In the last
week of October, 1918, 2,700 Americans died “over there” in battle against the
kaiser’s army. The same week 21,000 Americans died of influenza in the United States.
The epidemic was by then raging over
most of the populated globe, yet where the outbreak had begun was unclear. Some
medical men blamed Chinese workers brought to France to dig trenches. A Spanish
medical commission proved, at least to its own satisfaction, that the sickness
had originated in Russian Turkestan. The Russians, and most of the world,
attributed it to Spain.
Months before, an influenza epidemic had swept that country like a tidal wave,
afflicting eight million people. This earlier outbreak had been mild, however,
with few if any deaths directly resulting from it. But, fairly or not, the
deadly contagion now gripping the world became known as the Spanish influenza.
To the extent that the origins of
this medical forest fire could be traced anywhere, the best evidence pointed to
the United States.
The previous March a severe dust storm had obscured the sun at Fort Riley, Kansas.
Some nine thousand tons of manure were burned every month at this prairie
cavalry post, continuously mantling the area in a malodorous haze. The storm
winds had whipped up a stinging blizzard of dust and smoke that sent soldiers
stumbling, coughing, and choking to the refuge of their barracks.
Two days after the storm had ceased,
an army cook named Albert Gitchell reported to the post hospital, complaining
of fever, sore throat, and various aches and pains. Minutes later another
soldier checked in with the same symptoms. The count had jumped to 107
similarly afflicted patients by midday; by week’s end, 522; and before the
sickness ran its course five weeks later, 1,127 men had been stricken.
Forty-six of them died. The base surgeon diagnosed the sickness as influenza,
although pneumonia was blamed for the deaths. In May of 1918 the Army’s 89th
and 92nd divisions finished their training at Fort
Riley and sailed for France.
Soon after the 92nd Division disembarked
at Brest and Saint-Nazaire, French poilus began to fall
ill with influenza. British soldiers in France
carried the disease back to England.
Influenza spread through the Royal Navy like flames on an oil slick. Over
10,000 British tars were laid low, confining the fleet to port. The disease
rolled across France and
into Germany,
where eventually 160,000 Berliners came down with the flu. It erupted halfway
around the world, sweeping across China,
India, and most of
Asia—whether carried from Europe or appearing
independently no one knew.
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