List of WWII Dead from disease

[smurfchops]

Sorry to be so morbid, I read somewhere that around 20,000 men died from disease such as a bad strain of flu during the war. Is there any way of finding out their names? I think one was my uncle, although I don't know where he died.

[Count_Emmup]

FROM WIKIPEDIA q.v.

The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiologic data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.[1]

Many of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The Spanish flu lasted from March 1918 to June 1920,[2] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,[4][5][6] more than double the number killed in World War I.[7]

This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms.

[smurfchops]

I seem to remember reading about this. But my uncle was serving as a soldier in the War .. can I find his name anywhere?

[dundurn]

If you know your uncle's name you can go onto the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and look for him. www.cwgc.org

It helps if you know what branch of theservices he was in and his date of death but these aren't essential. Obviously it also helps if he wasn't called John Smith or something similarly common. It will give you details of where he is buried and may give you some additional information about him. I think you can also look up WWI records through Ancestry.com; maybe other similar sites as well, but I don't know.

[jake-the-peg]

I can't remember where I heard it but I recall something about WWII being the first war where more people actually died in fighting than from dysenty, disease accidents etc.

Of course that massive flu pandemic was at the end of WWI rather than WWII.

And there was an analysis of a sample a while back and guess what?

It was a bird flu varient!

[spudqueen]

Your original question mentions World War II, but the flu pandemic was at the end of World War I. My Great Uncle died of the flu whilst in service in France, on 5th November 1918. I can find details of my Great Uncle on the War Graves Commission website, but it does not mention what he died of. I only know through other means.