To read the conditions that these soldiers were put under are amazing. Eating under cooked food and not having enough rations to feed someone who is fighting in a war seems taxing on the human body. Coupled with the over consumption of coffee its not a mystery to why these soldiers bodies would tire out. Coffee is known to cause paranoia, muscle pain and heartbeat irregularities. I find it amazing that these soldiers would fight for days on end drinking nothing but coffee without their body effectively shutting down. But I believe that the coffee substitutes gave the soldiers a placebo effect and gave them a comfortable medium.