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WWI was scheduled to end at 11:00 am on November 11th (11/11 at 11), but not every soldier got the memo.
One of the most popular historical stories about WWI is about a soldier named Henry Gunter. Gunther was the last American soldier to be killed in WWI.
Gunther and his troop had advanced on a group of German soldiers who had mounted machine guns in their trench. The Americans took cover and realized that they were mere minutes away from 11:00 am, which was when the armistice was scheduled to begin.
However, Gunther got up and charged. He refused to stand down despite being given orders. The German soldiers attempted to wave him away, but he continued to fire at them. They gunned Gunther down at 10:59 am.
Gunther wasn't the final casualty of WWI.
In fact, the final death of WWI wasn't an American soldier, it was a German soldier.
The German historical records are unclear about the final combat death, but we do know that the man was named Lieutenant Tomas. Just moments after the 11:00 am armistice went through, Lieutenant Tomas approached some American soldiers to let them know that the war was over. Unfortunately, the American soldiers did not know about the armistice.
Instead, the American soldiers shot and killed Lieutenant Tomas where he stood.