Küntscher first performed the process using the nail in November 1939 at the University Department of Surgery in Kiel.
The German military had the upper hand in treating soldiers with the IM nail and having them return to fighting status in just a few weeks.
Worldwide knowledge was not established until the prisoners of war (POW's) returned to their home countries carrying Küntscher's legacy in the form of steel nails in their legs.
All previous treatment of femur fractures required 6 weeks of bed rest and Allied doctors debriefing the returnees were astonished that they were up and walking in days after surgery.
A. W. Fischer, head of Küntscher's department, said in 1944 about his invention: "This practical treatment of fractures using a nail, the Küntscher procedure, is, in my eyes, the greatest revolution in the treatment of bone fractures since the invention of nail extension by Klapp, and this revolution will conquer the world.