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This is Henry Gunther, the American soldier

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who died less than a minute before World War One officially ended in 1918.

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He's known as the last soldier from any country

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to have been killed in the war. And today he's remembered as a hero, someone who demonstrated

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exceptional bravery and love for his country even until the very end.

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But although a military post has been named after him in several different memorials, having built in his honor.

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Henry Gunther wasn't quite exactly the hero that he was made out to be.

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His real story is a whole lot more complex and a whole lot more tragic

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than a man bravely giving up his life to serve his country.

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And this is his untold story that we're going to be diving into today.

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Welcome back, guys. My name is Andy Jiang, and this is hitting

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stores.

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In 1917, a 23 year old man named Henry Gunther

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was living a very happy and comfortable life in Baltimore, Maryland.

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On top of having a stable, well-paying job working as a clerk at a bank,

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he just recently got engaged with his girlfriend

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and was looking forward to getting to marry the love of his life.

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Life was just good for him, and as a handsome young guy,

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he had a whole life of experiences and living left to look forward to.

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However, in September of 1970, just a few months after the U.S.

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had declared war on Germany, Henry suddenly found himself

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being drafted into service to fight in World War One.

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He was devastated. In an instant, his job, his fiancee, his entire life

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was being ripped away from him. But despite Henry's incredible frustration,

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he had no choice but to leave home and everything there behind him

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to join the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Division.

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His new life in this regiment, known as Baltimore's

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own, was very different from his life back home, to say the least.

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In addition to having to follow a strict training schedule involving

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very little sleep and horrible food, Henry, who was German American,

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could feel himself constantly being judged by his fellow soldiers.

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Some of them suspected that Henry's German heritage meant that he could be

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some sort of German spy or sympathizer, so they treated him as such.

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However, despite facing this discrimination, Henry just kept his head down

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and focused on working harder than everyone else,

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which eventually got him promoted to supply sergeant responsible for all the clothing in his unit.

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But despite his new rank and status, Henry still wasn't happy.

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He missed the comfort of his life back home.

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His friends, his fiancee. And in July 1918, when Henry and his regiment

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were finally shipped out of France to actually fight on the front lines,

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his frustration and unhappiness only continued to build up.

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For the very first time, he experienced the horrifying and brutal

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reality of life in the trenches. Since his regiment was always randomly being bombarded by enemy

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artillery shells, he could never fully let us go down.

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Every day he had to watch his friends and comrades killed by poison

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gas, bullets and shrapnel from enemy soldiers that he couldn't even see.

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His clothes were always dead from sitting and standing in the mud,

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and he was always surrounded by filth and rats and says

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he never knew if the next death would finally be his own.

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His anxiety was at an all time high and you could never get much sleep or rest.

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Like all the other soldiers around him every single day, Henry was terrified

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of what new, unimaginable horrors he would have to witness as a result.

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Before long, he just couldn't help but vent about the sheer horror of war

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and his life as a soldier in a letter that he was sending back home to one of his friends.

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In this letter, Henry described his experiences so far and strongly

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urged his friend to avoid ever serving his country

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or fighting on the front lines. However, little did Henry know American military censors were actively

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reading and monitoring every single letter that was being sent out at the time.

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Letters from American soldiers that were being sent back to their families were an extremely useful

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and important tool for boosting the morale of everyone back in the U.S.

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and for encouraging their continued support for the war.

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As such, the moment these military censors came across Henry's letter

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and his unfiltered bashing of the war and of serving one's country,

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they were furious. Within days, the Army had demoted Henry from his position as a supply sergeant,

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the position that he had worked so hard to earn all the way down to the lowest possible position of private.

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When the rest of Henry's regiment heard about his letter and his demotion,

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they began to stop talking to Henry as much, and so did excluding him from their conversations.

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To them, this only further confirmed their suspicions

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that Henry was a German sympathizer and that he truly wasn't on their side.

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But if all of that wasn't already bad enough when Henry's own fiancee heard about its demotion,

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she decided to cut off their engagement for good and moved on to find someone else

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to marry. Within days, Henry's entire life had literally just been completely turned upside down.

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The loss of his future wife and his own reputation smack

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in the middle of his deeply traumatic war experience, almost broke him.

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And the timing of everything couldn't have been worse either.

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Shortly after Henry's demotion, he and his regiment began

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almost 60 entire days of nonstop, bloody combat.

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Although Henry somehow managed to escape all of these battles unscathed.

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By the time these 60 days were over, he was clearly a changed man.

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His fellow soldiers who were still around him noticed that he had become extremely quiet and reserved.

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Although prior to everything going down had been a fairly social guy,

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it never seemed like he would never see much of anything to anyone anymore.

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And he was always by himself with a sort of sad but stoic look on his face.

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It was very clear that he had become deeply depressed, full of anger, regret and sadness.

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And although most of the other soldiers in the regiment were happy

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to finally be given a chance to just rest after such a long period of fighting.

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To their shock, it soon became apparent that Henry just didn't feel the same way.

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Over the next few weeks, Henry began volunteering for the most dangerous assignments that he could.

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He was determined to prove once and for all that he was not a German sympathizer.

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He was an American soldier, just like the rest of the regiment.

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And he wanted to defeat the Germans just as badly as they did.

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As a result, the worse the fighting got, the more determined Henry

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became to step up and to prove his loyalty and courage.

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Even though he was shot in the wrist during one battle, which was severe

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enough of an injury to have him sent back home to his family and escape the war.

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Henry was no longer interested in that. Instead, he insisted on staying alongside his Army brothers,

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continuing to fight for his country and for the American courts.

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By then, however, it was clear that the war was almost already over.

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Germany's allies Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire

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had already all surrendered, and most of the German troops

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on the front lines were almost completely out of resources and were slowly starving to death.

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With morale at an all time low and many soldiers deserting their posts

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as a result, shortly after 5 p.m.

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on November 11th, 1918, German, British and French officials

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gathered together at officially signed an armistice to end World War One.

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But although Germany wanted to end the fighting immediately, the allied

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commander, Ferdinand Fox, rejected his proposal and dictated

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that the fighting would instead stop in around 6 hours at exactly 11 a.m.

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to allow news of the cease fire to travel to all of the soldiers

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on the front lines. Tragically, this choice would end up costing the lives of nearly 3000 soldiers

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who were killed in the 6 hours between when the armistice was signed

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and when the war was officially over. The very last of these nearly 3000 soldiers was Henry Gunther.

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When the news of World War One finally ending reached Henry and his regiment,

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they were actually told to just keep on fighting all the way until the war's official end at 11 a.m..

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Turns out the commanders of the American Army felt that the Germans were being let off too easily

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and that the allied forces should continue pressing forward into German territory

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until the final minute to show the Germans that they were serious about the terms of the armistice.

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However, by the time of this news had reached Henry's regiment,

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it was already 10:44 a.m., just 16 minutes before the end of the war.

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By that point, pretty much no one wanted to keep on fighting and potentially risk

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losing their lives as close to them finally being able to go back home.

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However, Henry's solving differently since he was Philip private.

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Having never been reprimanded to his original position of supply

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sergeant, he probably felt that he had to prove himself

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to prove his allegiance to the US and to regain his own.

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In his eyes, he probably felt that he only had 16 minutes left to do that.

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As a result, when the regiment came across a roadblock manned by two German

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machine gun squads just minutes before the war officially ended.

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Although all the soldiers on both sides had been informed

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about the armistice and were patiently and peacefully waiting for 11 a.m.

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to come to the shock of Henry's regiment, all of a sudden

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he just rose towards the enemy, alone with his fixed bayonet.

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Although Henry's bewildered comrades desperately yelled at him to stop,

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he dashed through the fog, charging straight at the German machine gun squads.

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When these German troops told a single American soldier just suddenly rushing towards them,

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they too tried frantically waving at them, yelling out in their broken English

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that the war was now over. Just please stop.

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But despite their efforts to their surprise and confusion, Henry

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just kept on charging at them. And when he'd gotten so close that he began firing at them,

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the German troops had no choice but to fire back,

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hitting Henry in his head and ending his life.

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He died at 10:59 a.m., just one minute before the official end of the war.

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Following Henry's death, he was declared the last soldier to be killed in the war

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for his, quote unquote, exceptional bravery and heroic actions in those final minutes.

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He was eventually posthumously re promoted back to his original rank of sergeant.

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Today, his body lies in his hometown of Baltimore at the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery.

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The name actually perfectly captures what Henry was trying to accomplish

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in his final moments. He felt deeply ashamed by the motion.

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Like he had dishonored his family

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and his fiancee, and he just wanted to redeem himself.

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Today, he still widely remembered as a hero.

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So in a way, he did succeed in doing so.