organized and was inadequate for the task of servicing the new forces.
Much of the medical care was under contract surgeons who retained
civilian status. They had no official rank nor were they subject to
military discipline. The army had to turn to hospitals throughout the
country to organize the units to provide medical service and medical
personnel.
In other words, two things happened. American troops were sent into
regions where flu outbreaks were already underway and the medical
sector associated with the military was unprepared to deal with it.
The bridge for the flu was built across the Atlantic. Though as you
will learn later, some think the flu went the other direction from the
US to Europe.
"...A first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in
Kansas and in military camps throughout the US. Few noticed the
epidemic in the midst of the war. Wilson had just given his 14 point
address. There was virtually no response or acknowledgement to the
epidemics in March and April in the military camps. It was unfortunate
that no steps were taken to prepare for the usual recrudescence of the
virulent influenza strain in the winter. The lack of action was later
criticized when the epidemic could not be ignored in the winter of
1918."
Quote from "Life at Camp Funston" - Reflections of Army Sergeant
Charles L. Johnston
Just when everyone thought the war was over, the influenza epidemic
stuck home in the US.
As for the military in europe: In June of 1918 - "Captain Ivor
Williams wrote that 600 out of 750 men in his camp in France had
contracted the flu. Although the decline in wartime health due to
rationing can be partly blamed for the immense impact of the flu,
countries such as Sweden that were not involved in the war, also
experienced high mortality from the virus."
The movements of armies across Europe and Asia also became the means
by which the flu was spread. while cases were showing up at various
places in Europe, it was in France that the bug changed its character
and became deadly. This was first noticed among African soldiers who
had been recruited into the French military. Many now claim the bug
started in Tibet. Others claimed that the disease started in the
Middle Eastern battlefields, whereas others blamed it on China and
India. A recent study argued that the disease was brought to the
Western Front by a group of USA soldiers from Kansas.
Regardless of where it originated, after the first mild wave of cases
were reported, the second-wave of the epidemic spread quickly. In one
sector of the Western Front over 70,000 American troops were
hospitalized and nearly one third of these men failed to recover. By
the end of the summer the virus had reached the German Army. The virus
created serious problems for the German military leadership as they
found it impossible to replace their sick and dying soldiers.
One major question is still unanswered to the satisfaction of some; Is
it proper to consider the Influenza pandemic as part of the overall
death count for the war, given the important part the war played in
its transmission?
For most historians, the Spanish flu is not included with information
about the war itself but as part of the aftermath of the war when the
disease spread through both neutral and warring countries.
Perhaps its greatest effect on the First World War had to do with the
ending of that war. There is even a chance that the Second World War
could have been avoided if it had not been for the flu.
President Woodrow Wilson contracted a case of the flu while he was in
Paris working out the details of the Treaty of Versailles. It is
believed that if Wilson had not been so ill, and bad tempered because
of it, the Treaty conditions would not have been so harsh and the
Second World War may never had taken place. Much of Hitler's rise to
power was based on the German hatred of the excessive penalties of
Versailles.