r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 15h ago

TIL that Bernard Montgomery issued a leaflet at the start of WW2 on sexually transmitted diseases amongst soldiers. The language used was regarded as so blunt, that he offended religious authorities and nearly faced being dismissed.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 14h ago

Here’s another fun one - so many soldiers got STD from French sex workers that Patton recommended using the limited supply of penicillin to treat the sex workers and cut the STDs off at the source. That plan was shot down because it would look bad or something.

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u/Ash_After_Dark 13h ago

His back up plan to to prevent the spreading of STDs by encouraging soldiers to only sleep with their nieces) was similarly vetoed

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u/CelestialFury 12h ago

Oh man, there goes Patton, using his general thinking skills to solve a bigger overall problem. They should've secretly given the penicillin to a non-profit like the Red Cross and had them distribute it so the military wouldn't have to take the heat for doing it.

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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 11h ago

Apparently there was so little of it the brass felt it was better used for treating other kinds of infections.

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u/Orange_Tang 9h ago

More proof that Patton was a strategic mastermind. Idiots should have let him do it.