World War II lasted between 1939 and 1945 and caused a total of about 50 million deaths. In an effort to end the war sooner and win over the Axis Powers, the Allied Powers came up with a variety of interesting ideas. One of the oddest was the plan to lace Hitler's meals with estrogen in an effort to make him less aggressive.
It is known that estrogen, the class of female sex hormones, has the effect of reduced aggression in males. Since Adolf Hitler had his meals tested before eating, the Allied Powers thought it would be easy for spies to lace his food with estrogen without anyone detecting it. The estrogen would take effect over the course of several months, ideally making the Nazi leader less aggressive. Although the idea was never put into action, it was given serious consideration.
Making Adolf Hitler more feminine wasn't the only strange idea to cross the Allied Powers' minds during World War II. Other ideas included dropping glue or venomous snakes on enemy troops.
More about World War II:
- The Allied Powers dropped an average of 27,700 bombs per month on enemy troops during World War II.
- More Russians died in the Siege of Stalingrad than all American and British deaths combined during the entire war.
- William Hitler, Adolph Hitler's nephew, was a US Navy service member during World War II.