A early spanish flu.

What is spanish flu had arriving some years ago,in 1915 circa,hitting the soldiers at front?
Influence on the war?
 

Driftless

Donor
I'm no expert on diseases....

Even now, the source of the 1918 outbreak seems to be unclear, with a host of potential locations.

IF you have an earlier source, that gets carried along (literally) by hundreds of thousands to millions of soldiers on the move, the results could have been absolutely devastating to all sides. The 1918 outbreak hit ages and conditions hard, including those otherwise healthy folks not normally as susceptible by attacking the immune system. Soldiers in the trenches, under extreme physical and mental stress would likely have been hit really hard and would have spread the disease up and down (and across) the trench lines. Conceivably, such an outbreak could have functionally shut down operations on a massive scale.

With limited understanding of the source of the outbreak, might the opposing sides have viewed the disease as a form of biologic warfare?
 
What is spanish flu had arriving some years ago,in 1915 circa,hitting the soldiers at front?
Influence on the war?

Probably the flu kills fewer people, since populations across the world haven't been weakened so severely (even in countries not officially part of the war, the effects of the war were devastating - I've read one estimate that half of the Persian population died during WW1).

On the other hand, the flu has more impact on the war itself. Not only do millions of men and women die on both sides, but the flu takes out important leaders probably altering the way the war is fought considerably. I doubt that this would shorten WW1 any, though.

fasquardon
 
One strongly suspected source was the Chinese Labour Corps. There were several early cases among them while transiting Canada. If this was the origin, 1915 is too early, since the labor shortages didn't get bad enough until 1916.

Another commonly accepted origin story is that it built up in the army camps of Europe, and the particular circumstances of the war built up the virulence. If so, then 1915 is also too early for such a virulent pandemic.

The third commonly accepted (and weakest theory, it seems) is that it originated in Kansas. If a spontaneous mutation of such virulence pops up in Kansas in 1915, it likely burns itself out quickly and doesn't spread to become a pandemic.
 
The Chinese labor camp is one theory about the Origin, because 1917 China was hit by Flu.
most modern medical study in Spanish Flu, indicate that virus mutated at French frontline and spread from there over the world.

it's quite possible that Virus could mutated earlier into H1N1 variant.
 
The Chinese labor camp is one theory about the Origin, because 1917 China was hit by Flu.
most modern medical study in Spanish Flu, indicate that virus mutated at French frontline and spread from there over the world.

it's quite possible that Virus could mutated earlier into H1N1 variant.

Nobody really knows for sure. But, as I pointed out above, the problem with the European mutation origin for this question is that it takes time for the conditions for that to build up. Very unlikely to happen within the timeframe. Mid-war could be doable, but probably not before late 1916/early 1917.
 
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