Henry Gunther - The last soldier killed in the Great War

[Pong]

From Wikipedia

Last Casualties



Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 am. The last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed earlier that morning at around 9:30 am while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. The final Canadian soldier to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was killed just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons, in an allied trench at 10:58am to be recognized as one of the last killed with a monument to his name. And finally, American Henry Gunther is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in World War I. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them.

A salute to Henry Gunther, George Price and George Ellison and to all the infantry who died in the Great War.

-Arlo

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

My salute to him.

I do however question why he was charging the German position, when both sides were aware of the Armistice.

[Milosh]

I do however question why he was charging the German position, when both sides were aware of the Armistice.

From what I understand is that Pershing wanted to defeat Germany decisively, gaining as much territory as possible. He thought the Armistice would come back to haunt what would become the Allies in WW2, and it did.

For the British and French don't know why.

All told there was ~10,000 casualties (American, French, British ) in the last 24 hours of WW1.

[pbfoot]

The same question was asked in Canada in by the press in Canada in 1927 .. and the commanding officer of the CEF (Canadian Expiditionary Force ) General Currie sued a newspaper for libel because they said the deaths on the 11th were a waste. his defence was that the orders were to continue the advance until the 11th hour

from wiki

Libel Suit
During the war, Currie had continued to deny Garnet Hughes (son of Defence Minister in 1914) a combat post, believing Hughes would be a danger to the men in his command when under fire. Although Hughes attained the rank of brigadier-general by 1918, he ended the war in an obscure administrative posting in London. Garnet's father, Sir Sam Hughes, was removed from the cabinet in 1916, but he continued to use his seat in the House of Commons to attack Currie's reputation. Although Sam Hughes died in 1921, Garnet Hughes continued to attack Currie's reputation through newspapers owned by his family.

In June 1927, the city of Mons erected a plaque commemorating their liberation by the Canadian Corps; as this event was reported in Canadian newspapers, Currie's enemies took the opportunity to again question the final day of fighting. The Hughes-controlled Port Hope Evening Guide, in a front-page editorial, wrote "It is doubtful whether in any case there was a more deliberate and useless waste of human life than in the so-called capture of Mons..." Currie sued the newspaper for libel, seeking $50,000 in damages. At the trial, Currie testified that he had been under orders from Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch to pursue German forces; to do otherwise would have been treason. Many of Currie's senior officers testified that Currie urged them to advance with caution, avoiding unnecessary casualties. At the end of the trial, the jury returned a verdict after only 4 hours,[28] finding the newspaper guilty, and awarding Currie $500 in damages. One member of the jury, a former serviceman, dissented.[29]

After the trial, Currie was invited to a dinner in Port Hope by some of the men who had served under him. With tears in his eyes, Currie read a telegram he had received the day before from the father of George Price, the only Canadian killed on the morning of November 11: "As father of George Lawrence Price, the only Canadian killed on Armistice Day, I wish to convey to you, Sir, my humble hope that you will succeed in bringing to justice those responsible for bringing this case before the public, because all of this simply renews old wounds that are best forgotten

[RabidAlien]

And as always, even in today's electronic era, there's always somebody who doesn't get the word in time.

To those who were there!