On a remote hilltop in a farm field above the tiny French hamlet of Chaumont-devant-Damvillers sits a unique memorial from World War I. The monument honors SGT Henry Gunther of the 313th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division. What makes Gunther’s death unique is not the manner of his death but rather the timing. He was killed by a German machine gun at 10:59am on 11 November 1918, making him the last known soldier to be killed on the Western Front of The Great War.
At 5am on 11 November 1918, the German delegation signed the Armistice that would end the Great War at 11am, 6 hours later. Despite an agreement to cease fire at 11am that day, fighting continued until the last minute and over 11,000 soldiers from all sides were killed, wounded, or missing on 11 November. Of the 11,000, 3,500 were American casualties. At 10:59 Gunther charged a German machine gun nest and was killed just as the armistice was to go into effect.
World War I was not the United States’ first foreign war. The expedition against the Barbary Pirates, Mexican-American War, Spanish American War, and other conflicts saw US servicemembers fighting and risking life and limb on foreign soil. It was by far the largest to date when President Woodrow Wilson commemorated the first Armistice Day in November 1919. The holiday was later formalized as a federal holiday in 1938.
In June 2024, I traveled to France for the 80th D-Day celebration. Before I went to the Normandy coast to tour military sites, I first traveled to eastern France to explore several World War I battlefields. My great grandfather was a Captain in the 313th Infantry Regiment of the US 79th Division and had fought at the Battle of Montfaucon, which was the main objective on the first day of the Meuse-Argonne offensive that pitted over 1,000,000 American soldiers and Marines against the German army. This was the largest single battle the US military has ever fought in. Realizing that SGT Gunther belonged to my great grandfather’s regiment, I attempted to find the monument to his legacy.
Noting it was near Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, I found the small community on google maps. Hamstrung by not speaking much if any French, I found a local French man on a bicycle and showed him a picture of the monument I had found online. He gestured to the hills above the town. Luckily, I had rented an SUV as I had to drive 3 kilometers through farm fields on a narrow gravel unmarked trail and finally found the peaceful site of the memorial. Miles from the closest paved road, the site is situated on a hilltop overlooking the valley beneath. Birds and infrequent winds were the only audible sounds at the solemn marker. I pulled a few weeds in front of the display and took a picture of the monument to the last of the 53,402 Americans to die from combat in WW1. Afterwards, I sat and closed my eyes and took in the terrible beauty of the location and the solemnity that it lent to the occasion. Although SGT Gunther’s body was exhumed and reburied in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland after the war, the monument forever enshrines his legacy and the spot where the last soldier of any WW1 army died in combat in Europe.
Americans before and after SGT Gunther have fought in American wars. Answering the call to defend America and it’s interests, they have served with distinction all over the world. Today’s servicemembers are no less dedicated than those who fought and, in many instances, died fighting the nation’s past wars. William Shakespeare succinctly captured the essence of military members and the debt their nations owe them in his play Henry V (Act IV, Scene III):
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
The cause of most veterans is pure – service so that others can live free. It is a most noble and selfless one. For most it is not about attaining rank or fortune or notoriety. It is about serving with other like-minded individuals for a cause greater than their own.
On Veterans Day 2024, America pauses to recognize its veterans of the past and the present. The day was chosen to commemorate the date that World War I ended. The recent contentious election has brought a new administration into the White House that will invariably shape the Department of Defense and its servicemembers. With hope, the introspection that is over 3 years overdue will commence and lead to needed personnel and attitude changes in the senior civil and military leadership of our armed forces to ‘right the ship.’ Senior civil and military leaders have fairly successfully dodged criticism for unethical and self-serving behaviors that some can argue make the sacrifices of veterans in recent conflicts in vain. Poor leadership has marred the performance of our current military in peacetime and wartime. The strength of our military is and always has been its members. As of 2024, it’s biggest weakness is its failed flag officer leadership.
The new administration owes it to veterans past, present, and future, to rededicate the military’s leadership to serving our country and ensuring that when Americans are placed in harms way, they are serving under civilian and military leaders that once again focus solely on allegiance to country. Veterans throughout our history have done so. Our veterans deserve civil and military leaders who serve the flag and their servicemembers, not money and rank. To truly honor SGT Gunther and all of our veterans it is time to honor them by cleaning house amongst the ranks of senior civil and military leaders and drive a stake into the heart of the destructive military industrial complex. Our veterans deserve nothing less.
