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Death by Flu in WWI


james127
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With all of the talk about coronavirus in the news, it might be a good time to look back at one of the worst pandemics that the world has ever seen. This was from a WWI cemetery but it was crazy to walk through this place and see the vast number of graves from after 11/11/18. All of the videos that I've done so far have been in the U.S. but this one (and many more in the coming weeks) goes across the Atlantic. Enjoy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIXOqETF7K8

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Great content thanks for sharing some of these little explorations are certainly on my bucket list! Sure wouldn't mind if I could fly over on someone else tab also hahah! Im dying to know was the knife in the planet when you got back ?

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The Rooster

More people died in the usa of the flu than US personel killed in the military during WW1.

 

 

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

 

Great video James... !!!

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A most excellent video James. Great informative narrative, and great job as our guide.

 

Thanks! Appreciate that. I was able to film quite a bit of content while I was over there. Hopefully, I don't come off sounding like a complete dummy when I get to Normandy.

 

Great content thanks for sharing some of these little explorations are certainly on my bucket list! Sure wouldn't mind if I could fly over on someone else tab also hahah! Im dying to know was the knife in the planet when you got back ?

Ha! I was pretty fortunate to be able to go. And TSA has a small collection of my knives that they've collected over the years. And a 7mm magnum bullet :dry:

 

More people died in the usa of the flu than US personel killed in the military during WW1.

 

 

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

 

Great video James... !!!

Crazy how that part of history gets glossed over. I guess WWI has overshadowed it.

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everforward

I would recommend that anyone who gets to France pay a visit to the Suresnes American Cemetery......beautiful views of Paris from there.

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I would recommend that anyone who gets to France pay a visit to the Suresnes American Cemetery......beautiful views of Paris from there.

 

Yes, the view is amazing. I think that this place really gets overlooked when people are putting together a trip to Paris.

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everforward

Here are some of the pics I took while at Suresnes in September 2018....all of the US WW1 cemeteries in France were sprucing up in preparation for the Centennial rememberances....Suresnes is where President Trump spoke in observance of the Armistice that November........

 

Suresnes was also the first US WW1 Cemetery established in France.

 

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Here are some of the pics I took while at Suresnes in September 2018....all of the US WW1 cemeteries in France were sprucing up in preparation for the Centennial rememberances....Suresnes is where President Trump spoke in observance of the Armistice that November........

 

Suresnes was also the first US WW1 Cemetery established in France.

 

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Very cool. I think that this is one that gets overshadowed by all of the other touristy type things in Paris.

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If You ask Bill the Patch and Me, Died in Service is thee common heading on WWI trough Korea/Vietnam tombstones in the Cemeteries here abouts in Glendale Queens, we spent years exploring them back in the 70s, and would look for soldiers graves, like in the Jewish cemeteries. In the Jewish ones a lot of these from the Great War had porcelain photos of them on these tall narrow Hebrew tombstones, sometimes in civilian clothes, with like you know, derbys or straw hats on, and sometimes in uniform, either with a Campaign hat or Overseas cap on. Now for those who were Killed in Action, it would say Killed in Action. I suspect now that most of the Died in Service ones, died from the Spanish Flu right, there was so many of them in one particular Jewish Cemetery we would go to, outnumbering I think the ones marked Killed in Action.

 

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Camp Merritt Memorial Monument Cresskill New Jersey.

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Been here a gazillion times through the 70s and well into the 80s, Cresskill New Jersey, my late Uncle lived in this town, my Aunt and their two boys, my cousins, they don't live there in the town anymore, sold the house after my Uncle and Aunt had to placed in a home, he passed, she's still with us in a old folks home, so its unlikely I'll ever go to Cressklll again, but the years and years I went there to visit over from NYC always liked to walk the four or so blocks to the WW Memorial, was stunned as I got older and realized the gravity of it. As you'll see on the WIKI on it, 573 Servicemen, 4 Nurses (Maybe Civilian maybe Army, don't know), and 1 Civilian (Presumably a man, and presumably a worker of sorts there at the camp).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Merritt_Memorial_Monument

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Salvage Sailor

My grandfather penned a letter to his folks dated Feb 1st, 1919 from Camp Merritt, NJ just after his return from France in which he wrote about his comrades being ill during their return trip to the states.

 

Some excerpts beginning on Christmas 1918

 

We were at Laigne en Belin (ed: south of LeMans) Christmas and left there Dec. 31st at 3 P.M. That was a good place and we had good quarters and fine meals. I was feeling fine and Grant (ed: his brother) said I was fattening like a pig. I really believe I have lost 10 lbs since we left there. We had a trip from there to Brest in a box car, 53 men in one car and it was a small one, too.
We arrived at Brest in the evening about 4 P.M. and we did not drop our packs until 11:30. It was raining, chilly and we were all weak or sick from the trip. I saw several drop in their tracks from exhaustion on the hike out to camp. It was a hard hike. The final stretch was about 6 inches of mud. I mean six inches, too. We slept on “duck boards” for 5 nights. Duck boards are nothing more than a narrow step ladder with the steps about 6 inches apart. Believe me, it is lay still or fall off. The roof leaked and there were puddles of water on all sides of our bed. I would set my helmet over my shoes at night to keep them from getting full of water.
Then we moved to another barracks where we had bunks, two high. Grant was sick there practically all the time and I had so much trouble with my lungs that I just could keep moving. For several days we ate at a mess hall where we walked thru the kitchen out into a yard of mud from 3 to 6 inches deep. Of course, we had to stand there until we finished eating. Several times it was raining and when we finished eating our mess kits would be full of water. Later we ate at a mess hall where we could stand at a table and eat. The meals were poorly cooked but we had a plenty.
We left Brest, Jan. 17. We were there 17 days and it was detail every day and many of the nights, rain or shine, and it was mostly rain. My shoes were not dry during the 17 days and many times I went to bed soaked from my knees down. I don’t see how we kept out of the hospital.
The hike to the boat was the hardest hike we ever made. We came over on the USS FREDERICK, formerly the MARYLAND. It’s a cruiser, built in 1902. I was sick the first day or two but after that I enjoyed the trip. We took a southern route and it was warm all the way. We could lay on the deck all day and during the evening and be comfortable.......
Continuing on Feb. 1st, 1919 from Camp Merritt, NJ
......Write me at Camp Sherman Ohio and if I do not get it they will return it to you. I have not had any mail since leaving here (ed: the states to go to France) except one letter from Lynn written Dec. 22. He said you were all well and I hope this finds you the same. I am feeling fine and you need not worry about me at all. I lived thru that trip to France so I think there is no chance of even catching a cold over here.
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I had a close friend I made after I got out of the Army in 82-83 , in the 80s he worked in a Jewish Cemetery here in Glendale, the one where Houdini is buried, he made a comment on the huge amount of young people buried in various plots, studying them, he seen all 1918 1919 dates on these tall narrow Hebrew Tombstones, the office had some records of these, and basically the cause was the Spanish Flu, though there are probably WW Servicemen scattered around, most where civilian boys and girls, late aged teenagers and early 20s, one struck him he told me as it had a little porcelain photo of one of the Jewish girls, in a wedding dress, Beloved Wife it said in English and I imagine in Hebrew, a girl that was 20.

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