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Governments that Tried to Create Super Soldiers and Super Weapons

Khalid Elhassan January 15, 2022 37 min

Super Facts - Workers at the Temmler factory in Berlin, where methamphetamine-based Pervitin tablets were produced for the German military — Workers at the Temmler factory in Berlin, where methamphetamine-based Pervitin tablets were produced for the German military. The Guardian

Spartans, the ancient Greek world's super soldiers, at the Battle of Plataea — Spartans, the ancient Greek world’s super-soldiers, at the Battle of Plataea. iStock

27. Why Do Soldiers Fight?

As seen above, King Frederick Williams I had tried to breed super soldiers. Other armies and military establishments throughout history took a less ambitious route. Rather than try to get super-soldiers, they tried to get super performances out of otherwise normal soldiers. The super soldierly performances that were often most desired from the commanders’ perspective were physical courage and the willingness to face deadly peril without fear or flinching. So they did what they could to suppress their soldiers’ fear.

A lot of the time, that boiled down to the commanders getting their men real drunk on booze, or real high on narcotics in order to get them to fight courageously. Or at least get them to fight oblivious to the mortal perils around them. Those were among the prime methods to get men to fight since the dawn of history – a task that is simultaneously easy, and tricky. “Why do soldiers fight?” British military historian John Keegan answered that question with three factors: “inducement, coercion, and narcosis“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.