The Silence of the Guns

[Stephanie B]

This is an audio recording (https://twitter.com/MilitaryTimesOP/status/1326727797239328769?) of the last thirty seconds of the First World War and the first thirty seconds of the peace.

[5pins]

Pretty cool.

[ccmdfd]

I've heard this before, several years ago. Nevertheless, it's still awe inspiring to hear now.

[blues]

I wonder who got off that last shot, and if it was a hit or a miss.

[Dennis]

I was wondering why if everyone knew the war was ending why were they shooting at all? So I checked Wikipedia and the story was pretty interesting...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_of_11_November_1918

"Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that, should fighting restart, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently, there were 10,944 casualties, of whom 2,738 men died, on the last day of the war.[2]
An example of the determination of the Allies to maintain pressure until the last minute, but also to adhere strictly to the Armistice terms, was Battery 4 of the US Navy's long-range 14-inch railway guns firing its last shot at 10:57:30 am from the Verdun area, timed to land far behind the German front line just before the scheduled Armistice.[28]

Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers, who were attempting an assault across the Meuse river, that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 a.m.

Earlier, the last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed that morning at around 9:30 a.m. while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium.

The final Canadian, and Commonwealth, soldier to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was shot and killed by a sniper while part of a force advancing into the Belgian town of Ville-sur-Haine just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons at 10:58 a.m., to be recognized as one of the last killed with a monument to his name.

Henry Gunther, an American, is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in World War I. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them. He had been despondent over his recent reduction in rank and was apparently trying to redeem his reputation.[29][30]

News of the armistice only reached African forces, the King's African Rifles, still fighting with great success in today's Zambia, about a fortnight later. The German and British commanders then had to agree on the protocols for their own armistice ceremony.[31]

After the war, there was a deep shame that so many soldiers died on the final day of the war, especially in the hours after the treaty had been signed but hadn't taken effect. In the United States, the U.S. Congress opened an investigation to find out why and if blame should be placed on the leaders of the American Expeditionary Forces, including John Pershing."


Dennis.

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