Who Was The LAST Man Killed On The Western Front (WW1 Documentary)
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Published 2023-11-03
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Reference Material:
• N. Lloyd, Hundred Days (2014)
• M. Strohn, Winning The War, Losing The War (2018)
• M. Otte, The Meuse-Argonne 1918 (2022)
• P. Hart, 1918 – A Very British Victory (2010)
Sources:
• Find My Past (FMP)
• Memoire Des Hommes
• National Library of Scotland Image Archive
• McMaster University WW1 Trench Maps
• War Diaries of the Battalions (Naval and Military Press)
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Archive (CWGC)
• US National Archives (NARA)
• The National Archives, Kew (TNA)
• Google Earth Pro & Web Versions
• Memory Maps, Trench Maps of the First World War
• Maptiler Pro (Desktop Version)
- Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1984-059-06A / CC-BY-SA
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Credits:
• Research: Andrew Mullen
• Script & Narration: Dan Hill
• Editing: Shane Greer
• Thumbnail Design: Linus Klassen
• Voiceovers: Hugo Salter
• Music & Sound Effects: Epidemic Sounds/Shane Greer
All Comments (21)
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"Two graves separated by 10 steps and a million lives." That line gave me chills.
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Thanks a million for also thinking about the last German. A good 20 years ago, I as commander of the German Support Company to the NATO HQ in Mons, commanded the Memorial Day ceremony in St Symphorien cemetary....together with the British Support Unit! A UK Bagpipe and a German trumpet mourned for their dead - together. Now, nearly at the end of my career as a German officer, I continue to serve with Brits and US soldiers in a common effort on the still silent eastern front. As a proof that times can change! Let's hope it stays that way. All the Best, T.U.F.
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My grandfather served in the First World War he never talked about it it must’ve been terrible beyond belief. Thank you very much for this video it’s brilliant sad, and needed to be made.
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Tragic Trebuchon. A 40 year old runner surviving all of that for years. Delivering the highest of news only to be cut down 15 minutes before the end.
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The personal stories of the people that were involved really make the history of this war real..........
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Thank you for this video 18:58 . My maternal grandfather, Jens Nymann, almost became the last American killed in WWI. At the start of the summer of 1918, he was still a citizen of Denmark. Jens was born on July 6, 1889 near Hobro, Denmark. 3 days after the Titanic sank, Jens booked passage on the Oscar II, a Danish ocean liner and sailed to NYC. In the early of 1918, US Army recruiters were spreading the word around Cedar Falls, Iowa that immigrants who neither enlisted nor subjected themselves to the draft, might not be allowed to become US citizens after the war. By the end of army basic training, Jens became a US citizen. His first duty assignment was to serve as an orderly in a Spanish flu ward of an army hospital. He arrived in Paris, France on November 11, 1918.
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I don't know how the others countries managed these deaths, but in France, not one single soldier officially died on november 11th. All those who lost their lives on that day were registered as dead on november 10th, as the army thought it was too cruel for families to tell them their son, husband or father was killed just a few hours or minutes before the armistice. Just have a look at Augustin Trebuchon's grave shown in the film, and if you look well you'll see that he officially died on november 10th, though he was killed on november 11th...
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My great grandfather's served in the Canadian forces in ww1 and survived it I appreciate how you put these together
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My wife's g-g uncle, an American from Minnesota, named Pedersen, died at about 9:30 AM that day. He was the last in his regiment to die, and the family has a personal letter from the colonel, letters from comrades who were with him, and a body diagram where he had been hit... he had been sent out in front of the lines to repair a cut phone line and got caught up in some barbed wire, then mown down by a machine gun.
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One of the best history channels on YouTube. The work that went into this video is so unappreciated by the YouTube algorithm
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Beautiful and poetic storytelling of one of the most heartbreaking few hours ever. I cried the whole time but am planning to rewatch this many times. Thank you
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Thanks for putting this together. I'm the great nephew of an Australian army soldier of the 10th Battalion AIF, Cpl. Cherles Edward Clark and we were fortunate that he survived Gallipoli, Belgium and France although he was badly wounded in the thigh in Belgium, he lived until 1975. I am so sad for these men in particular but the entire war was a tragedy of monumental proportion, it's a pity it wasn't the war to end war, I myself served in recent conflicts, we still haven't learned much.
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So heartbreaking. The tragic waste of life. Especially at the very end of the war. Thank you for sharing this, they should never be forgotten.
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2 graves separated by 10 steps. And a million lives. That gave me shivers
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Another stellar video by BattleGuide, with a poignant portrayal of the final hours of WWI. Your treatment and research into these unfortunate soldiers lives and past allow us to perceive of them as people and not statistics. They may have been the last to perish in the carnage of the Western Front, but through your work, they are not forgotten.
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First time watching and I’m also from Baltimore. Baltimore did have a large number of German immigrants and that’s why traditionally most families to this day have sauerkraut during thanksgiving and Christmas.
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Quality as always. My favourite channel on YouTube, you always know that you’re going to learn something with each episode!
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Tragic that so many died in the few hours before the war finally ended
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I visited the American cemetery in Margareten in southern Holland. I found many Graves marked "bomb disposal group" the dates on many were September 1945.