The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from me, Steve Winduss, at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more". - 10th November 2024.

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Happy Sunday!
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If you've had an exhausting week following the U.S. Presidential election, you may be in need of some light relief. I hope you enjoy my effort to provide it. Here goes...​
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Henry Gunther was born in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was of German-American descent and enjoyed a conventional childhood. Despite a limited education, Henry secured work as a bank clerk and bookkeeper for the National Bank of Baltimore.
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His story may have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for the outbreak of World War I and U.S. participation in the war from 1917 onwards.
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Henry Gunther would be remembered as the last recorded soldier to die in combat in World War I*. Tomorrow marks the 106th anniversary of his death, 11 November 1918. But, as it turns out, Gunther’s demise wasn’t down to bad luck or random chance.

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The Selective Service Act of 1917 gave U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the federal government the authority to introduce compulsory conscription. The initial draft required all U.S. men aged 21 to 30 to register for military service.
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Gunther was 22 years old when he enlisted in September 1917. After ten months of training and a promotion to the role of supply sergeant, he joined one million of his compatriots across the pond in France in May 1918. Henry was assigned to the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Infantry Division - Baltimore’s Own.
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The 313th was supporting the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, one of the final and most decisive offensives of the war. As supply sergeant, Gunther avoided front-line duties. However, the role wasn’t without its challenges.
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It was a lonely position, somewhat removed from the other soldiers. Frustrations from shortages of equipment and supplies were usually directed towards the supply sergeant.
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Henry had time to think… and brood. One evening, he wrote home to a friend, emphasising the horror of trench warfare and critical of the conditions his regiment endured. He urged his friend to try to avoid enlisting.
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Army censors intercepted Henry's letter. They deemed it to undermine morale, leading to demotion for Gunther from the rank of sergeant to private.

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The effect on Henry was dramatic. His self-esteem was battered, low morale now evaporated. In his eyes, he had disgraced his family. As a final kick in the teeth, his fiancee, Olga Gruebl, broke off their engagement.
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For Henry, there was only one option - redemption.
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He volunteered for the most dangerous assignments. At one point, Henry served as a runner, carrying messages between units during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The role was high-risk as it involved crossing areas under extreme fire to deliver battle-critical messages.
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Gunther’s messianic excursions came to a head on 11 November 1918. The Armistice was signed at 5.45 a.m., though it wasn’t to take effect until later that morning. At 11 a.m., the war would be over.
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This delay would provide time for news to reach all front-line positions. It also allowed for ongoing individual skirmishes which would run their course.
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Apparently, it’s not so easy to stop in the heart of a battle, stand up in unison with your enemies, turn around and amble back to your original positions.
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Nonetheless, close to the small French village of Chaumount-devant-Damvillers, where the 313th were engaged, word of the Armistice had reached the front. Both adversaries were aware of the 11 a.m. deadline. All combat would cease.
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That final hour at Chaumount-devant-Damvillers was tense. Exhausted soldiers on both sides had ceased fighting and waited anxiously. They were so close to surviving the war. If only everyone would remain still for those last few minutes, hold their nerve, sit on their weapons and count time.

It reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with Robin Bartlett, Vietnam War veteran. After 11 months on the front line, seven months of which had involved the most horrifying face-to-face combat with the Viet Cong, he was posted to Command Headquarters for the final month of his tour.
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Despite the relative safety away from direct action, Robin recalled that he was more terrified in those last two to three weeks than he had been for the previous 11 months. The fear of not making it home when he had got so close to the finishing line was almost overwhelming.

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And so it was for the 313th, and for the German 31st Landwehr Infantry Regiment. For almost an hour, they held their collective breath, counting down the last remaining seconds of war.
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Everyone, that is, except Henry Gunther. He was a man possessed and had been since his demotion. The end of the war meant the end of his chance for redemption.
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Henry had one last opportunity. He rose up and single-handedly charged one of the engaged - but currently silent - German machine gun positions.
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His fellow soldiers tried to stop him. The German machine gunners yelled across the void in broken English for him to go back, “The war is over”. But to no avail.
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At 10.59 a.m. on 11 November 1918, as Henry Gunther charged across no-man’s land with bayonet fixed, a single burst of machine gun fire rang out. Henry was struck in the temple and died instantly. Less than a minute later, the war was over.
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​2,737 other men died that day.

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Gunther was interred close to where he fell, but his body was later exhumed and buried near his family home at the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Officially, Henry was a hero. He received a posthumous promotion back to the rank of sergeant and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his exceptional bravery.
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His family, however, wrestled with a kaleidoscope of emotions. They recognised his bravery, but one born out of personal struggle, a need to exorcise shame, to be exonerated for demotion during the war.

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Gunther is memorialised as the last Allied soldier killed in World War 1*. His story stands as a testimony to the individual experiences and struggles of millions of soldiers that aggregated into a single war effort.
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​Stalin supposedly once said,
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Henry Gunther’s story reminds us never to forget the people behind the statistics or the tragedy and futility of war. The sentiment is as relevant today as it was 116 years ago.

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* There is some dispute if this dubious honour is held by Gunther or the Canadian soldier, George Lawrence Price.

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Dates with History

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​Wednesday...​
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During the reign of English King John in the 13th century, some 800 years ago, the 5th Earl of Surrey, William de Warenne, was looking out from his castle across the meadows. He was mesmerised by the sight of two bulls fighting.
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Folklore records that, as their rage intensified, the bulls broke out of the field and continued their dispute locking horns up the high street in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
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William thought the episode was so entertaining that he decreed it should be re-run yearly on St Brice’s Day. And so started a tradition that predated even the Pamplona Bull Run in Spain by about 200 years.
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So, at 11 a.m. on 13th November each year, crowds gathered in Stamford. An ill-fated bull was released to be provoked and chased down the high street and out into Bull-meadow.
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After a few hours of torment, the terrified bull would be trapped by the River Welland, recaptured and slaughtered. Well, I suppose they didn’t have Netflix in those days.
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A rising tide of opposition to the tradition had developed throughout the 19th century. Mercifully, 185 years ago on Wednesday, 13 November 1839, the last bull rampaged down the main street in Stamford.

Later in the week...

Francisco Pizarro was born in 1476 in Trujillo, Spain. His family was poor. He was illegitimate. He grew up hungry... hungry for wealth and adventure.
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Pizarro was a conquistador, that cocktail of Spanish explorer and military leader, who sought to conquer South America and its gold in the 16th century.
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Five hundred years ago on Thursday, 14 November 1524, Francisco set out on his first expedition to capture Peru. He failed. He tried again in 1526 and failed.
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Six years later, Pizarro returned once more. Sunday marks the 492nd anniversary, 16 November 1532, of the Battle of Cajamarca, when the Spanish forces captured Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca Empire.
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Despite receiving a ransom for his safe return the following year, the Spanish executed Atahualpa. The Inca Empire would crumble.
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Pizarro’s forces later captured the Inca capital Cusco on 15 November 1533, leading ultimately to the Spanish conquest of Peru.

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By the Way

Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born in 1864. She pursued a journalism career and became known for her fearless investigative journalism. She adopted the pen name Nellie Bly.
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Nellie had been inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, written in 1872. The plot revolves around a rather eccentric Victorian English aristocrat, Phileas Fogg, who wagers that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less. With the help of his companion Passepartout, Fogg wins his bet with minutes to spare.
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In 1889, Nellie’s adventurous spirit gave rise to a thought: she would prove that a woman could beat Phileas Fogg’s fictitious time to circumnavigate the globe. It would be a feather in the cap for feminism and great for her career as a journalist.
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At the time, Bly was working at the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer, remembered today for the Pulitzer Prize, an annual award for outstanding journalism, literature and music, was keen to promote investigative reporting. Pulitzer, born 177 years ago tomorrow, 11 November 1847, gave the thumbs up for the venture.
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This Thursday marks the 135th anniversary, 14 November 1889, of Nellie Bly’s departure on her world challenge from Hoboken, New Jersey.
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Over the next two and a half months, Nellie travelled by steamship, train, rickshaw, horse, donkey and elephant. She endured seasickness, storms, floods and the discomfort of minimalist travelling. She detoured to Amiens, France to meet up with Jules Verne himself.
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During her travels, Nellie learned that a second female journalist was trying to eclipse her epic challenge. The Cosmopolitan had impulsively cajoled one of their journalists, Elizabeth Bisland, to set off tout-de-suite to try and beat Nellie back to New York, travelling the opposite way around the world.

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Seventy-two days, six hours and 11 minutes later, Nellie arrived back in New Jersey to a hero’s welcome. Pulitzer was ecstatic, the newspaper’s reputation and circulation had increased dramatically. Everyone was happy.
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Everyone except Bisland of course. She returned four days later. Despite also beating Phileas Fogg’s time, her return went largely unnoticed. After all, to come second is to be the first loser.
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In later life, Nellie became one of the first women to report from the Eastern Front in World War I. Her dispatches comprised detailed accounts of life on the front line and the appalling conditions suffered by soldiers. She expressed the same aversion to loss of life that Henry Gunther had tried to convey - but without censorship.
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Nellie Bly died in 1922 at the age of 57, her legacy as a cutting-edge investigative reporter secured.
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Question of the week...

Five miles up the road from my home, Alice Liddel's ashes are interred in a graveyard in the New Forest town of Lyndhurst. She died 90 years ago on Saturday, 16 November 1934.
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At the age of ten, while on a boating trip on the Isis River* in Oxford in 1862, Alice asked her uncle, Charles Dodgson, if he would tell her and her sisters a story. Dodgson proceeded to share a whimsical tale about a young girl, Alice, who fell down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world filled with weird creatures.
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He later published his story as Alice in Wonderland. The book was translated into 174 languages and became a timeless favourite among children worldwide.
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What was the pseudonym that Charles Dodgson assumed for Alice in Wonderland?

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*The Isis River is the locally adopted name for the stretch of the River Thames running through Oxford. The name Isis seems to originate from the days when the Romans occupied Britain and worshipped the Egyptian goddess Isis.

(answer at bottom of newsletter)

And finally...

As we touched on earlier, tomorrow marks the Armistice of World War I, 11 November 1918.​
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The English poet Laurence Binyon celebrated the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers of World War I soon after the outbreak of the war when he composed the poem, For the Fallen.
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Tomorrow, countries around the world will remember their fallen from World War I and subsequent conflicts. Binyon’s fourth stanza will play its part:

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Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!

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Steve

HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER

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P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.

Answer to Question of the week: Charles Dodgson used the pseudonym Lewis Carroll when publishing Alice in Wonderland.

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