On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at eleven a.m. ...

November 11, 2008|By DAN RODRICKS | DAN RODRICKS,dan.rodricks@baltsun.com

Henry Gunther of Baltimore died at one minute before the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - the last soldier killed in the four-year insanity of World War I ...

... Germany wanted a cease-fire as early as Nov. 8. Had that proposal been accepted, Persico estimates, nearly 7,000 more men might have survived the war ...

Gunther and the rest of his company learned at 10:30 a.m. that the war would end at 11. They were near a village called Ville-devant-Chaumont, north of Verdun, pinned down by a German machine gun. As 11 a.m. approached, Gunther suddenly rose with his rifle and ran through thick fog. His men shouted for him to stop. So did the Germans. But Gunther kept running and firing.

One machine gun blast later, he was dead. His death was recorded at 10:59 a.m. The Germans who had just killed Gunther placed him on a stretcher and carried him to his American company, and his comrades buried him there ...

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-11-11/news/0811100097_1_henry-gunther-11th-month-war-i

For anyone interested in WW1, I recommend this book;

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/348518.Eleventh_Month_Eleventh_Day_Eleventh_Hour

The action of the Allied leaders during the last day was appalling.