The Story of the Last Man to Die In WWI

On this episode of Our American Stories, on the 11th hour of the 11th month of the 11th day in 1918, all guns fell silent across Europe...16.1 million people across the world lay dead—but who was the last to fall in battle? Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project tells the story of Henry Gunther, the last man to die in WWI.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. On the eleventh
hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. In
nineteen eighteen, fighting officially concluded in what was to that
point the deadliest man made disaster in human history. We're
talking about World War One. France lay in ruins, millions

(00:31):
of wives had become widows, and nearly one percent of
the world's population lay dead. But who is the last
one to fall? Here's Craig Dumay of the Grateful Nation
Project with the story of Henry Gunther. Take it away, Craig.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Henry Gunther's grandparents emigrated from Germany in the mid eighteen hundreds,
starting new lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Henry was born on
June six, eighteen ninety five. As World War One raged
in Europe from nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen, many Americans
of German heritage came under suspicion about their loyalty to

(01:13):
the United States. In Gunther's largely German American East Baltimore neighborhood,
it would be dangerous to voice opposition to the war
in Europe. In May of nineteen seventeen, Congress passed the
Selective Service Act, authorising the federal government to temporarily expand
the military through conscription. We now call it the draft.

(01:37):
The law stated that all male citizens or male persons
not alien enemies who have declared their intention to become
citizens between the ages of twenty one thirty are required
to register for military service. Twenty four million men registered
for the draft. Of the total number of U. S
troops sent to Europe in World War One, two point

(01:58):
eight million had been drafted, compared to two million who volunteered.
When Henry Gunther was drafted into service in September nineteen seventeen,
he was working as a clerk and a bookkeeper and
was engaged to be married. While he was less than
eager to leave for the battle trenches of Europe, Henry
shipped out with the three hundred and thirteenth Infantry Regiment

(02:21):
in July of nineteen eighteen. By that time, the war
was clearly entering its final act. Most knew that America's
participation would bring a decisive end to the conflict. Much
to his relief, the Army put Private Gunther's organizational and
accounting skills to use with an assignment as the supply

(02:42):
sergeant for Company A. Of the three hundred thirteenth Infantry Regiment.
He performed his duties well and was promoted to the
rank of sergeant. Everything changed for Sergeant Gunther when he
wrote a letter home to a friend describing the horrors
of the trenches and advising him to avoid frontlines as
if possible. The letter was intercepted by an Army postal

(03:04):
censor and forwarded to Gunther's commanding officer. The government was
on high alert for any signs of disloyalty from its
large population of German American citizens, making it a crime
for any citizen to pass information that would hinder u
S Armed forces prosecution of the war, or for any
person to promote the success of America's enemies. In a

(03:27):
message to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson warned that the war
would require a redefinition of national loyalty because of quote
millions of men and women of German birth and native
sympathy who live amongst us. He openly stated, quote if
there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with a
firm hand of repression. Sergeant Henry Gunther was busted all

(03:54):
the way down to private, removed from his logistics and
supply duties and sent to the front lines as a rifleman.
His demotion came just as the three hundred and thirteenth
Regiment began two months of continuous combat. Just after five
am on November eleventh, nineteen eighteen, British, French, and German

(04:16):
negotiators signed an armistice to end the war. Under the agreement,
all hostilities would cease at precisely eleven am on that day.
The six hour difference was intended to allow time for
the news of the war's end to reach remote battlefields.
Word of the war's end reached the three hundred and
thirteenth Regiment when a runner arrived at ten forty four am.

(04:40):
Gunther's brigade commander, Brigadier General William Nicholson, told his troops
that there would be absolutely no let up until precisely
eleven am. Another American drafted into military service was a
young journalist, James M. Cain, who would later achieve fame
as the famous author of The Postman Always Rings Twice,

(05:02):
and wrote an account of Private Gunther's actions in the
final moments of the war to end all wars. According
to his companions, Gunther brooded a great deal over his
reduction in rank, and became obsessed with a determination to
make good before his officers and fellow soldiers. Particularly, he
was worried because he thought himself suspected of being a

(05:25):
German sympathizer. He acquitted himself splendidly in the Montfu confit
and on the drive east of the Mews. He was
selected to act as a company runner, particularly dangerous work,
for a runner is the bearer of important messages and
must get them delivered, even if his way lies over
the most exposed country. On November eleven, he was still

(05:47):
on duty as a runner. His company had been ordered
to advance on the Villa de von Chemont Gunther with
one or two other runners, and an advanced party of
riflemen from his company was just on the outskirts. The
order had already come that hostilities were to cease at
eleven o'clock. Directly ahead there was visible a German machine

(06:08):
gun nest Gunther. According to the men of company a
must have been fired by a desire to demonstrate, even
at the last minute, that he was courageous and all American.
At a few minutes to eleven he announced that he
was going to take that machine gun nest and, though

(06:29):
his companions remonstrated and told him that in a few
minutes the war would be over, he started out, armed
with a Browning automatic rifle. When the Germans saw him coming,
they waved at him and called out in such broken
English as they could to go back that the war
was over. He paid no heed to them, however, and
kept on firing a shot or two from his automatic

(06:51):
as he went. After several vain efforts to make him
turn back, the Germans turned the machine gun on him,
and at one minute of eleven o'clock, Gunther fell dead.
The guns stopped firing at eleven o'clock. A few seconds after,

(07:14):
and a few minutes after, the German machine gun crew
that had killed him came out with a stretcher and
placed Gunther on it. They then carried him back to
his party from Company A he had left but a
short time before. They explained that they had tried to
keep him from coming on and that they had to
shoot him in self defense. They insisted on shaking hands

(07:36):
with the Americans, after which they set Gunther down and
returned to their own lines. At ten fifty nine a m.
On November eleven, Private Henry Gunther was killed one minute
before guns went silent on the Western Front. He may
have been proving his loyalty by following General Nicholson's no
let up order to the letter. He may have sought

(07:57):
to erase all doubts and prove his allegiance to the
American side. He may have suffered a mental breakdown from
all that he'd seen during the two months of intense
trench warfare. Or perhaps word hadn't actually reached him that
the war was over. If his motivation was to restore
his reputation, the fatal tactic worked. In his order of

(08:18):
the day, General John Pershing, responsible for all American expeditionary forces,
officially recognized Henry N. Gunther as the last man killed
in World War One. The Army posthumously restored Gunther to
the rank of sergeant and awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
An A terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery, and a special thanks to
Craig du May of the Grateful Nation Project for telling
this story in America's history. We don't gloss it over.
We've done segments on the good and bad parts of
our past and during the war. World War One it
was the Germans, many of whom were mistreated, and in

(09:02):
World War Two it was the Japanese. Were a good country,
but were not a perfect country. And Henry Gunther, while
he died, proving to the people he knew and didn't know,
that he was a loyal member of the country. The
story of Henry Gunther, the last man killed in World
War One. Here on our American Stories