American soldiers take cover on the Nibelnungen bridge over the Rhine river, as German snipers at the opposite bank take aim, killing one
American soldiers take cover on the Nibelnungen bridge over the Rhine river, as German snipers at the opposite bank take aim, killing one. div class="separator" style="clear: both;". Worms, Germany. 28 March 1945
Henry Nicholas John Gunther (June 6, 1895 – November 11, 1918) was an American soldier and possibly the last soldier of any of the belligerents to be killed during World War I. He was killed at 10:59 a.m., about one minute before the Armistice was to take effect at 11:00 a.m
The Armistice with Germany was signed by 5:00 a.m., local time, but it would only come into force at 11:00 a.m. Gunther's squad approached a roadblock of two German machine guns in the village of Chaumont-devant-Damvillers near Meuse, in Lorraine. Gunther got up, against the orders of his close friend and now sergeant, Ernest Powell, and charged with his bayonet. The German soldiers, already aware of the Armistice that would take effect in one minute, tried to wave Gunther off. He kept going and fired "a shot or two". When he got too close to the machine guns, he was shot in a short burst of automatic fire and killed instantly
Henry Gunther was born into a German-American family in east Baltimore, Maryland, on June 6, 1895.[2][3] His parents, George Gunther (1869–1919) and Lina Roth (1866–1938), were both children of German immigrants.
He grew up in Highlandtown, an East Baltimore neighborhood heavily influenced by German immigrants,[3][6] where his family belonged to Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic parish. Henry Gunther worked as a bookkeeper and clerk at the National Bank of Baltimore. He had joined the Roman Catholic service order for laymen, the Knights of Columbus, in 1915. </
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