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Carrying the dead - the 1918 influenza pandemic
Sound file
The sound of ambulances carrying the dead and dying was constant during the worst of the pandemic.
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Transcript
[Man speaking] At all times it seems, day and night, ambulances were on the move everywhere. They must have been manned in relays. In those days there was no free ambulance; the hospitals carried their own. These vehicles had tinkling bells instead of sirens.
[Woman speaking] At night-time was, I think, the most saddest of all because the trucks were rumbling past my place all night long. We found out after that they didn't have time to make coffins; they were just buried in boxes. And the sad part was when we went over to [the] cemetery later, when it was all over, no one knew where they were putting the flowers. They just put them on a mound of ground and trusted the luck of it being one of their own.
Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Reference: clip from The great plague, 1967 radio documentary by Jim Henderson, TCDR562
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YahooHow to cite this page: 'Carrying the dead - the 1918 influenza pandemic', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/sound/carrying-the-dead-1918-influenza-pandemic, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 26-Mar-2009
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