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 last combat veteran was Claude Choules, who served in the British Royal Navy (and later the Royal Australian Navy) and died 5 May 2011, aged 110. The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch (British Army), who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111.
John Condon (5 October 1900 – 24 May 1915) was an Irish soldier born in Waterford. He was believed to have been the youngest Allied soldier killed during the First World War, at the age of 14 years; he lied about his age and he claimed to be 18 years old when he signed up to join the army in 1913.
The First World War
The last soldier living was Frank Buckles, an ambulance driver on the Western Front. He was a part of the United States Army 1st Fort Riley Casual Detachment, joining in 1917.
The Picture of the Last Man to Die is a black and white photograph taken by Robert Capa during the battle for Leipzig, representing an American soldier, Raymond J. Bowman, aged 21 years old, after being killed by a German sniper, on 18 April 1945, shortly before the end of World War II in Europe.
On May 8, 1945, the British cruiser HMS Dido was en route to Copenhagen Denmark. At one point during the journey, a lone German aircraft approached the ship. The Dido's guns fired one shot and the plane flew away - it was VE day and that was the last shot fired in the Second World War in Europe.
The missing
There are over half a million still missing from the Great War. About a third of those are thought to be buried as “unknown” while the other two thirds are still “missing”.
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was a one-eyed, one-handed war hero who fought in three major conflicts across six decades, surviving plane crashes and PoW camps. His story is like something out of a Boy's Own comic. Carton de Wiart served in the Boer War, World War One and World War Two.
In 2022, only 167,284 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive, reports the US Department of Veteran Affairs.
Most of the casualties during WWI are due to war related famine and disease. Civilian deaths due to the Spanish flu have been excluded from these figures, whenever possible. Moreover, civilian deaths include the Armenian Genocide.
The deadliest sniper of WWI was Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwa soldier.
As of 2021, there were over 200,000 living United States veterans who served in the Second World War. The Department of Veteran Affairs projects that the number of living veterans will decline rapidly in the fifteen years until 2036, at which point just a few hundred Americans who served in the war will be still alive.
SAINT-SYMPHORIEN, Belgium (AP) — With the clock ticking down to mere seconds in a four-year conflict that had already killed millions, the folly of death and destruction in World War I became ever more incomprehensible.
John Lavra cannot make such a claim. Lavra enlisted in the Navy June 6, 1944 as a combat aircrewman. He was called to active duty two days later and went on to become one of only 171,000 U.S. servicemembers to see service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
World War II was the most destructive war in history. Estimates of those killed vary from 35 million to 60 million. The total for Europe alone was 15 million to 20 million—more than twice as many as in World War I.
The majority joined on the side of the Allies, including Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and the United States. They were opposed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, who together formed the Central Powers.
For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.
One of the enduring hallmarks of WWI was the large-scale use of chemical weapons, commonly called, simply, 'gas'. Although chemical warfare caused less than 1% of the total deaths in this war, the 'psy-war' or fear factor was formidable.
Some 60–80% of shell shock cases displayed acute neurasthenia, while 10% displayed what would now be termed symptoms of conversion disorder, including mutism and fugue. The number of shell shock cases grew during 1915 and 1916 but it remained poorly understood medically and psychologically.
He was in fact, only 13 years old. SAN ANTONIO — On this Veteran's Day we are honoring the youngest living World War II veteran. Like many Americans, Bob Kelso signed up to fight in World War Two. But - he was only 13 years old.
Calvin Leon Graham (April 3, 1930 – November 6, 1992) was the youngest U.S. serviceman to serve and fight during World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Navy from Houston, Texas on August 15, 1942, at the age of 12.