7 Most Insane Historical Attempts To Create A Super Soldier

The official military stance on drugs is that they are bad and just cannot compare to the natural, invigorating high of making your bed and cleaning out the latrine. It wasn’t always like this, though.

According to neurochemical researcher Howard D. Fabing, Berserkers, the famed Norse warriors/D&D class, used to achieve their legendary battle frenzy by ingesting hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria mushrooms. Researcher Matt Kaplan, on the other hand, claims that Berserkers pre-gamed with poisonous henbane. In any case, both researchers agree that the reason why Berserkers fought so fiercely was because they were tripping balls so hard they thought they were fighting rainbow-colored dragons or something.

On the African continent, we have Zulu warriors who, according to investigative journalist Martin A. Lee, smoked cannabis before battle to calm themselves and boost their courage, which was also pretty much the opposite of what the Nazis did. Instead of trying to get their soldiers to relax, the Third Reich opted to AMP THEM UP.

In 1944, the Nazis developed D-IX, a performance-enhancing drug made up of oxycodone, cocaine, and methamphetamine, which would give their soldiers enough energy to walk up to 60 miles a day in full gear without getting tired.

Thankfully, the Nazi super soldier serum was developed too late into the war to see any widespread use so Allied soldiers never had to deal with jonesing meth-head Nazis, which, honestly, is the kind of blessing we tend to take for granted.