Jeffrey V. Moy, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center
During the spring of 1918, the long and protracted stalemate on the front lines had finally tipped in favor of the Allies with the United States’ entry into World War I, in which the British, French, Russian, and other Allied nations were pitted against the Axis powers of Germany, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.
As if to deprive the nations of the world of the hard fought peace, a global pandemic claimed the lives of those young men and women who were lucky enough to have escaped death. The Influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 killed more individuals worldwide than had died in the Great War — an estimated 50 million people — and it became one of the deadliest epidemics in recorded history.
While influenza is typically only fatal among some infants and elderly victims, the 1918 strain was deadliest among those between the ages twenty and forty years old, with 28% of Americans contracting the disease that ultimately killed approximately 675,000 (many times the number of servicemen who died in combat)[1].
As troops deployed thousands of miles overseas the virus traveled with them, spreading faster than medical professionals and authorities could react. Most governments censored any news that negatively affected morale, thus, citizens were unaware of the epidemic until it was too late.[2] The epidemic was initially referred to as “Spanish Flu” because neutral Spain still possessed a free press and was the first country to report the pandemic as it spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
Unlike today, in 1918 there were no laboratory tests, vaccines, or antiviral medications with which to treat influenza, and no antibiotics to tame its lethal companion pneumonia; thus, preventative techniques were limited to encouraging good hygiene, placing the infected under quarantine, and closing public settings such as schools and theaters.[3]
Morristown’s Board of Health banned large gatherings in response to the increasing number of fatalities throughout the state. Schools, saloons, dance halls, and cinemas shuttered, and even public funerals were prohibited. Church services and battalion drills were also halted. By January, 1919, over 18,300 deaths had already been reported by The Jerseyman newspaper.
Dedicated doctors and nurses served on the front lines of the war against the influenza pandemic, fighting to ascertain disease vectors and determine treatment methods all while knowing they could fall victim themselves. Poor conditions on the battlefield helped the virus proliferate as soldiers’ immune systems were weakened by malnourished, injury, and stress. Many victims suffered death from an extreme form of pneumonia that caused violent coughing[4].
Long after hostilities ceased, when the Armistice was signed, and the final parades had dispersed, towns across the nation built memorials to their war dead. Lost among the etched names of those killed in combat were the victims of influenza, since most monuments excluded soldiers who died of illness or other non-combat related causes. Similarly, no physical memorials exist to the millions of civilians who died in one of the world’s greatest holocausts.
Sources:
- David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, pg 189.
- CDC.gov/features/1918-flu-pandemic.
Additional information on the contributions of Morris County’s men and women to the war effort, at home and abroad, can be found in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center.
MORE ARTICLES BY THE NORTH JERSEY HISTORY & GENEALOGY CENTER
For a behind the scenes look at our collections and additional information on New Jersey history, follow us on Twitter @NJHistoryCenter and on Tumblr at njhgc.tumblr.com.
My dad Thomas Hennion was in the ambulance corps… 1917…he never talked to me about the war or the Epidemic… Now I realize going through this period myself… He didn’t want me to know such horrors could exist.