The Spanish flu

Spanish Flu Pandemic

The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million[ to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

To maintain morale, World War I censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States.

Newspapers were free to report the epidemic’s effects in neutral Spain, such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII, and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit.

This gave rise to the name of the Spanish flu.

Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic’s geographic origin, with varying views as to its location.

Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the very young and the very old, with a higher survival rate for those in between, but the Spanish flu pandemic resulted in a higher than expected mortality rate for young adults.

Scientists offer several possible explanations for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Some analyses have shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm, which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults.

In contrast, a 2007 analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains.

Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection.

This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus; the second was the swine flu in 2009 followed by the latest Coruna virus in 2020.

The Spanish Flu OUTBREAK: Why Did the World Change after the Pandemic Great Influenza. Learn Now 50+ Tips & Tricks from the Past Deadliest Plague ... Your Future! (2) (The Pandemic Collection)

Trumpeter William Sawers (Royal Field Artillary)

William Sawers

William Sawers was born in 1888 at Cowcadden, Glasgow. (1888-1915)

William had previously been a volunteer for the Militia from 1905 and was an Upholsterer by trade and not married at this point.

Records show that William signed for the Royal Field Artillery in May 1908 and agreeing a further 2+1 years service.

William married Agnes Smith on the 7th of September in 1912 and his daughter Agnes Hunter Simpson Sawers was born on the 5th of December in 1912.

Trumpeter William Sawers served during pre-war training camps and also agreed on overseas service.

Confirmation on War services includes 5th of August 1914 to the 31st of May 1915 with the Mediterranean Expeditionary force in Gallipoli via Egypt.

The brave trumpeter was awarded the 1914 and 1915 Territorial Forces Star, The British War Medal, and the Victory medal for his services to the British Armed Forces.

William served a total of 7 years in service, serving as a trumpeter before being appointed as a driver for The Royal Artillery.

During July 1915 William was in Hospital for injuries and had 14 teeth extracted but remarkably returned to service to rejoin his unit only two weeks later.

After receiving injuries and returning to War, William was admitted back to the hospital on the 30th of October 1915.

William was diagnosed with Jaundice and died of Pneumonia on October 30th, 1915 aged only 27 on board the ship Kildonan Castle.

Is family paid thier respects to this poem for William , on news o f the death of the beloved family member ,

Poem for William .....

There’s a grave doon in the water that we ken we’ll never see,

There’s a picture hanging up that brings the saut tear tae orr e’e,

For noo we’ll never see him mair, so he alone we sit,

Wi only this comfort, that he did his little bit, With arching hearts, we shook his hand,

Tears glistened in our eyes;

We wished him luck,

but never thought It was our last good-bye.

No green grass grows above his head, Nor over his grave a tear we shed;

 

 

                             William Sawers of the Royal Field Artillary.

HMS Queen Elizabeth

HMS Queen Elizabeth

HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s and was often used as a flagship.

She served in the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet and participated in the inconclusive Action of 19 August 1916.

Her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

She and the other super-dreadnought battleships were the first of their type to be powered by oil instead of coal.

Queen Elizabeth later served in several theatres during the Second World War and was ultimately scrapped in 1948.

The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline.

This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship.

Queen Elizabeth had a length overall of 643 feet 9 inches (196.2 m), a beam of 90 feet 7 inches (27.6 m) and a deep draught of 33 feet (10.1 m).

She had a normal displacement of 32,590 long tons (33,110 t) and displaced 33,260 long tons (33,794 t) at deep load. 

She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers.

The turbines were rated at 75,000 shp (56,000 kW) and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots (44.4 km/h; 27.6 mph).

Queen Elizabeth had a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km; 5,754 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22.2 km/h; 13.8 mph).

Her crew numbered 1,262 officers and ratings in 1920 while serving as a flagship.

The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch (381 mm) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets, in two super firing pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘X’, and ‘Y’ from front to rear.

Queen Elizabeth was the only ship of her class that mounted all sixteen of the designed BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns in casemates.

Twelve of these were mounted along the broadside of the vessel amidships and the remaining four were grouped in the stern abreast ‘X’ and ‘Y’ turrets.

These latter guns were quickly found to be too close to the water and were frequently flooded at high speed or heavy seas.

Two were removed and the other pair were shifted to positions on the forecastle deck near the aft funnel, protected by gun shields, in May 1915.

The ships’ anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt Mk I[Note 1] guns. She was fitted with four submerged 21 inches (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

Queen Elizabeth was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast.

Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder.

The main armament could be controlled by ‘B’ turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in March 1917, although one temporary director was fitted in November–December 1916.

The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was 13 inches (330 mm) thick over the ships’ vitals.

The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches (279 to 330 mm) of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches (178–254 mm) thick.

The ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) in thickness.

The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armour.

After the Battle of Jutland, 1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines

H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth - Art Print - Medium - 28x35cm

HMS Dreadnought

HMS Dreadnought

HMS Dreadnought was the first dreadnought battleship, a classification to which she gave her name, and was born out of the minds of Vittorio Cuniberti and First Sea Lord Admiral Sir John Fisher and the results of the Russo-Japanese War.

She was the first to use steam turbines, of which Dreadnought had two, from the Parsons company, that supplied four shafts that all told gave the 527-foot (161 m) long warship a revolutionary top speed of 21.6 knots (40.0 km/h; 24.9 mph) in spite of her displacement of 18,120 long tons (18,410 t).

Dreadnought’s primary armament was a suite of ten 45-caliber Mk X 12-inch (300 mm) guns, arranged in such a way that only eight of her main guns could fire a broadside and a secondary armament of ten 50-caliber 12-pounder guns and five 18-inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes.

Her belt armour ranged from 4 inches (102 mm) to 11 inches (279 mm) of Krupp armour.

Dreadnought sparked a naval arms race that soon had all the world’s major powers building new and bigger warships in her image.

Although her concepts would be improved upon for decades, Dreadnought’s construction set an unbeaten record of 15 months for the fastest construction of a battleship ever.

From 1907 until 1911, Dreadnought served as the flagship of the Home Fleet until being replaced by HMS Neptune (1909) in March 1911.

Dreadnought was then assigned to the 1st Division of the Home Fleet and was present at the Fleet Review for the coronation of King George V.

In December 1912, the ship was transferred from the 1st Battle Squadron and became the flagship of the 4th Squadron until 10 December 1914.

While patrolling the North Sea on 18 March 1915, she rammed and sank U-29, becoming the only battleship to have sunk a submarine.

Dreadnought did not participate in the Battle of Jutland as she was undergoing a refit.

Two years later, she resumed her role as flagship of the 4th Squadron, but was moved into the reserve in February 1920 and sold for scrap on 9 May 1921.

She was broken up on 2nd January 1923

Trumpeter HMS Dreadnought 1918 Battleship by MMD Holdings, LLC

HMS Agincourt

HMS Agincourt

HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought battleship built in the United Kingdom in the early 1910s.

Originally part of Brazil’s role in a South American naval arms race, she holds the distinction of mounting more heavy guns (fourteen) and more turrets (seven) than any other dreadnought battleship, in keeping with the Brazilians’ requirement for an especially impressive design.

Brazil ordered the ship in 1911 as Rio de Janeiro from the British company Armstrong Whitworth.

However, the collapse of Brazil’s rubber boom and warming in relations with Argentina, the country’s chief rival, led to the ship’s sale while under construction to the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans renamed her Sultan Osman I, after the empire’s founder, and the ship was nearly complete when the First World War broke out.

The British government seized her for use by the Royal Navy, together with another Ottoman dreadnought being constructed in Britain.

This act caused resentment in the Ottoman Empire, as the payments for both ships were complete, and contributed to the decision of the Ottoman government to join the Central Powers.

Renamed Agincourt by the Royal Navy, she joined the Grand Fleet in the North Sea.

During the war, the ship spent the bulk of her time on patrols and exercises, although she did participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Agincourt was put into reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1922 to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Media Storehouse A1 Poster of British battleships at sea, including HMS Agincourt, WW1 (7193633)

The German U-Boat

German U-Boats

The U-boat Campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies.

It took place largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean.

The German Empire relied on imports for food and domestic food production (especially fertilizer) and the United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its population, and both required raw materials to supply their war industry; the powers aimed, therefore, to blockade one another.

The British had the Royal Navy which was superior in numbers and could operate on most of the world’s oceans because of the British Empire, whereas the Imperial German Navy surface fleet was mainly restricted to the German Bight, and used commerce raiders and unrestricted submarine warfare to operate elsewhere.

In the course of events in the Atlantic alone, German U-boats sank almost 5,000 ships with nearly 13 million gross register tonnage, losing 178 boats and about 5,000 men in combat.

Other naval theatres saw U-boats operating in both the Far East and South East Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean and North Seas.

In August 1914, a flotilla of nine U-boats sailed from their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea in the first submarine war patrol in history.

Their aim was to sink capital ships of the British Grand Fleet, and so reduce the Grand Fleet’s numerical superiority over the German High Seas Fleet.

The first sortie was not a success.

Only one attack was carried out when U-15 fired a torpedo (which missed) at HMS Monarch. Two of the ten U-boats were lost.

Later in the month, the U-boats achieved success, when U-21 sank the cruiser HMS Pathfinder.

In September, SM U-9 sank three armoured cruisers (Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy) in a single action.

Other successes followed. In October U-9 sank the cruiser Hawke, and on the last day of the year, SM U-24 sank the pre-dreadnought battleship Formidably.

By the end of the initial campaign, the U-boats had sunk nine warships while losing five of their own number.

Mediterranean: Initial stage Main article: Mediterranean U-boat Campaign (World War I) The initial phase of the U-boat campaign in the Mediterranean comprised the actions by the Austro-Hungarian Navy’s U-boat force against the French, who were blockading the Straits of Otranto.

At the start of hostilities, the Austro-Hungarian Navy had seven U-boats in commission; five operational, two training; all were of the coastal type, with limited range and endurance, suitable for operation in the Adriatic. Nevertheless, they had a number of successes.

On 21 December 1914 U-12 torpedoed the French battleship, Jean Bart, causing her to retire, and on 27 April 1915 U-5 sank the French cruiser Léon Gambetta, with a heavy loss of life. But the Austro-Hungarian boats were unable to offer any interference to allied traffic in the Mediterranean beyond the Straits of Otranto.

Submarine warfare In 1914 the U-boat’s chief advantage was to submerge; surface ships had no means to detect a submarine underwater, and no means to attack even if they could, while in the torpedo the U-boat had a weapon that could sink an armoured warship with one shot.

Its disadvantages were less obvious but became apparent during the campaign.

While submerged the U-boat was virtually blind and immobile; boats of this era had limited underwater speed and endurance, so needed to be in position before an attack took place, while even on the surface their speed (around 15 knots) was less than the cruising speed of most warships and two thirds that of the most modern dreadnoughts.

The U-boats scored a number of impressive successes and were able to drive the Grand Fleet from its base in search of a safe anchorage, but the German Navy was unable to erode the Grand Fleet’s advantage as hoped.

Also, in the two main surface actions of this period, the U-boat was unable to have any effect; the High Seas Fleet was unable to draw the Grand Fleet into a U-boat trap.

Whilst warships were travelling at speed and on an erratic zigzag course they were relatively safe, and for the remainder of the war the U-boats were unable to mount a successful attack on a warship travelling in this manner

First attacks on merchant ships The first attacks on merchant ships had started in October 1914. At that time there was no plan for a concerted U-boat offensive against Allied trade.

It was recognised the U-boat had several drawbacks as a commerce raider, and such a campaign risked alienating neutral opinion. 

In the six months to the opening of the commerce war in February 1915, U-boats had sunk 19 ships,

 

U-Boats at World Wars I and II: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)

Mules & Donkeys of World War 1

Army Mules and Donkeys

The Army Mule Mules required less food than horses. 

They were more tolerant of extreme heat and cold, and they could go for longer periods without water, critical in a battle where clean water was so scarce.

Mules were proven to be more resistant to diseases and disease-bearing insects, very low maintenance, and seldom needed shoes.

Less than half the mules died from infected bullet holes compared to the percentage of horses killed.

The first ship of animals departed in November 1914, and in the four half years of war 287,533 mules and 175 jacks were purchased.

Mules were branded on their near hindquarter with a 2-inch broad arrow and a letter or symbol denoting their origin. 13,000 Spanish mules were considered especially fine.

An astounding mule story tells of the mule traveling down the soft steep hillside when the earth began to give way.

He tossed his handler to safety, freed his load of mail (a highly prized reminder of home), and was then swept away to his death.

Nobody knew how he managed to save the mail and his handler, but all agreed he deserved a medal.

Mule trains were hitched in threes, 15 to 20 long, always traveling at a trot and under fire.

When a mule was hit he was unhitched, the ammunition boxes rolled off him, and the mule train just carried on, often 14 to 16 hours a day.

The Missouri mule was recorded with 64 mules being loaded with 100 kilograms EACH in just 14 minutes! Because of this very high prices were paid for quality mules.

Mules died alongside the horses and soldiers.

There was no way of digging a hole for dead mules so many were thrown into the sea washing up like submarine periscopes and reportedly panicking the Navy. 56,000 surplus mules were sold after the war.

Unsung Heroes of World War One: How Horses, Donkeys and Mules Changed the First World War

Elephants of World War 1

Elephants of World War 1

A war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat.

The war elephant’s main use was to charge the enemy, breaking their ranks and instilling terror.

elephants are military units with elephant-mounted troops.

War elephants played a critical role in several key battles in antiquity, but their use declined with the spread of firearms in the early modern period.

Military elephants were then restricted to non-combat engineering and labour roles, and some ceremonial uses.

However, they continued to be used in combat in some parts of the world such as Thailand and Vietnam into the 19th century.

Animals in the Great War (Images of War)

Cats of World War One

Cats of World War 1

During WWI, it is estimated that 500,000 cats were brought to the trenches, and many more served on Navy ships.

They helped the military by killing rats and other vermin that spread disease and were sometimes used as gas detectors.
An estimated 500,000 cats served in World War I.

In the trenches of the Western front, there were serious problems with rats
One cat saved a soldier’s life in a more dramatic fashion.

Pitouchi had been born in the trenches. His mother had been killed when he was a kitten, and he’d been adopted by a Belgian soldier, Lt. Lekeux.

Lekeux was hiding in a shell hole, sketching the enemy’s artillery works. A German soldier on patrol spotted him and called out to his comrades.

Pitouchi “jumped out of the hole onto a piece of timber,as frightened as he was, Pitouchi was not hit, and he jumped back into the hole with his beloved Lekeux.”

The Germans, figuring they’d made a mistake, laughed it off and went on their way.

Chemical Warefare

Chemical Warfare of World War 1

The use of toxic chemicals as weapons dates back thousands of years, but the first large scale use of chemical weapons was during World War I.

They were primarily used to demoralize, injure, and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally very slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective.

The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas, to lethal agents like phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas.

This chemical warfare was a major component of the first global war and the first total war of the 20th century.

The killing capacity of gas was limited, with about ninety thousand fatalities from a total of 1.3 million casualties caused by gas attacks.

Gas was unlike most other weapons of the period because it was possible to develop countermeasures, such as gas masks.

In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished.

The widespread use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition of high explosives, gave rise to an occasionally expressed view of World War I as “the chemist’s war” and also the era where weapons of mass destruction were created.

The use of poison gas by all major belligerents throughout World War I constituted war crimes as its use violated the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which prohibited the use of “poison or poisoned weapons” in warfare.

Widespread horror and public revulsion at the use of gas and its consequences led to far less use of chemical weapons by combatants during World War II

One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences