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Voices of the First World War

Voices of the First World War: Spanish Flu

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Factual: History

05/04/2018

Spanish Flu

BBC Radio 4 - Voices of the First World War, Spanish Flu

Recollections of the devastating impact of the flu pandemic that hit in 1918.

After years of war, now disease. Soldiers and civilians recall the devastating flu pandemic that swept across the globe in 1918, enabled by the mass movement of troops.

It was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Soldiers who had survived the trenches, civilians who had weathered shortages and bombardment, now faced a new enemy: influenza. The virus tore through societies already weakened by war in 1918. According to one British nurse who recorded an interview with the Imperial War Museum, 'the mortuaries were so full we had the patients lying one on top of the other'. Dan Snow hears the accounts of those who survived it, from those in the front line and Prisoner of War camps, to those who were schoolchildren at the time in Britain, and were forced to look after their families and neighbours.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Dan Snow tells the story of World War I through the voices of those who were there.

Dan Snow brings together the sound archive collections of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC to tell the story of World War I through the voices of those who were.

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