quantdave t1_j84p4sl wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:38 PM

Reply to comment by hop0316 in Weekly History Questions Thread. by AutoModerator

That's the pandemic, then: November 1918 was one of the deadliest months internationally (October in the US, but later for most). It hadn't occurred to me that it had reached so far into inner Asia, but troop movements in the war's last year were the biggest source of global spread (and of transmission from the US to Europe in the spring as the US army built up its numbers in France), so here we see the virus's long and lethal reach.

hop0316 t1_j84pk2b wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:41 PM

Yeah it’s pretty sobering, dying that way after making it through the war seems especially cruel as well.

quantdave t1_j84qz2d wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:51 PM

Indeed, that made it all the more traumatic for those who'd made it through, and I think it's part of the reason it later faded from collective memory in the west (in India it's very much remembered): it was just too much for people to cope with.

gayforager t1_j85xwb6 wrote on February 11, 2023 at 9:49 PM

I laid flowers on the grave of a soldier by me who died 'of disease' on 12/11/18. Always think his is the saddest commonwealth war grave of all those in the cemetery