MUSINGS OF A VETERAN
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“Eleventh Hour”
Musings of a Veteran
By
VIKRAM KARVE
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“ELEVENTH HOUR”
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Dear Reader – you must
have heard the idiom – “at the eleventh hour” – which means – “at the
last possible moment”.
When you do something
at the eleventh hour – you do it just in time – at the last possible moment –
at the last minute – at the latest possible time.
Do you know the
genesis of the term “eleventh hour” …?
How did this
expression originate…?
Well – here is one
explanation.
104 years ago – at 11
AM on 11 November 1918 – The First World War (WW1) ended – with the cessation
of hostilities on the Western Front of WW1 – which took effect at eleven
o’clock in the morning – the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
eleventh month” of 1918 – in accordance with the armistice that ended
fighting on land, sea and air in First World War (WW1) between the Allies and
their opponent Germany.
On 11 November 2018 –
the Armistice was signed at around by 5:00 AM early in the morning but it would
not come into force until 11:00 AM on that day (11 AM on 11 November 2018)
The ceasefire would
come into effect at 11:00 AM.
The saying “at the eleventh
hour” refers to the passing of the eleventh hour – or 11:00 AM – when – just
before the ceasefire at 11:00 AM – the opposing armies tried to make “last
minute” gains by fighting till the “eleventh hour”.
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KILLED IN ACTION
(KIA) AT THE “ELEVENTH HOUR”
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The last soldier
killed in WW1 died in the last minute before the Armistice – at the “eleventh
hour”.
On the morning of the
11th of November 1918 – as the clocks were about to strike 11 –
Sergeant Henry Gunther of the US Army made his mark in history by being killed
at 10.59 – in the last minute before the ceasefire – at the “eleventh hour” –
so to speak.
With bayonet fixed –
he made a “heroic” charge against a German Machine Gun Nest and was shot in a
short burst of automatic fire and killed instantly.
General John
Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, ordered that Gunther
be named the last American to die on the battlefield. Sergeant Henry Gunther was
posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Five years later – in
1923 – Gunther’s remains were returned to the United States after being exhumed
from a military cemetery in France and buried at his hometown Baltimore with
full military honours.
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So – Dear Reader –
when you hear the words “eleventh hour” – or – you do something “at
the eleventh hour” – now you know how the expression “eleventh hour”
originated.
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