Fighting when drunk

Nelson’s men

And probably more reasonable to suggest, that given enough Rum a day, The men of the Royal Navy would fight anybody. Given the Rum, and the Blood red painted gun decks that hid the carnage in battle, It was probably a numbing effect that made the Royal Navy as efficient as it was.

I think the effect of a small ration of rum is being overestimated, men of the Royal navy in the 18th century were brought up on alcohol and in fact most children of the time drunk small beer because it was free of all the horrible disease’s present in water at the time. Small Beer was taken from the first brew and was allot weeker than full strength beer. Having spent a lifetime drinking progressively stronger Brews the Rum ration would have little more effect than a single pint of modern lager. In fact being drunk on a ship of the line resulted in severe puinishment, this didnt stop the crew trying to get at the rum store and it was a constant battle for the officers to keep them away from the Rum. The reason the RN was so succesful was the strict disaplin constant drills and the quality of thier officers. The RN unlike the army of the day promoted on merit, you could’nt buy a commision in the RN. This lead to a proffesional and talented leadership. On the other side the French executed 70% of thier experianced naval officers during the revolution. Toe to toe the British ships could fire three broadsides to every one of the French, the rest is history!

Japanese Ace…

Who was it who flew in his Jimmy Jams with a pipe and a big night on Saki the night before..??:confused:

It was quite usual whilst I was on training for some of the guys to pop ‘wide awake pills’ to keep going especially during the sleep-deprivation parts (I didn’t)
Once on to flying training there was less need for it, but the hard drinking got harder, I once remember starting a bad-weather Barrel at 1 in the afternoon, drinking right through, culminating in playing the banjo with 2 of my instructors at 5 in the morning, (which didn’t go down well in the Sgt’s Mess)

I was then in the air at 9:00…Not clever or responsible, but I was 19 and led astray by 2 of my instructors, neither of whom actually made it beyond morning prayers before being sent back to the mess to recover….

There might be an answer on a Royal Navy forum…the old Rum Ration you know.:D
If yoiu read the Patrick O’Brian series about the RN in the early 19th century, drink was a major part of their lives…probably because the water was so bad.

And probably more reasonable to suggest, that given enough Rum a day, The men of the Royal Navy would fight anybody. Given the Rum, and the Blood red painted gun decks that hid the carnage in battle, It was probably a numbing effect that made the Royal Navy as efficient as it was.

Kieth Rosenkranz, an F16 pilot wrote a book called ‘Vipers in the Storm’ about his experiences in the first Gulf war.

He goes into great detail about the transit flight to Iraq which took over 16 hours and he was issued with amphetamines or ‘uppers’ as they are more commonley known, to be taken every two hours during the flight to keep the pilot’s alert.

Upon landing they were then issued with sleepng pills or ‘downers’ to bring them back to reality and allow them to recover from such a long flight.

Maybe no historic relevance but it demonstrates how past history has become common practice.

Regards,

John.

In Second World War as well as Winter War, Red Army soldiers used to be given 100 g of vodka daily.

How did it affect their reaction and judgment?

In the Winter War, it was mentioned that land soldiers got 100 g of vodka, but aviators got 100 g of brandy instead. The supply department reported afterwards that in two and half years, they had spent 10 millions of litres of vodka (sic!) and 88 000 litres of brandy.

This means about 100 millions of portions of vodka and 880 000 portions of brandy (here omitting to account for density) or, in other words, during about 75 days, 1,3 million portions of vodka daily, and 12 000 portions of brandy…

So, is it easy to fly well and fight well with 100 g of brandy?

Meanwhile, the German pilots invented amphetamines… how do those affect fighting?

I’ve just finished reading Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey (again) and he mentions the suspicion that Luftwaffe pilots were on amphetamines, he also muses over this being the reason the German pilots seemed more reckless but had slower reaction than RAF pilots. Is it accepted fact that Luftwaffe pilots took ‘phet?

There might be an answer on a Royal Navy forum…the old Rum Ration you know.:D
If yoiu read the Patrick O’Brian series about the RN in the early 19th century, drink was a major part of their lives…probably because the water was so bad.

In Second World War as well as Winter War, Red Army soldiers used to be given 100 g of vodka daily.

IIRC this was spirit, not vodka.
IIRC, too, there was a Lancaster in the RAF named “Spirit of Russia” by its crew.

Think fighting is hard..Try flying as well…

Pappy Boyington is reputed to have flown and fought better under the influence.:p