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July 29: What the 1918 Pandemic Can Teach us about COVID-19 

David Kohnen, Commander, Executive Director of the Naval War College Museum and Director of Hattendorf Historical Center

Protracted military operations and the deadly pandemic of 1918-1920 represented a double-barreled assault on troops fighting for both sides of the first World War. While the combatants spent billions on armaments, neither side was prepared to defend against the invisible enemy of the Spanish Flu. In 1920, Captain Ernest J. King recalled that influenza on the European front “caught us quicker than the U-boats.” Having studied the problems of command, logistics, hospitalization, death and devastation wrought by the “grippe”, modern scholars at the US Naval War College prepared this examination of the historical foundations and military implications of such a global pandemic.