Pipes in WWII

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aquadoc

Lifer
Feb 15, 2017
2,044
1,522
New Hampshire, USA
I also believe there was an aromatic called 'Hitler Blend' that was a mixture of heady bullsh*t and cheap recycled ideas that burnt the smokers brain. I believe it was reintroduced as 'Clan' in 1950 but failed to gain any traction in the U.S market in the Deep South. rotf

On a serious note I think the Germans had some twist and certainly plug tobacco and before the war a lot of U.K blends were exported to Germany. It should be remembered that Hitler was very anti-smoking and all tobacco advertising was banned in Germany by the mid 1930s.
Being from the deep south, we have plenty of things to smoke that burn our brains out.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
This won't lend any historical perspective, but in point of fact, my father, born in 1917, smoked from about age 15 until he was 65, smoking pretty much all day from just after breakfast until bedtime, with time out for meals. In those days, during much of his career, he could smoke at work. He was a U.S. Navy minesweeper skipper in WWII, trained on both the east and west coast, and he shipped out to the Philippines where he was skipper of several YMS minesweepers. He always bought American made pipes, though as I child I didn't know the brands, and he always smoked Granger, nearly always from a pouch. Though Granger is rough cut Kentucky burley, it is technically aromatic flavored with molasses, and is sold as either even today. My dad quit smoking when he took a no-smoking campus job as a second career at 65, and died at 89 licensed to drive without glasses.
 

mikethompson

Lifer
Jun 26, 2016
11,339
23,496
Near Toronto, Ontario, Canada
World War II was a hellish nightmare, I don't think that's hyperbole. What the average person or soldier smoked at the beginning of the war was probably drastically different than what was available towards the end. I think the difference would be something like a nice blend from a tobacconist to 'whatever you could get your hands on'.
 

wulfheard

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 18, 2018
107
199
New Jersey
It seems to me that smoking on the battlefield might not have been the best of ideas, especially if you were trying to strategically keep your position discreet. Cigars or pipes would have been a no-no in my opinion. But warfare being what it is, anything such as ingestion of nicotine that might ease the nerves or keep the mind preoccupied is something that would be necessary.
 

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,518
Tennessee
The tea leaf was smoked I think in rolled up newspaper by P.O.W's in the Far East. I heard that story from my Auntie Winnies gardener when I was a child since he was a prisoner of the Japanese for a few years during the war.

To survive that, your Auntie's gardner is a fucking beast.
 
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Jan 27, 2020
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Some institution or individual actually went to the trouble of writing a paper on the subject:
 
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f4phantomdriver

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 23, 2019
111
176
That is an interesting question. I would guess they smoked a lot of Turkish or Oriental blends since they would have had more access to it after the war started. They may have also smoked some latakia heavy blends since it would have been available to them.

I've seen a number of historical photos showing enlisted men in the German army smoking pipes also so I don't think it was just officers.

Someone else will correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe there were as many aromatic blends in existence back in the 1930s & 40s. My impression is that the explosion of aromatic flavored tobacco didn't happen until after the 1970s.
There are a few aromatic blends back in the late 30s and early 40s. Mixture #79 , Heines Blend, Cookie Jar, Revelation, Brindley's Mixture, Walnut, Sugar Barrel, they were all considered aromatics. Captain Black came out in the 1960s.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,739
27,336
Carmel Valley, CA
World War II was a hellish nightmare, I don't think that's hyperbole. What the average person or soldier smoked at the beginning of the war was probably drastically different than what was available towards the end. I think the difference would be something like a nice blend from a tobacconist to 'whatever you could get your hands on'.
The Great War (called so before it became WWI) was nasty, nasty, nasty, perhaps in some ways worse than WWII. I can't think of any war I have read about that wasn't so. (Maybe the Falklands "war" would qualify.)
 
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