michaelmaltby
Colonel
Agreed, Buffnut.
MM
MM
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
".... the germans returing from the western front in WWI brought influenza with them."
Interesting. Never heard THAT theory before. I had previously read that the disease was spawned in the massive military tent camps set up by the US Army in 1917 upon entry into the war. Then exported to Europe:
MM
I just do not believe the U.S. could sit out and let the whole of Europe suffer under German rule. I do not believe that Hitler would have stopped, weather he invaded England or not, no matter if he was successful or not, it was only matter of time before he would go on the offensive again and expand his empire even more. Hitler was too power hungry to stop trying to conquer any and all countries he could. Also, peace between England and Germany would have never happened IMO. Hitler could not afford to give England any period of time to rearm or time to rebuild and fortify her armed forces. I do not believe the economies of the world could have survived with Germany controlling almost the entire European continent and possibly large portions of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Just the economic factors alone would have made war inevitable. Germany could have put a stranglehold on the free worlds economies. Also, Japan was not likely to stop it's conquests, and as war between Japan and the U.S. was unavoidable IMO, war between the U.S. and Japan would have brought Germany into the fray. Japan's expansion in the Pacific involved England and the US, and so too it would have brought Germany in no matter what.
ignored england, secured the mid-east oil fields and consolidated the conquered european nations. such a germany would have posed a very serious threat to the US so eventual war, possibly
He couldn't "consolidate the conqurered European nations" and ignore England. One of those nations was Poland whose very existence was guaranteed by Britain (and France) by treaty. The British,after all the appeasement, quite rightly felt themselves obligated by this treaty.Britain declared war on Germany,whatever Germany tried to do after that a state of war existed between the two nations.
How was Hitler supposed to capture his oil supplies in the Middle East? That's where his armies were heading,through the Caucasus,when the Soviets stopped them. He couldn't go via North Africa as his army was defeated by the British there at El Alamein.He couldn't make an assault through the Mediterranean as this was under British control,though disputed. The Germans failed even to subdue the island of Malta,let alone land in the Middle East.
Actually, recent work to trace the source of the disease goes back to a British Camp in Ettaples in France, 1916/1917. It was called "PLU" or "PRU" and was an unknown disease. But that is as far as it has gotten so far. Probably goes back farther but nobody has caught thread beyond that.
But considering the Trenches with Millions of men in horrible septic conditions, in close contact with Swine and Fowl, it is a pretty good bet that the disease started somewhere in the trenches around the second winter of the war with a chicken or pig getting a human flu strain at the same time it had an animal flu strain. The two combined and out comes the start of the disease. Mutated plenty of times and eventually becomes the influenza of 1918.
Diddy, please read my previous post, the ft. riley cases were in the spring of 1918. there were cases of it in austria in 1917. the 1917 cases were of a milder less lethal form. the second 1918 wave had mutated and grown more lethal in the trenches. returning veterans carried the virus into the US
Tim, excellent post, in fact it is the very facts of trench and miltary warfare that act to increase lethality. mildly sick soldiers stay on duty the seriously ill were loaded on train and sent to even more crowded hospitals. in a civilian environment it is reversed, seriously ill people stay home while the mildly ill go to work
I do take exception to your next to last paragraph, it is an avian virus that transfers to a swine host and then to humans. thus influenza is asian where fowl, pigs, and humans like in the same house where these viruses originate. the original 1918 virus has been cultured from the tissues of pandemic victims and its genetic markers are being sequenced. my money is on asia
Diddy, please read my previous post, the ft. riley cases were in the spring of 1918. there were cases of it in austria in 1917. the 1917 cases were of a milder less lethal form. the second 1918 wave had mutated and grown more lethal in the trenches. returning veterans carried the virus into the US