SPANISH FLU 100 YEARS AGO 1918

1918 A young soldier Harry Underwood returned to the front after being injured in action. He felt bad again and was sent to the military hospital.

The next morning, he was dead after gasping for air, chocking and his skin turned grey. It is assumed that he was one of the first victims of the Spanish Flu which costs 100 million lives the world over.

The pandemic spread rapidly across Europe, USA, China and India, just to name a few of the countries.

In looking back, it was one of the worst medical catastrophe and claimed more victims than any others in history.

The most baffling point was for the medicals that it struck down the fit and healthy men and women. Since the World War I was still raging it did not get the full attention.

The pandemic of the 1918 influenza claimed more victims then the whole World War 1. It seemed unstoppable and there was no cure for it. People started to wear facemasks which seemed to only way to hopefully prevent catching it.

Flu has a long history and date back to Roman and Greek times. The word influenza was first mentioned in 1500 by Italians describing an illness they thought being “influenced” by the stars.

Today’s flu is nothing in comparisons to the outbreak in 1918. There was no country being spared. To matter worse because of an even second outbreak in the autumn. It was so bad that people collapsed in the street and bled from lungs and noses which suffocated them. Children starved to death because parents were so ill they could not care for them. Undertakers had not enough coffins to bury the dead.

Scientists studied the 1918 influenza thought they traced the outbreak to the camp in Etaples, France. It was the camp where farmer’s son from Kent Harry Underwood age 20 died.

At the end of 1917 men were crammed in the camp and the flu went through like wild fire but the virus was suspected to come from animals or birds kept for food.

Adding to it was the war which had huge army movements plus the resistance of men was very low because of the terrible conditions in the trenches.

As usually, the authorities were slow in trying to stop spreading by organising isolations. In those days influenza was thought it is a bacteria, not a virus.

News announced that Spain is badly affected and therefore the label “Spanish Flu” sprang up and it stuck.

In Britain Whitehall did not see the point to introduce quarantine on trams and buses or close theatres for fear to lower morals. As always, their disorganisation let the flu spread quicker and further.

To prove the point, Manchester had a lower death rate because Dr James Niven, the city’s medical officer, did establish quarantine rules.  

On the contrary, in Newcastle, mines and docks nearly ground to a standstill because 70 per cent of workers fell ill.

The German army was also affected by 150,000 men in summer of 1918. If you like to call it a blessing; it could have brought an earlier end to the war.

The last death in the year 1918 was William Leefe Robinson, 23, who won a Victoria Cross being the first pilot to shoot down a Graf Zeppelin.

Armistice Day celebration brought everyone out on the street which could have ignite another pandemic but fortunately it didn’t.

Scientists now know it was a H1N1 strain related to the avian flu.

The question remains, can it happen again despite medical advances, communications and vaccinations? There is no doubt the danger is still there. 

BATTLE OF SOMME 100TH ANNIVERSARY

To begin with it has to be said that it is incredible when you see these endless graves; it was and still is not a lesson to mankind to stop war. How can politicians bow their heads to honour the dead, attend commemoration ceremonies, lay wreath and then plan war? How can they?

The battle of Somme began 1 July 1916 an offensive led by the Allies against the German troops. It was along the river Somme in northern France in the First World War. The plan was made by France's General Joffre and Britain's Field Marshall Haig as a joint offensive.

Although well planned but the reality was that the French army was almost destroyed defending Verdun. It left Lord Kitchener new volunteer armies to face the full horror of the fighting.

When the British soldiers emerged from the trenches they were in full view of the enemy's machine guns. Over 19 000 died on the first day alone.

The Germans retreated to the concrete pillbox emplacements of the Hindenburg Line from which they sent wave after wave poorly supported infantry.The Germans built this fortified defence system in the First World War after they could not capture Verdun. It stretched from Lens to Rheims and became to be known as the Hindenburg Line. In 1917 it helped the Germans to maintain a defensive front even their army was severely reduced.

In September General Haig launched a major assault with 32 tanks out front. The problem was that the tanks began to get grounded in the knee deep mud. Therefore there were not enough tanks to have a greater impact. It was the first time tanks were used.

When the conflict ended in November 15 the Allies gained 5 miles (8 km) at a cost of 615 000 lives and the Germans lost 420 000. A heart-breaking reminder and one would think it was a lesson for all times. 70 000 bodies were never found and identified and are remembered by a huge memorial.

To understand and see the full horror we have to remember in those days women had big families and were left to their devices to cope. At the  beginning of the 20th century people were very hard up, apart from the upper class who were very rich. How these women coped one does dare thinking about.

These young men lost their lives for Queen and country with great loyalty but did the Queen and country care about their families? On the contrary they were look down upon and despised because they were in rags, starved and with lice and flees living in worst housing possible. Even ended up in the poorhouse, which was even a bigger living nightmare, when they could not cope any more.

Looking back at all these impacts of war on the front as well as at home it should be a lesson to be learned when we commemorate all those fallen and maimed soldiers. It is not right to commemorate and honour all those hundred thousands who lost their lives so young and still start another war again.

Britain did not have to get involve in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Syria. It created more enemies as it has proven. An army is there to protect its country and not to fight in foreign land. Blair and Bush are totally responsible for the existence of IS who grew so strong even the Al-Qaeda distance itself.

All those heads of states when they stand there and bow their heads to honour all those millions died in the First and Second World War have the power to create or avoid further wars. They should not be so insincere.

ANNIVERSARY OF FINDING CAPTAIN SCOTT'S BODY

SCOTT'S GROUP --  ONE DAY AFTER 
THEY DISCOVERED AMUNDSON 
REACHED THE POLE ALREADY

Hundred years ago 12 members of the Captain Scott’s exhibition set out to find the body of their leader and four others who stayed with him. It was eight months after the failed Antarctic exploration.

The youngest of the original team was the leader of the search party a 26 year old Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He found the tent in which the legendary Captain Scott perished. He is now known as Scot of the Antarctic. It was only 11 miles from the supply depot which would have saved them.

The story of Captain Scott valiant struggle became legendary but hardly anybody knows about the torment of the rest of the Antarctic expedition. For the rest of their lives they suffer guilt of failure, pain and depression.

After they found the frozen bodies of Scott, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers, Cherry-Garrard wrote in his diary: “We have found them – to say it has been a ghastly day cannot express it – it is too bad for words.”

The bodies of Captain Lawrence Oates and Petty Officer Edgar Evans were never found.

APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD

Cherry-Garrard could never forget his role in the Scott’s expedition. For the rest of his life he always felt guilty that he could have done something more to save Scott. Two months after Scott had made the last of the journey to the Pole only to find that the Norwegian Roald Amundson had been there already and planted the flag. Cherry-Garrard was ordered to go to the depot and await, hopefully, Scott’s arrival on 10 March 1912.

However, as faith was against them Cherry-Garrard’s dog team was in poor health and running out of dog food he had to cut the ration as well. He decided to turn back before the date he should have met Scott. 

After that he always felt regret to have made that decision and thinking he might have saved Scott’s life.

His torment showed for the first time when on the search for Scott’s body he mistook another mule team at One Ton depot for Scot’s Tent. He almost had a break-down blaming him selves to have abandoned the depot too soon and therefore causing Scott’s death. Back in Britain he suffered great depressions. The once healthy and fit man became bed-ridden caused by his mental turmoil. For many years he fought the demons created by his memory. Later he found some peace in writing his Book “The Worst Journey”. It reveals the anguish at the polar expedition.

DR EDWARD LEICESTER ATKINSON

Dr Edward Leicester Atkinson, the polar’s party surgeon, had his own depression to deal with after he came back to Britain. Some people accused him of pushing his dog-team to far when he was looking for Scott. Others accused him of not established a dog food depot which led to Cherry-Garrard not waiting for Scott.

When the First World War broke out Atkinson joined up to overcome his struggles. He survived the Somme and was also fighting in Russia but when his ship HMS Glatton was in Dover an explosion occurred.  Atkinson received massive burns and hot shrapnel went into him. He also was blinded but in spite of all that he saved many men. Just before his 48^th birthday he died suddenly in 1929 while travelling on another ship.

Cherry-Gerrard received another great shock when he heard he lost his friend who stuck by him all these years.

EDWARD NELSON

Also Edward Nelson, marine biologist, could never get over the Scott’s failure and discovery of his body. On his returning to England in 1913 he met a young lady named Violet Helen Thomas. They married in the same year later. For unknown reason they chosen the 12 November for their wedding day. The day on which they found Scott’s body.

When war broke out within a few months Nelson joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

The trauma of war together with the horrors of the Antarctic changed him completely. Nelson could not bear to be with his wife and young daughter and in 1919 they separated. He went to work in a Scottish fishery. Four years later he was found dead in his office. He had injected himself with a huge amount of poison.

While Captain Scott and Captain Oates, whose famous words were “I am going outside and may be some time” went into history and became legends the rest of the expedition men were no less heroic for their struggles having to live with those memories.

They should have been all recognised, equally, and gone down in history as legend.