More people died in the First Great War than in any other conflict in history, but this unhappy death stat was not enough for some. Right after the armistice, some divine sicko decided to really rub salt into the carnage and slow down the post-war revival even further. Hey presto, tens of millions of fit young survivors were struck dead with a stupid little flu bug.

Even sicker was the need to name the virus, Spanish Flu, after a country that hadn't played any significant part in the war, whatsoever. If attributing it post-humously to the Spanish was a guilt trip thing, some sort of pay back for lack of interest in global wars, it didn't work. Before retreating into abject poverty, pacifism and isolation, the Spanish played hosts to WW2 protagonists Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930's. They offered civil-warring commie Spaniards for fascist target practice, allowing Adolf and Musso to hone their attacking tactics for a planned foray against Poland in 1939. Hmmmm.

Maybe they do deserve some post pandemic notoriety for that little aberration in human rights. And it gets worse.

The Spanish can't be villified for Hiltler's atrocities after practicing on Spanish soil, , but they did however allow the Germans to return in the 90's to kill all life in Torremolinos, Alicante and Benidorm without any obvious payback. So, on reflection, perhaps the Spanish do merit having a merciless killer flu wrongly attributed to them.