetamines might turn the
tide.
in the end Jim returns to Germany to visit
the site of one of the first Nazi concentration
camps.
In November 1944 some forty thousand men are
stuck in this camp.
What's it designed for?
Ten thousand?
--Okay so four times more than this times
more than they should have been.
--Four times more.
Germany had lost the war already and the sphere
of influence of the German Navy was reduced
to the Baltic Sea.
Everything else was controlled by the British.
So his small submarines were constructed mainly
for espionage.
In addition to espionage, Hitler's mini-subs
were also equipped with single torpedoes designed
to sink Allied ships moving supplies and troops
across the English Channel.
They were very small, only one or two soldiers
could sit in it and they'd have to sit there
for 48 hours without sleeping without getting
up without anything so they needed a drug
to keep them awake for that time.
--God, it's unimaginable isn't it?
So you need this drug to keep you going, but
also to keep your spirits up as well?
They were testing different drugs and comparing
it and wanting to find out which drug keeps
the people awake for the longest time with
the smallest side-effects.
This is the secret report on the experiments
and this gives the four different substances
--A, B, C, D-- the first is cocaine (hydrochl).
They come in different doses and the second
is cocaine in chewing gum, and then Pervatin
in a chewing gum.
--A hundred milligrams i mean that's a huge
dose!
--Yeah, it's a huge dose.
Indeed, the men must have been completely
stoned.
A hundred milligrams is really a lot.
--I mean can you imagine it?
You know you're a young member of the German
Navy, you've been singled out to man one of
these submarines, you're chewing on gum that
has been laced with cocaine and methamphetamines
I mean we're talking crystal meth here and
you're chewing away in this thing and there's
a tiny tight little cockpit and you know you're
high on speed I mean it's just it's it's insane
I mean it is absolutely insane
