Spanish influenza

[kin47]

Hello

I am interested in any information on the impact of the Spanish influenza upon overseas ships. I have heard that AFRICA and BRITANNIA in particular were so heavily impacted that they lost their ability to be fighting warships.

Does anyone have any data on this or can suggest a published source?

Many thanks

don

[montbrehain]

cant help you with what you seek, but have you read "the curse of the spanish lady" ( I think thats what its called? i read it along time ago) a very good history of the 1918 flu and frightening too. does mention ships i think?

[cahoehler]

. . . information on the impact of the Spanish influenza upon overseas ships.

Don

Try http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/82757-ebook.htm

Good data may help to segregate the "normal" war casualties from the total deaths at the end of 1918 - if not it may be necessary to estimate 'flu casualties by subtraction (from the total).

I am interested in South African casualties but prof Phillips says that "exact figures are difficult to determine in South Africa". The South African deaths are estimated at almost half a million compared with an estimated global total of 20 million (an estimated mortality of 1 in 50 [2%] while in India 4% died).

Carl Hoehler

[Borden Battery]

This recommended CEF Study Group website will provide some additional background and further links. Borden Battery

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. [August 2006]

http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

[Old Tom]

Hello,

I have tried to read up this aspect of history during WW1. The following from my notes may be of interest.

Probably started in Haskell County, Kansas in Feb 1918 and died down there in mid March. It spread to the new army camps. and round the world faded away in 1920 may have killed between 21 and 50 million. The camps contained 50,000 men each from wide background and with different immunities and vulnerabilities. That winter was the coldest on record and many were living in tents. Measles epidemics had occurred from Sep 17. Influenza spread from camp to camp.

It is a viral disease often causing pneumonia. Types A,B and C, originates in the guts of birds and can infect people, if it mutates can pass between people.

First outbreak in France at Brest early April and cases were reported in Paris and in BEF in mid April. BEF had 36,473 hospital admissions in 1st Army in May. Also 3rd Army. An Arty bde had one third of strength ill in 48 hours and its ammo column had only 15 men fit. But complications were few. German troops in the field suffered sharp outbreaks in late April. Between 1 June and 1 Aug 200,000 Brits of 2,000,000 were too ill for duty and the epidemic was declared over on Aug 20.

Ludendorff blamed influenza for the loss of initiative and failure of the offensive in early 1918

In June and July death rates in Portugal, Greece, UK, and in July and August Holland and Sweden. But the disease was in a mild form only I1 of 600 US soldiers in France died. In the French army 100 died from 40,000 admissions to hospital. In the British fleet 4 died of 10,000 ill.

A second wave followed, mainly carried by ships from Europe

More US soldiers died from influenza than wounds. 20,000 in 2 months to 10 Oct 18

On Oct 15 1,500 Berliners had died. In Oct more than 1,000 Indians at Bombay, 2,225 in London. On Nov 9th 1,000s of French civilians died. By end of war 150,000 Brit soldiers and civs had died. 10s of thousands of POWs died.

The most specific book I found was, 'The Great Influenza' by John M Barry published by Viking Penguin.

Old Tom

[Borden Battery]

Here is a quotation from Stanford University and sourced from the website noted above. Borden Battery

"The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus. The recombination of its surface proteins created a virus novel to almost everyone and a loss of herd immunity. Recently the virus has been reconstructed from the tissue of a dead soldier and is now being genetically characterized. The name of Spanish Flu came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain (BMJ,10/19/1918) where it allegedly killed 8 million in May (BMJ, 7/13/1918). However, a first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the US."

[FAAAEd]

I am interested in any information on the impact of the Spanish influenza upon overseas ships. I have heard that AFRICA and BRITANNIA in particular were so heavily impacted that they lost their ability to be fighting warships.

Does anyone have any data on this or can suggest a published source?

don

That is interesting in the light that Britannia (along with Africa one of the 'Wobbly Eight' King Edward VII class pre-Dreadnought batleships) had the distinction of being the last British warship sunk in the Great War. Sunk on 9th November 1918 by UB50 (source on assailant) H.M.Le Fleming and Ian Allan). Could it be that influenza caused operational difficulties leading to her loss?

For an excellent background reader on the Influenza epidemic, and its possible relevence to avian influenzas, 'Catching Cold: 1918's Forgotten Tragedy and the Scientific Hunt for the Virus That Caused It' by Pete Davies is recommended.

[eltoro1960]

kin47 said:

Hello

I am interested in any information on the impact of the Spanish influenza upon overseas ships. I have heard that AFRICA and BRITANNIA in particular were so heavily impacted that they lost their ability to be fighting warships.

Does anyone have any data on this or can suggest a published source?

Many thanks

don

Hi there here is a link to an earlier post of mine , a local man John Cooper was one of seven men to die on HMS Africa in one day of influenza, IMHO there is now way they could be combat effective with this level of sickness on board. The reference to HMS Africa and John Cooper are towards the end of the post.