French town honors last US soldier killed in WWI

[brentspeak]

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By MARIE-FRANCE BEZZINA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NANCY, France -- One minute before the guns fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I took its last American victim.

Henry Gunther was hit by German machine gun fire at 10:59 a.m. in the northeastern French town of Chaumont-devant-Damvillers in a final-minute clash with German troops.

A monument honoring the 23-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, was erected in Chaumont-devant-Damvillers before Tuesday's 90th anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended the bloody four-year conflict.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_eu_europe_wwi_anniversary_us_soldier.html

[rockymountaindem]

1. I still don't understand why anybody would keep fighting with the truce just hours away

What a shame.

[sarge43]

2. It is a shame

So many truces had been declared and broken before. Plus, instant communications were still in the future. In short, many soldiers didn't know or weren't willing to bet their lives on a maybe.

[14thColony]

3. It was even sillier than that...

"At sixteen minutes before 11am, a runner caught up with the 313th’s parent 157th Brigade to report that the armistice had been signed. Again, the message made no mention of what to do in the interim. Brigadier General William Nicholson, commanding the brigade, made his decision: ‘There will be absolutely no let-up until 11:00 a.m.’ More runners were dispatched to spread the word to the farthest advanced regiments, including Gunther’s. The 313th now gathered below a ridge called the Côte Romagne. Two German machine gun squads manning a roadblock watched, disbelieving, as shapes began emerging from the fog. Gunther and Sergeant Powell dropped to the ground as bullets sang above their heads. The Germans then ceased firing, assuming that the Americans would have the good sense to stop with the end so near. Suddenly, Powell saw Gunther rise and begin loping toward the machine guns. He shouted for Gunther to stop. The German machine gunners waved him back, but Gunther kept advancing. The enemy reluctantly fired a five-round burst. Gunther was struck in the left temple and died instantly."

Seemed the Germans were trying very hard not to kill him. I saw a documnetary over here in England last 11th November that re-enacted the event. According to the Germans they fired only when Gunther fired at them as he was advancing, nearly hitting a German soldier who'd been trying to wave him back.

[brentspeak]

4. That's right. As many as 3,000 troops needlessly died in the hours before the truce

However, since I posted the OP, I happened upon another article on the subject of Sgt. Gunther. It suggests that he, alone of the other 3,000, had some sort of last-minute death-wish: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.rodricks11nov11,0,7860998.column

[sarge43]

5. Post trauma most likely. Called it shell shock back then.

The horrors those men endured are indescribable.

[Posteritatis]

10. And some probably just didn't want to stand down yet

Those guys went through ... a lot. If some of them wanted to keep shooting because their last chance to avenge a buddy was coming up, I'd be saddened by it, but hardly surprised.

[MadMaddie]

7. Communication wasn't advanced then

it is possible that the news didn't get to the group in the outlying areas.

[maxsolomon]

6. How Do You Ask a Man to be the Last Man to Die for a Mistake?"

Now we know who asked that question in WW1. The "Great War" was the biggest mistake ever.

[Rage for Order]

8. It was a mistake to drive Germany out of France?

That's an interesting take on WW1. I haven't heard that view before.

[Posteritatis]

9. I assume he meant the entire war

Everything, from the initial stuff in the Balkans to the Western Front to Versailles.. the entire thing was awash in monumental stupidity of the highest order.

[maxsolomon]

11. that was indeed my contention

and, in fact, america's (late) involvement in that war was even more ridiculous. we had no justifiable reason to join that madness.