The Spanish Influenza or the 1918 Flu was a virus with a high infection rate, fast incubation and an alarmingly high mortality rate. It killed an estimated 20 to 40 million people in about a year. That makes it ten times more deadly than the Black Plague in terms of the number of people dead in a year. It started overseas, spreading easily thanks to World War I. Then, it came to America via the ports, spreading to civilians, back overseas and throughout the military.
The Boston Harbor was the Spanish Flu's gateway to America. In September of 1918, the boys brought it home via the shipyards. They mingled socially, loaded cargo, unloaded cargo and spread the deadliest illness known to man. Soon, death was everywhere. Twenty-eight percent of Americans contracted the flu. More people died from the flu than the war by ten times. Oddly, the most affected age group was people between 20 and 40 years old. It was unusual for the flu to kill people in their prime. The combination of war and flu thinned out an entire generation.
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