In the last hours of the First World War, a catastrophic record

VRIGNE-MEUSE, France – Augustin Trébuchon is buried under a white lie.

His tiny plot is almost on the front line where the weapons finally died at 11 am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, after a four-year war that had already killed millions of people.

A simple white cross says: "Died for France on November 10, 1918."

Not so.

Like hundreds of others on the Western Front, Trebuchon was killed in action on the morning of November 11 – after the agreement reached between the Allies and Germany before dawn, but before that the armistice does not take effect six hours later.

His death, almost literally at the eleventh hour, only brought to light the madness of a war that had become increasingly incomprehensible for many nations drawn into the first world conflict.

By November 11, the war had killed 14 million people, including 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries. Germany nearly won a quick victory before the war entered into infernal battles in the trenches. A battle, like the Somme in France, could have up to 1 million victims.

The use of poison gas has become the epitome of the cruelty of war that the world has never seen.

For the French, who lost up to 1.4 million soldiers, it was perhaps too moving – or too shameful – to say that Trébuchon had been killed the very last morning, just when the victory was over. # 39; prevailed.

"Indeed, on the graves, it is written:" Nov. 10, 1918, "to somewhat alleviate the mourning of families," said the French military historian Nicholas Czubak.

There were many reasons why men kept falling until the clarion call at 11 o'clock: the fear that the enemy did not respect the armistice, an absolute hate after four years of unprecedented massacre, the ambition of commanders desiring a last victory, bad communications, the senseless joy of killing.

As time passed, villages were taken, attacks were thwarted by heavy casualties and rivers were hit by enemy fire. Questions remain as to whether the gains were worth all the losses.

Historian Joseph Persico estimated that 10,900 people were killed, wounded and missing on the last day.

The American general John J. Pershing, who was determined to continue the fighting, even had to explain to Congress the large number of casualties suffered during the last day.

Other nations have not been spared either.

Two minutes from the finish, Canadian 25 years old. George Lawrence Price was killed by a German sniper.

About 150 miles away in France, a 23-year-old American, Henry Gunther, was killed by a German machine gun a minute before the armistice.

Trebuchon, 40, was also shot just minutes before the ceasefire. He ran to tell his comrades where and when they would eat after the armistice.

All three are considered the last men in their nation to have fallen in battle.

"The futility of the greatest war"

The anti-German sentiment took flight after the US declaration of war in April 1917 and Gunther and his family in Baltimore were subjected to the kind of prejudices and suspicions that many German descendants were confronted with. time.

"It was not the right time to be German in the United States," said historian Alec Bennett.

Gunther had little choice when he was drafted. He was given the rank of sergeant, but was subsequently demoted when he wrote a letter in his home criticizing the conditions of the war.

Shortly after, he launched into the biggest battle of the war led by the United States, the Meuse-Argonne offensive in northeastern France.

According to reports, he was still ruminating on his demotion on 11 November. When he came out of a thick fog in the valley around Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, his comrades and himself faced a German machine gun nest on the hill.

Indications are that the Germans fired a salvo on the head as a warning, knowing that the war was almost over. But he still charged forward.

"His time of death was 10:59, which is so haunting," Bennett said. Pershing recognized Gunther as the last American to perish on the battlefield.

Questions remain, whether it is a suicide, an attempt at redemption or genuine dedication.

"It's just as confusing as it was 100 years ago," said Bennett, adding that one thing is clear: "Gunther's act is seen almost as a symbol of the futility of the greatest war."

But there was another cruel twist for his family: they did not know that he had been killed.

Upon his expected return "they went to the station to meet Henry – not there!", Said Bruce Malone, director of the American Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, burial place of 100 Americans who died on November 11.

"Need to kill one last time"

There was no mystery surrounding the death of Price, the Canadian. It was a totally senseless loss of life.

He was a farm laborer in Saskatchewan when the whirlwind of history tore him off the ground in October 1917, while the Allies were still looking for more manpower for the Western Front.

In the summer after his appointment, he was part of the wave of victories that took over villages and towns until November 11th. At that time, the Canadians were returning to Mons in southern Belgium, where British Commonwealth soldiers had their first battle with the Germans in August 1914.

It was particularly pleasing for the Commonwealth commanders to retake the city, thus closing the circle of war where they lost their first soldier, the English soldier Pvt. John Parr, August 21, 1914.

Price decided to check the houses along the canals while civilians in the center of Mons had already broken wine and whiskey that they had hidden for years from Germans to celebrate with the Canadians.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and Price collapsed.

"It was really a man, here and there, animated by revenge, by the need to kill one last time," said the Belgian historian Corentin Rousman.

The last minutes counted not only for the victims, but also for the killers.

"There are rules in times of war," Rousman said. "It is always possible to kill two minutes before a ceasefire. Two minutes later, the German should have appeared before a judge. That's the difference. "

At Saint-Symphorien Cemetery, just outside Mons, Price, the last Commonwealth soldier killed during the war, is a stone's throw from Parr, the first.

"It's not forgotten," said Price's Rousman. "It's a soldier whose grave is often draped with flowers."

"Part of this great patriotic drive"

The tomb of Trébuchon is distinguished by the date, highlighting the random hazards of the war. He was a shepherd from the French Massif Central and could have avoided the war as a breadwinner at 36 years old.