5 ms·
The end of WW1 overlaps the beginning of the 1918 flu pandemic which killed far more people. Hard to believe the close quarters of trench warfare didn’t contrib
by m-ee 6y ago
The end of WW1 overlaps the beginning of the 1918 flu pandemic which killed far more people. Hard to believe the close quarters of trench warfare didn’t contribute.
- lostlogin 6y agoIt’s not just the trenches, it’s the the massive movement of people that also contributed. Exporting hundreds of thousands or even millions of healthy young soldiers around the world with a dose of an infectious disease is a perfect recipe. They last a long time and give diseases lots of time to spread in the close quarters of ships and barracks and then their homes.
- kmonsen 6y agoI saw a video that claimed it started with some British Chinese troops being moved through Canada like cattle in railway cars. There was already an outbreak in China the year before. From there it spread to all the army bases in the U.S. who then took it to Europe.
- inglor_cz 6y ago"troops being moved through Canada like cattle in railway cars" Interestingly, Austrian-Hungarian soldiers were also transported to the front in cattle cars (8 Pferde oder 48 Mann = 8 horses or 48 men in a car) and were very jealous of the Germans whose military bureaucracy tried to provide normal passenger railway cars to their troops if possible. The difference was very obvious in the places where the two armies fought side by side, such as Galicia.
- kmonsen 6y agoBtw, here is were I heard it, not sure how true it is: https://youtu.be/XQ9WX4qVxEo https://youtu.be/XQ9WX4qVxEo