This is Henry Gunther, the American soldier who died less than a minute before World War One officially ended in 1918. He's known as the last soldier from any country to have been killed in the war. And today he's remembered as a hero, someone who demonstrated exceptional bravery and love for his country even until the very end. But although a military post has been named after him in several different memorials, having built in his honor.

Henry Gunther wasn't quite exactly the hero that he was made out to be. His real story is a whole lot more complex and a whole lot more tragic than a man bravely giving up his life to serve his country. And this is his untold story that we're going to be diving into today. Welcome back, guys. My name is Andy Jiang, and this is hitting stores.

In 1917, a 23 year old man named Henry Gunther was living a very happy and comfortable life in Baltimore, Maryland. On top of having a stable, well-paying job working as a clerk at a bank, he just recently got engaged with his girlfriend and was looking forward to getting to marry the love of his life. Life was just good for him, and as a handsome young guy, he had a whole life of experiences and living left to look forward to.

However, in September of 1970, just a few months after the U.S. had declared war on Germany, Henry suddenly found himself being drafted into service to fight in World War One. He was devastated. In an instant, his job, his fiancee, his entire life was being ripped away from him. But despite Henry's incredible frustration, he had no choice but to leave home and everything there behind him to join the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Division.

His new life in this regiment, known as Baltimore's own, was very different from his life back home, to say the least. In addition to having to follow a strict training schedule involving very little sleep and horrible food, Henry, who was German American, could feel himself constantly being judged by his fellow soldiers. Some of them suspected that Henry's German heritage meant that he could be some sort of German spy or sympathizer, so they treated him as such.

However, despite facing this discrimination, Henry just kept his head down and focused on working harder than everyone else, which eventually got him promoted to supply sergeant responsible for all the clothing in his unit. But despite his new rank and status, Henry still wasn't happy. He missed the comfort of his life back home. His friends, his fiancee. And in July 1918, when Henry and his regiment were finally shipped out of France to actually fight on the front lines, his frustration and unhappiness only continued to build up.

For the very first time, he experienced the horrifying and brutal reality of life in the trenches. Since his regiment was always randomly being bombarded by enemy artillery shells, he could never fully let us go down. Every day he had to watch his friends and comrades killed by poison gas, bullets and shrapnel from enemy soldiers that he couldn't even see.

His clothes were always dead from sitting and standing in the mud, and he was always surrounded by filth and rats and says he never knew if the next death would finally be his own. His anxiety was at an all time high and you could never get much sleep or rest. Like all the other soldiers around him every single day, Henry was terrified of what new, unimaginable horrors he would have to witness as a result.

Before long, he just couldn't help but vent about the sheer horror of war and his life as a soldier in a letter that he was sending back home to one of his friends. In this letter, Henry described his experiences so far and strongly urged his friend to avoid ever serving his country or fighting on the front lines. However, little did Henry know American military censors were actively reading and monitoring every single letter that was being sent out at the time.

Letters from American soldiers that were being sent back to their families were an extremely useful and important tool for boosting the morale of everyone back in the U.S. and for encouraging their continued support for the war. As such, the moment these military censors came across Henry's letter and his unfiltered bashing of the war and of serving one's country, they were furious.

Within days, the Army had demoted Henry from his position as a supply sergeant, the position that he had worked so hard to earn all the way down to the lowest possible position of private. When the rest of Henry's regiment heard about his letter and his demotion, they began to stop talking to Henry as much, and so did excluding him from their conversations.

To them, this only further confirmed their suspicions that Henry was a German sympathizer and that he truly wasn't on their side. But if all of that wasn't already bad enough when Henry's own fiancee heard about its demotion, she decided to cut off their engagement for good and moved on to find someone else to marry. Within days, Henry's entire life had literally just been completely turned upside down.

The loss of his future wife and his own reputation smack in the middle of his deeply traumatic war experience, almost broke him. And the timing of everything couldn't have been worse either. Shortly after Henry's demotion, he and his regiment began almost 60 entire days of nonstop, bloody combat. Although Henry somehow managed to escape all of these battles unscathed.

By the time these 60 days were over, he was clearly a changed man. His fellow soldiers who were still around him noticed that he had become extremely quiet and reserved. Although prior to everything going down had been a fairly social guy, it never seemed like he would never see much of anything to anyone anymore. And he was always by himself with a sort of sad but stoic look on his face.

It was very clear that he had become deeply depressed, full of anger, regret and sadness. And although most of the other soldiers in the regiment were happy to finally be given a chance to just rest after such a long period of fighting. To their shock, it soon became apparent that Henry just didn't feel the same way. Now, before I continue with the story, this week's episode is brought to you by Hellofresh.

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Over the next few weeks, Henry began volunteering for the most dangerous assignments that he could. He was determined to prove once and for all that he was not a German sympathizer. He was an American soldier, just like the rest of the regiment. And he wanted to defeat the Germans just as badly as they did. As a result, the worse the fighting got, the more determined Henry became to step up and to prove his loyalty and courage.

Even though he was shot in the wrist during one battle, which was severe enough of an injury to have him sent back home to his family and escape the war. Henry was no longer interested in that. Instead, he insisted on staying alongside his Army brothers, continuing to fight for his country and for the American courts. By then, however, it was clear that the war was almost already over.

Germany's allies Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire had already all surrendered, and most of the German troops on the front lines were almost completely out of resources and were slowly starving to death. With morale at an all time low and many soldiers deserting their posts as a result, shortly after 5 p.m. on November 11th, 1918, German, British and French officials gathered together at officially signed an armistice to end World War One.

But although Germany wanted to end the fighting immediately, the allied commander, Ferdinand Fox, rejected his proposal and dictated that the fighting would instead stop in around 6 hours at exactly 11 a.m. to allow news of the cease fire to travel to all of the soldiers on the front lines. Tragically, this choice would end up costing the lives of nearly 3000 soldiers who were killed in the 6 hours between when the armistice was signed and when the war was officially over.

The very last of these nearly 3000 soldiers was Henry Gunther. When the news of World War One finally ending reached Henry and his regiment, they were actually told to just keep on fighting all the way until the war's official end at 11 a.m.. Turns out the commanders of the American Army felt that the Germans were being let off too easily and that the allied forces should continue pressing forward into German territory until the final minute to show the Germans that they were serious about the terms of the armistice.

However, by the time of this news had reached Henry's regiment, it was already 10:44 a.m., just 16 minutes before the end of the war. By that point, pretty much no one wanted to keep on fighting and potentially risk losing their lives as close to them finally being able to go back home. However, Henry's solving differently since he was Philip private.

Having never been reprimanded to his original position of supply sergeant, he probably felt that he had to prove himself to prove his allegiance to the US and to regain his own. In his eyes, he probably felt that he only had 16 minutes left to do that. As a result, when the regiment came across a roadblock manned by two German machine gun squads just minutes before the war officially ended.

Although all the soldiers on both sides had been informed about the armistice and were patiently and peacefully waiting for 11 a.m. to come to the shock of Henry's regiment, all of a sudden he just rose towards the enemy, alone with his fixed bayonet. Although Henry's bewildered comrades desperately yelled at him to stop, he dashed through the fog, charging straight at the German machine gun squads.

When these German troops told a single American soldier just suddenly rushing towards them, they too tried frantically waving at them, yelling out in their broken English that the war was now over. Just please stop. But despite their efforts to their surprise and confusion, Henry just kept on charging at them. And when he'd gotten so close that he began firing at them, the German troops had no choice but to fire back, hitting Henry in his head and ending his life.

He died at 10:59 a.m., just one minute before the official end of the war. Following Henry's death, he was declared the last soldier to be killed in the war for his, quote unquote, exceptional bravery and heroic actions in those final minutes. He was eventually posthumously re promoted back to his original rank of sergeant. Today, his body lies in his hometown of Baltimore at the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery.

The name actually perfectly captures what Henry was trying to accomplish in his final moments. He felt deeply ashamed by the motion. Like he had dishonored his family and his fiancee, and he just wanted to redeem himself. Today, he still widely remembered as a hero. So in a way, he did succeed in doing so. Take care, guys, and I'll see you all next week.