Most folks know about the staggering casualties that France suffered during the First World War. But there was one country that went through a bloodier Calvary: and that was Serbia.
A landlocked nation, predominantly Eastern Orthodox in religion, it was situated directly south of Austria-Hungary (weakest of the European powers). In late June 1914, when a Serbian terrorist killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the great conflagration was kindled. Russia came to the aid of her traditional ally Serbia, as did France.
Serbia lost more than a million inhabitants during the war – about 60 percent of its male population!
[When the Great War ended in November 1918, the world was gripped by a flu pandemic.
Kids used to sing this ditty:
“I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And in-flu-enza.”
Most susceptible were healthy young adults – and the final toll was five to ten times as many deaths as had been caused by the massed armies of Europe].
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