Supposedly - according to HG Wells - the Martians having eliminated bacteria, etc. on Mars forgot all about these until their invasion force was wiped out by earth-evolved bacteria.
The Martians succumbing to earth-evolved bacteria is highly unlikely - perhaps nearly impossible. HG Wells took this notion from the devastation of the aboriginal groups in the Americas and the Antipodes. However, he got it wrong. Those people share the same biology as the citizens of Eurasian and Africa they just didn't have an immune system (antibodies) that would have allowed them to resist the disease brought by the Europeans.
The Martians are from a different planet. They are unlikely the have a biology in common with any earth species never mind humans. There would be no bacteria or virus strain that would be able to infect the Martians as none had evolved to exploit Martian biology. Perhaps in time. Bacteria and viruses can jump related species but its not that common and even more unlikely with species significantly unrelated (e.g., we don't catch diseases from trees...although we may be allergic to trees that's different). The Martian biology would be altogether different - unless you assume that in some far distant past they had a common ancestor with earth species.
Sorry HG Wells, you got it wrong. While it fits the moral of your story very nicely, the Martians don't die from earth bacteria....at least not without some missing link that connects the Martians to the Earth.
All of which means we MUST fight them with our wee airplanes.
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