Posted on 11/10/2018 1:40:07 PM PST by jerod
George Lawrence Price died on a Monday. It was a rainy day whose hours were almost evenly split between war and peace. And it was a terrible day to die.
That Monday marked both the end of the long suffering of the First World War, and of the Canadian private's short life. His premature death, just minutes shy of a tenuous peace, was no more or less tragic than that of countless others killed during the course of the war — or afterward, because of it.
But being the last Canadian and Commonwealth soldier to die in the war to end all wars — just as so many people were celebrating — lifted him out of almost-certain anonymity.
His death on Nov. 11, 1918, ultimately made him a symbol of the futility of conflict.
I’ve heard it said that the intense fusillade that accompanied the run up to the truce was caused by so many wanting to fire the last shot of the war.
The last soldier of any of the belligerents to be killed during World War I was - according to Wikipedia - an American, Henry Gunther.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Gunther
The “High Command” on both sides committed, IMHO, a war crime in not telling their own troops to ‘stand down’ and fire only if there was a specific visible enemy who was firing at them. This should have been done upon the ANNOUNCEMENT of the coming ‘armistice’ and there should have been a ‘General Order’ threat of Court Martial for indiscriminate firing. Stupid deaths like this Canadian Private happened all over the place and it was always the poor bloke on the front line and not the senior ranks in the rear!
Very bitter about this, not for personal reasons, but for the absolute STUPIDITY of this!
The real issue was senior commanders wanting to press their attacks before the armistice was signed, to improve the Allies negotiating position, enhance their promotion prospects, or inflict additional casualties on the enemy. So, from General Foch to the regimental level, most commanders sent their troops back into action on the morning of November 11, 1918, continuing offensives that had (in most sectors) been underway for several weeks. By one estimate, 300 American troops died on the final morning of the war, and more than 3000 were seriously wounded.
One commander who refused to waste his troops’ lives in meaningless attacks was Maj Gen William Haan, commander of the US 32nd Division. On the morning on 11 November, a subordinate contacted Haan and requested permission to launch an assault to erase a small salient in the units lives. Haan told him that no lives would be wasted in that manner during the final hours before the armistice. Haan’s men stayed in their trenches and suffered only minor casualties from incoming artillery fire. General Haan’s actions were the exception and not the rule on that final morning of the war.
FWIW, I’ve got a Buddy over there now for the celebrations.
He’s sent me pictures from Dunkirk and from the Lochnagar Crater so far. His son is studying in Austria this year and they met up to be in Brussels at this time. I hope to see a lot more pix when he returns Tues.
My father’s younger brother, who had signed up in 1940 at age 16, was killed in Holland the morning of May 1, 1945. Later that day there was a general ceasefire in that sector. He and 3 friends were their Regiment’s last casualties.
There are no words for stories like that.
In the bigger picture, we see fate take its hand every day in terms of which innocent person happens to be driving along when a drunk’s vehicle crosses the centre line. I think what makes it seem more tragic in the military realm, is to realize that those soldiers who died on the final day of a war or battle had likely cheated death numerous times.
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