Lest we forget

Over 9,000 New Zealanders died in eight weeks in the pandemic known as the ‘Spanish Flu’, a virus that arrived in a relatively mild form by ship from overseas in September 1918. Despite its name, it had nothing to do with Spain.

This form of influenza possibly originated in Kansas in the United States, flourished in the US Army’s camps from late 1917 and went with the doughboys to France. It spread rapidly across Europe, affecting both sets of opposing armies across the trenches in France. The Spanish Flu was a strong factor in the rapid decline of the armies of the Germans and their allies which led to the Armistice and cessation of hostilities on 11th November 1918.

A second wave of this influenza, probably a mutation and and the hospital ship bringing servicemen home.