Ben Gilbert

And the response back from the government was basically like, sorry, Coca-Cola is about as American as it gets, and that's what we need right now.

And that's what our boys are requesting, including General soon-to-be President Eisenhower.

And documenting the absolute crap out of it to use in their advertising.

Yes.

So Robert Woodruff, 1941, comes right out and pledges that anywhere where an American soldier is fighting the war, they will be able to get a Coca-Cola, and they'll be able to get that for five cents.

It's unbelievable.

And supply them they did.

1941 to 1945, 64 portable bottling plants were sent to Asia, Europe, and North Africa.

And the best estimates are that more than 5 billion bottles were distributed to troops during the war.

That's international, but then back home, it really cemented Coke as, this is apple pie in a bottle.

All the servicemen coming home, Coke was the treat that you could get when you were at war.

You better believe they're Coke drinkers for life now.

They're not switching brands.

Crazy, right?

So it's funny, before World War II, there was a presence for Coca-Cola in pre-Nazi Germany.

As you can imagine, it became difficult to supply Nazi Germany with American Coca-Cola during the war.

Since those factories, German Coca-Cola factories, lost touch with the mothership and all the ingredients that they would need to source, they found alternate ingredients and made kind of like a crappier knockoff drink that they could make with the supplies they had.

That drink is Fanta.

Yeah.

Who lost access temporarily to the real thing and did that instead.