Who Was The LAST Man Killed On The Western Front (WW1 Documentary)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 พ.ย. 2023
- In the pre-dawn hours on 11th November 1918 in a railway clearing near Compiegne, German commanders signed an Armistice document which would finally bring an end to four years of fighting on the Western Front, during which time millions of men had fallen. In this video we will countdown those final hours and follow in the footsteps of those men who were destined not to see the end of war, the last to fall.
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Reference Material:
• N. Lloyd, Hundred Days (2014)
• M. Strohn, Winning The War, Losing The War (2018)
• M. Otte, The Meuse-Argonne 1918 (2022)
• P. Hart, 1918 - A Very British Victory (2010)
Sources:
• Find My Past (FMP)
• Memoire Des Hommes
• National Library of Scotland Image Archive
• McMaster University WW1 Trench Maps
• War Diaries of the Battalions (Naval and Military Press)
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Archive (CWGC)
• US National Archives (NARA)
• The National Archives, Kew (TNA)
• Google Earth Pro & Web Versions
• Memory Maps, Trench Maps of the First World War
• Maptiler Pro (Desktop Version)
- Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1984-059-06A / CC-BY-SA
-
Credits:
• Research: Andrew Mullen
• Script & Narration: Dan Hill
• Editing: Shane Greer
• Thumbnail Design: Linus Klassen
• Voiceovers: Hugo Salter
• Music & Sound Effects: Epidemic Sounds/Shane Greer
• Findmypast is a great tool we use for all our videos. If you want to learn more about your own family history, in war or peace, you can check it out with the following link: ft.ax/6Rb
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Just for Augustin Trebuchon his lieutenant told him as his order "you run for history" saddly he did
"Two graves separated by 10 steps and a million lives." That line gave me chills.
So few words encapsulate so much hardship.
It's very unerving and incredibly sad standing on the ground between these two graves, I went there a few times while serving at NATO HQ just up the road from 2000 to 2003.
It's a beautiful cemetery but shows the futility of what happened, no land was gained or lost at the end.
spot on!
I was at St Symphorien and it also gave me chills to see the 2 graves that close to eachother.
It's so much worse when asking the question "for what".
As many wars, WWI changed nothing. In reality, WWI created the conditions for WWII.
It is and has always been in the human nature to destroy itself.
Human beings always either find new ways to kill each other or destroy the planet on which we live.
Sending a rocket into space and taking a picture of planet Earth from the moon or further away shows how insignificant the little blue planet is in the vastness of space and yet, the carbon based lifeforms inhabiting that blue planet still don't realize the futility of killing each other.
Thanks a million for also thinking about the last German. A good 20 years ago, I as commander of the German Support Company to the NATO HQ in Mons, commanded the Memorial Day ceremony in St Symphorien cemetary....together with the British Support Unit! A UK Bagpipe and a German trumpet mourned for their dead - together. Now, nearly at the end of my career as a German officer, I continue to serve with Brits and US soldiers in a common effort on the still silent eastern front. As a proof that times can change! Let's hope it stays that way. All the Best, T.U.F.
Thank you so much for your very kind comment. We are glad you enjoyed the documentary.
While serving in Germany in the 80s (with the Canadian army) we made a point of visiting some German cemeteries (Langemark was one, if I recall correctly). Very somber. I was shocked on approach to one of the many grave markers to see that they represented 10 or 12 dead Germans under each individual marker. A tragedy for the youth of all sides.
Over the course of my 35 yrs in the army, I served with many Germans soldiers. Most closely in Afghanistan. Very good and professional.
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your story! Langemark also contains some huge mass graves also!
I was NATO HQ from 2000 to 2003 my after work secondary duty was running the Brit 🇬🇧 Bar....used to pop out the back to the German bar a bit too! It was a great 3 years where I made lifelong friends
We were never enemy's as people. Your country just had a crackhead dictator.
My grandfather served in the First World War he never talked about it it must’ve been terrible beyond belief. Thank you very much for this video it’s brilliant sad, and needed to be made.
My great grandfather's served in the Canadian forces in ww1 and survived it I appreciate how you put these together
Thanks for the kind comment Shawn. We appreciate it!
My wife's g-g uncle, an American from Minnesota, named Pedersen, died at about 9:30 AM that day. He was the last in his regiment to die, and the family has a personal letter from the colonel, letters from comrades who were with him, and a body diagram where he had been hit... he had been sent out in front of the lines to repair a cut phone line and got caught up in some barbed wire, then mown down by a machine gun.
Wow, that's quite a story Ben, tragic to lose someone so late on. Have you been to visit his grave?
Oh man imagine being his mother and breathing a huge sigh of relief that the armistice was coming into effect, only to find out the truth later and knowing what a close thing it was
No. I think it is somewhere in Flanders. We have a picture in an original frame of him on the wall.
@@BattleGuideVT
Damn they just couldn't wait an hour and a half to repair that phone line
@@user-ok8yq6nc6x Hope there are special places in hell for those officers who sent their men in harms way and those on the other side who fired at them once they knew the war would end that day!!!!
One of the best history channels on TH-cam. The work that went into this video is so unappreciated by the TH-cam algorithm
Beautiful and poetic storytelling of one of the most heartbreaking few hours ever. I cried the whole time but am planning to rewatch this many times. Thank you
Thank you for your comment, we are delighted you enjoyed the video!
I don't know how the others countries managed these deaths, but in France, not one single soldier officially died on november 11th. All those who lost their lives on that day were registered as dead on november 10th, as the army thought it was too cruel for families to tell them their son, husband or father was killed just a few hours or minutes before the armistice. Just have a look at Augustin Trebuchon's grave shown in the film, and if you look well you'll see that he officially died on november 10th, though he was killed on november 11th...
I did notice that detail… you answered my question to myself…
@@gregbowen617 You're welcome. I just mentioned this detail to say Battle Guide didn't make a mistake, Augustin Trébuchon was really killed on november 11th, just a few minutes before the armistice and in the conditions told here. This false date on his grave is a deliberate move from the French War department. However, I'd like to know if the other nations did the same as us or not. May be you know for your own country ?
Unrealistic, but it's understandable and well......compassionate on their part. They wouldn't have had to live with "He was almost home, he only had a couple of minutes or even hours and he would've been home"
@@littlemisssunshine4213compassion would’ve been to not have them do any thing risky that day :(
So heartbreaking. The tragic waste of life. Especially at the very end of the war. Thank you for sharing this, they should never be forgotten.
Thanks Ronald. They came so close to seeing it through... truly tragic.
hundreds of thousands died after 11/11 from wounds, effects of gas and PTSD, alcohol not to forget the spanish flu which was spread by the movement of large numbers of soldiers in camps and in transit.
I think the reasoning behind continuing hostilities right up until the last minute was that soldiers and generals weren't certain the ceasefire would hold. So if it didn't hold, then they at least wanted to gain advantageous ground and a better position to defend or assault from if hostilities began again.
Thank you for this video 18:58 . My maternal grandfather, Jens Nymann, almost became the last American killed in WWI. At the start of the summer of 1918, he was still a citizen of Denmark.
Jens was born on July 6, 1889 near Hobro, Denmark. 3 days after the Titanic sank, Jens booked passage on the Oscar II, a Danish ocean liner and sailed to NYC.
In the early of 1918, US Army recruiters were spreading the word around Cedar Falls, Iowa that immigrants who neither enlisted nor subjected themselves to the draft, might not be allowed to become US citizens after the war.
By the end of army basic training, Jens became a US citizen. His first duty assignment was to serve as an orderly in a Spanish flu ward of an army hospital. He arrived in Paris, France on November 11, 1918.
Tragic Trebuchon. A 40 year old runner surviving all of that for years. Delivering the highest of news only to be cut down 15 minutes before the end.
2 graves separated by 10 steps. And a million lives.
That gave me shivers
The personal stories of the people that were involved really make the history of this war real..........
Another stellar video by BattleGuide, with a poignant portrayal of the final hours of WWI. Your treatment and research into these unfortunate soldiers lives and past allow us to perceive of them as people and not statistics. They may have been the last to perish in the carnage of the Western Front, but through your work, they are not forgotten.
Thanks for putting this together. I'm the great nephew of an Australian army soldier of the 10th Battalion AIF, Cpl. Cherles Edward Clark and we were fortunate that he survived Gallipoli, Belgium and France although he was badly wounded in the thigh in Belgium, he lived until 1975. I am so sad for these men in particular but the entire war was a tragedy of monumental proportion, it's a pity it wasn't the war to end war, I myself served in recent conflicts, we still haven't learned much.
Excellent presentation. I love the map to terrain transitions along with the precise location annotations. Very well done.
Lest we forget.
You do a great job telling these stories. Thanks for the work you put into your content.
Thank you Phil... yes it is a monumental amount of work but it is so important to tell these stories. Thanks for your kind comment.
First time watching and I’m also from Baltimore. Baltimore did have a large number of German immigrants and that’s why traditionally most families to this day have sauerkraut during thanksgiving and Christmas.
I couldn't be more impressed by your work! Keep it up!
Quality as always. My favourite channel on TH-cam, you always know that you’re going to learn something with each episode!
Fascinating video as always. This one was quite moving, thank you for posting.
Great video. Thank you for putting it all together.
Brilliant video - I have subbed and look forward to even more
Superb work. Your channel is really growing, great stuff 😊
Thank you so much 😀
Outstanding video. Many thanks.
Michael Palin did a documentary about this a few years ago, like his documentary this is well produced and very respectful, thank you for taking the time to produce and upload it. What your video doesn’t state, but it did show, is the French soldiers grave has the date 10/11/1918 as his date of death. The French deliberately recorded the date of death for ALL their soldiers killed in action on Armistice Day, and also those who died of their wounds on Armistice Day, as 10/11/1918, the day before, to prevent more falls in morale in the rest of France, they were worried that deaths on the last day were so much more futile it could cause there to be a revolution like in Russia.
We had originally included it along with many more little snippets but sadly they ended up on the cutting room floor... we knew this one would be picked up on in the comments and it is a great conversation starter!
@@BattleGuideVT thank you for your reply. Still a bloody good video.
Enlightening vidio as always, thank you…
Awesome show. Thank you !
Didn’t realise this was uploaded so recently & showed in my home page. Very happy I seen it as I learned a lot, thank you Sir 🙏🏻
Excellent, glad you enjoyed it Josh!
Glad it was helpful!
Very informative
We are glad you enjoyed the video!
Hi , i enjoyed watching this documentary . So sad about the last to be shot .. Thank you for your work ..
Credit where it is due. Excellent work, Dan. Well done.
Many thanks, hope you are keeping well Burge.
You make a very good point about why fighting continued to the end. With the benefit of 100 years of hindsight we know the guns would fall silent for good, but either side could easily have broken the ceasefire.
Yes, hindsight does skew the vision and sometimes you need to try your hardest to put yourself in their boots.
Great video.
Thanks!
I visited the American cemetery in Margareten in southern Holland. I found many Graves marked "bomb disposal group" the dates on many were September 1945.
That last line gave me chill bumps! Fantastic video!
Glad you liked it!
I've been thinking about this, for every war. So powerful. To fight for so long, even back to the same place?!?! To be the last to be killed in a world war. The families must've suffered. So dreadful.
Horrendous isn't it.
Wonderful & informative video. 👍🏻 But ...so sad. 😞
Michael Palin did a video on the same subject. It too is very worthwhile.
Its very good - he had a little more budget than us though! ;)
I have said before and I'll say it again. "Top quality narration and content and I think your channel is one of the best". Heart breaking to think that guns were firing and then minutes later hands were shaken and smokes exchanged. And the bastards in power had clean hands!
Absolutely outstanding narrative
When I was a kid in the ‘80s I would hear my great-great-aunt’s stories about growing up (1894-1995) and I was so fascinated. My great-great-aunt was engaged to a guy that died in action during WWI and she never got engaged again as she said it wasn’t right in her mind for her to find someone else. I miss her deeply and I know now she is in heaven with him.
1 hell of a history video 👍👍great work
Much appreciated :)
Thank you for your presentation.
Glad it was helpful!
Tragic that so many died in the few hours before the war finally ended
This is an incredible video
Excellent video thank you
Thanks for watching Dan, glad you enjoyed it.
Glad it was helpful!
Really excellent videos here.
Thank you very much!
A sadly interesting episode, thank you.
My grandfather survived, a member of the 7th AEF American forces in France. Wounded from mustard gas and spent time in a French hospital in Paris. The surgery required removing the back 2 inches of his skull from the infection through the ear canal. Amazing French surgeons at the period in time.
A dreadful weapon. My great uncle was gassed near Ypres. He had a leg blown off as well. As he put it, “I’ve had better days…”
How he lived until 1975 I’ll never know! He and my grandad always sat together at family gatherings. Grandad was very deaf because of the concussion caused by the big naval guns of the time. Great-uncle Maurice was very quietly-spoken because of the gas. Conversations between them were the stuff of comedy.😂 That’s not disrespectful because those who found it funniest were the two gentlemen concerned. I’m smiling as I type.
Best wishes.
Thanks for sharing, my grandfather lived 'til 1980. I can't find out what battle his unit was in when he was wounded. The records from WW1 were in the archive fire and lost about 20 or 30 years ago. But he was in an artillery battery unit and pretty much deaf when I knew him.
I feel like all quiet on the western front (the modern movie) encapsulates the feeling of this video very well just how pointless it was to stop at a certain time like 11th of the 11th at 11am instead of 00:00 11th of the 11th
Separated by 10 steps and a million lives... wow
8 words but they mean so much.
Superb.
What a fascinating video to watch today on remembrance day
God this channel is so good
That was a very enjoyable video - despite being so sad
This was probably the slickest ad I’ve ever seen. Almost didn’t notice it.
Outstanding...
Whew!! That was some kind of mind-numbing. Really makes one think of his own mortality.
Thank you Muriel. Glad you appreciated the video.
It is heartbreaking to watch as my great uncle was killed in 1918 at eighteen years or age my mother told me her mother never recovered from this loss of her youngest boy and was a very different person she had known to the end of her life. Pray we will never forget any of them and respect their sacrifice ever on.
Only one American general had the courage to say it was madness to conduct offensive operations with the war about to end. He refused to send his forces into battle "to tidy up a map," and they only suffered a few casualties from German artillery. His men owed him a great debt. He was Major General William Haan.
Thanks for this video. One of my great-great uncles was in the machine gun corp and was killed on 24th October 1918. He was just 19.
That was a fascinating video to watch and as a York man myself I travel past the very street that George Ellison almost every day and never bat an eye, this weekend will be different because ill be stood in that street thinking of George on that 11.11.1918, and the twist of fate at the end about the first man and the last is just mind blowing, once again I thank you for an excellent video as sad as it is.
Yet another great video. Well done!
Two things I'd like to point out about George Price. He is also buried at St Symphorien Military Cemetery. And him being a conscript in the Canadian Expeditionary Force was far from the norm during the First World War. Canada only started conscription late in 1917 with the training of those conscripts not really starting until 1918.
Thanks pal... hope you are well!
Excellent video. It is very moving and my heart broke as I watched this. So many died during the final hours of the fighting on the western front.
Great video. I also appreciate how you discussed other fronts too. When I was in school, I remember that my classes mostly covered the western front, but not as much about the other theaters of the war. I will definitely read up more and history channels like yours have also inspired my learning. :) Keep up the excellent work. Have a great weekend.
Thanks Alex, we are glad you enjoyed the documentary and we hope it has expanded your knowledge even just a little bit!
@@BattleGuideVT Anytime! It def. has. I learn a lot from each of your videos.
Edwin Ellison fought from the very start and fell with only 1.5hrs to go... poor man
Tragic.
My grandfather was wounded at 10:33 am on November 11, 1918. He survived.
Fascinating stories of those who died near the end of the war to end all wars. The last of millions who shed their blood on the battlefield in this conflict. The 10 foot separation of the first and last British soldiers' graves is a stark reminder of what happened in between. As we know now, wars did not end as there will always be a fight for freedom and brave warriors who are willing to take the fight to the enemies of freedom.
Thanks for the comment... so true. We are glad you enjoyed the documentary.
Thanks Chuck, glad you enjoyed it and hope you are keeping well (DH)
A great uncle of mine was injured right at the end of the war and was taken to Scotland and died of gangrene.RIP
It's worth remembering that for the enlisted men the deaths on the western front would continue, though maybe not in battle.
There was the great 'clean up' to do and men would be killed by such things as booby traps, mines, unexploded shells etc.
As for the Germans, they would return to a home of strife and civil war.
I can’t remember the timing exactly but there were probably also people still dying from the Spanish Flu for a while too. For whatever part the war played in the spread of the disease.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job/maps documents. Enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Enabling historians to replicate Diaries/memoirs for future generations to better appreciate the hard ships/predicaments/sacrifices. Of all involved with the " Great War ". Unfortunately the German generals Kiaser Wilhelm and others whom planned & started the diabolical war. Were never held accountable.
My grandfather James Mateer bled to death in 1953, from an ulcer he had from a bullet that he took in 1918 that never healed. I say He was the last to fall
Like so many people, I have a direct relationship to WWI. My grandmother was from Leige and my grandfather from Charloi, not the best places to be in Aug 1914, and I live close to Port William NS, home of the last Canadian to fall. History is part of us all.
You have done well here. Of course many injured and sick men continued to die of wounds and sickness for a long time after the war. Sometimes men lingered on as invalids for years, only to succumb at last while still relatively young.
As a former frontline soldier and combat veteran, It only makes sense to fight on to those who have never seen the bloodshed of combat or are loose in the head.
Thank you for service but can I ask why if war is over is retaliation really worth it ?
@@rkl233 No wars are worth it.
Wow that’s powerful
My Great Grand Uncle, William Long, Drake Btn, RN Division, KW603, was killed in action on 8th November 1918 leaving a wife and son at home. He is buried at Wiheries Communal Cemetery with 6 others. He nearly made it. RIP 😢
Sgt. Henry Gunther was the last American death of WW1. He was from Baltimore, Maryland.
Heartbreaking..
Henry Gunther's story would make such a good WW1 film.
We agree... although to be fair... any of these individual stories would!
@@BattleGuideVTTrue! I just thought his was particularly dramatic
Agreed!
May all involved rest in peace. My great great grandfather died at Ypres February 1916.
Its absolutely heartbreaking to hear about these men killed in the last minutes of the war. All of it hurts, but dying at the last minutes... These men deserved better
Bravo
I know someone whose grandfather was injured in a mine explosion in France - he was a "sapper - and died of those injuries eight years later. So yes there were ongoing casualties from wartime injuries. That said this documentary is very well done. I wonder if this channel has done one on the "First shot fired at Gettysburg"?
They were all victims weren’t they? We can only guess at the unseen mental wounds.
Six of my great-uncles were killed: three in one morning, 1st July 1916.
My great-aunt Polly lost her husband that day. By all accounts, she and Jimmy (Private Whittle; East Lancashire Regiment) had been the ‘life and soul of the party’ before the war. She never remarried; never had children; lived alone until well into the 1980s; I never saw her happy so, as a child, I found visiting her a bit ‘boring’.
But essentially, that woman spent around sixty five years dying. She wasn’t living, that’s for sure.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission appears to record WW1 deaths until the end of 1922.
Those commanders who ordered those poor boys to fight even as they knew it was over, for glory or spite shouldve been charged. I hope they lived with the that.
8:52 Augustin has the death date of 10 11 1918 on his marker.
Many mistakes where made even my Great Uncle was mistakenly given the wrong spelling of his surname and his marker had to be replaced when he was correctly identified (buried near Calais, died of wounds) his brother was lost on the Somme.
Indeed... this was a deliberate mistake as the French didnt want to put the death dates down on the day an Armistice was declared. Check some other comments on it in this comments section.
There's a grave in a cemetery near me of an Artilleryman killed the day before the Armistice.
Where about is that?
Powerful😢.
I lost two Great Uncles in the 1914-18 war one was a Dispatch Rider who lied about his age who lied about his age he was just 16 and the other one was killed at sea,and my grandfather was the only Surviver of a ship that was Torpedoedode in 1917 and he and My Grandmother were Married in October 1917 and My Auntie was Born in February 1918
And I heard my friend cry as he sank to his knees coughing blood as he screamed for his mother.
This whole video I had a frown on my face so sad
Outro vídeo incrível. Morrer no ultimo momento da guerra é como nadar e morrer na beira da praia.
Obrigado e sim, é muito parecido!
Wipers.
A terrible place to be.
Where death,
looks like you and me.
My soul drowned in blood and steel. Plastered in mud
and held by grim.
Thank you for getting an American to read the American soldiers journals. It’s a nice touch and we appreciate the effort.
It very interesting History.
As a side note it would be interesting to know who where the last to survive and live a life.
I believe there where a couple of gents who lived to 114?
Price is also in St. Symphorien Military Cemetery
Yes, true
The is a brass memorial plaque commemorating a soldier in a church in Shalford who had died- he was killed removing munitions after the war had ended. I cannot remember but he was probably in the RAOC and I assume there were quiet a few who died in a similar way.
The very fact the Germans waved at Gunther to stop proves there was no animosity between the soldiers on either side and their enemies. On the contrary, they most likely had the greatest respect for each other as they were all in the same terrible situation- placed in a war and likely to die or suffer terribly by politicians. This friendliness was also seen when the men came together after the armistice. Friendly and smiling. I often think if politicians had to go and actually fight in wars, there would never be another war.
But you could also argue that an unarmed German waving at the allies after the armistice getting shot shows there was animosity? Some soldiers respected the enemy, some held a grudge
I suspect there was always some one "In Command " who wanted to be the last person known as firing the last shot of WW1 or leading the last attack for the soul purpose of bragging rights and an interesting after dinner conversation.