World History: World War I Veterans Fading Away

One hundred ten--WOW! A few weeks ago I posted an article about the second to last American World War I veteran dying. Today, I came across an article about the final French World War I veteran dying. Thanks to Kayla A. for the heads-up.

Last French WWI veteran dies

By LAURENT PIROT, Associated Press Writer

Wed Mar 12, 8:45 PM ET

France's last remaining veteran of World War I died Wednesday at age 110 after outliving 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in what they called "la Grande Guerre."

Lazare Ponticelli, who was born in Italy but chose to fight for France and was a French citizen for most of the past century, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre, the national veterans' office said.

"It is to him and his generation that we owe in large part the peaceful and pacified Europe of today. It is up to us to be worthy of that," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement.

France planned a national funeral ceremony Monday honoring Ponticelli and all the "poilus," an affectionate term meaning hairy or tough that the French use for their soldiers who fought in World War I.

The 1914-1918 conflict, known at the time as the Great War or the "war to end all wars," tore Europe apart and killed millions. Only a handful of World War I veterans are still living, scattered from Australia to the United States and Europe. Germany's last WWI veteran died on New Year's Day.

Monuments to battles and war dead cover swathes of France where trenches once divided the landscape during the war, which left 1.4 million French fighters dead of the 8.4 million who served.

The last survivor was an unlikely one.

Ponticelli was born Dec. 7, 1897, in Bettola, a town in northern Italy.

To escape a tough childhood, Ponticelli trooped off alone at age 9 to the nearest railway station, 21 miles away in Piacenza, where he took a train to join his brothers in France, eventually becoming a French citizen, according to the veterans' office in Versailles.

In the French capital, he worked as a chimney sweep and then as a newspaper boy. When the war broke out, he was just 16, so he lied about his age to enlist, the president's statement said.

Ponticelli decided to fight for France, because it had taken him in.

"It was my way of saying 'Thank you," he said in a 2005 interview with the newspaper Le Monde.

Ponticelli joined the Foreign Legion during the war and served in the Argonne region of forest, rivers and lakes in northeast France, digging burial pits and trenches.

"At the beginning, we barely knew how to fight and had hardly any ammunition. Every time that one of us died, we fell silent and waited for our turn," he said in the 2005 interview.

He also recalled running into no man's land to save a wounded comrade stuck in barbed wire.

"He was shouting, 'Come and get me, I've severed a leg.' The stretcher-bearers didn't dare go out. I couldn't bear it any longer," he said.

When Italy entered the war in 1915, Ponticelli was called up to fight with an Italian Alpine regiment. He tried to hide, but was found and sent to fight the Austrian army.

He described moments of fraternity with enemy Austrian soldiers.

"They gave us tobacco, and we gave them loaves of bread. No one was shooting any more. The headquarters found out, and moved us to a tougher zone," he told Le Monde.

He described the joy in receiving letters from a milkmaid who "adopted" him when he was serving in Italy. He couldn't read at the time, so comrades read them to him, according to a biography by the Versailles veterans' office.

The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano expressed condolences "in the name of all Italians" to the veteran's daughter, Jeannine Desbaucheron.

By fighting first for France and then for Italy, Ponticelli "offered an admirable example of an elevated sense of duty and dedication to both his adoptive country and his country of birth," Napolitano wrote in a message to her.

Ponticelli returned to France in 1921, and he and his brothers started a company that made factory smokestacks. The company, Ponticelli Freres, grew into a manufacturer of specialized industrial equipment and is still in business.

Ponticelli became a French citizen in 1939, his nephew said.

His family was uncomfortable with the elaborate national funeral ceremony planned. Ponticelli agreed to one before his death, as long as it honored all the poilus and not just himself.

"We are trying to keep this a bit personal. We didn't want all this ceremony," said his grandnephew, Daniel Ponticelli.

He will be interred in a family burial plot in Paris.

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Associated Press writers John Leicester and Pauline Freour contributed to this report.

Second to Last U.S. World War I Veteran Dies

World War II veterans are dying everyday. Current high schoolers will really be the last generation to know World War II vets. So if you know anyone who fought for the U.S. in World War II, be sure to thank them for their sacrifices. These are some of the most patriotic humans alive on earth.

As you can imagine, there are even fewer World War I veterans. One of the final American vets of that war passed away last week. Remember what I said about patriotism? This guy also volunteered for World War II!
-Mr. Fong

Feb 7, 2008
World War I veteran Harry Landis dies at 108

Harry Richard Landis is seen at his home in Sun City, Fla., in this April 9, 2007 photo. AP Photo/The St. Petersburg Times, Bob Croslin

By MITCH STACY
Associated Press Writer

Harry Richard Landis is shown in a 1918 family photo. AP Photo/BOB CROSLIN - St. Petersburg Times

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Harry Richard Landis, who enlisted in the Army in 1918 and was one of only two known surviving U.S. veterans of World War I, has died. He was 108.

Landis, who lived at a Sun City Center nursing home, died Monday, according to Donna Riley, his caregiver for the past five years. He had recently been in the hospital suffering from a fever and low blood pressure, she said.

"He only took vitamins and eye drops, no other medication," Riley said Wednesday. "He was 108 and a healthy man. That's why all of this was sudden and unexpected. He was so full of life."

The remaining U.S. veteran is Frank Buckles, 107, of Charles Town, W.Va., according the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, John Babcock of Spokane, Wash., 107, served in the Canadian army and is the last known Canadian veteran of the war.

Another World War I vet, Ohioan J. Russell Coffey, died in December at 109. The last known German World War I veteran, Erich Kaestner, died New Year's Day at 107.

Landis trained as a U.S. Army recruit for 60 days at the end of the war and never went overseas. But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs counts him among the 4.7 million men and woman who served during the Great War.

The last time all known U.S. veterans of a war died was Sept. 10, 1992, when Spanish-American War veteran Nathan E. Cook passed away at age 106.

In an interview with The Associated Press last April in his Sun City Center apartment, Landis recalled his time in the Student Army Training Corps involved a lot of marching. VA records show his entry date into the service was Oct. 14, 1918.

"I don't remember too much about it," said Landis, who enlisted while in college in Fayette, Mo., at age 18. "We went to school in the afternoon and drilled in the morning."

They often drilled in their street clothes.

"We got our uniforms a bit at a time. Got the whole uniform just before the war ended," Landis said. "Fortunately, we got our great coats first. It was very cold out there."

He told reporters in earlier interviews he spent a lot of time cleaning up a makeshift sick ward and caring for recruits sickened by an influenza pandemic.

When asked if he wanted to get into the fight, Landis said, "No."

When the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918, Landis recalled a final march with his unit.

"We went down through the girls college, marching down the street. We got down to the courthouse square and there was a wall around this courthouse. We got to the wall and (the drill instructor) didn't know what to do and we were hup two three four, hup two three four," Landis said, laughing at the memory. "Finally, we jumped up on the wall and kept going until we got to the courthouse — hup two three four — and he said dismissed."

He said he and some fellow recruits piled into a car to go to the next town.

"What we did there, why we were there I couldn't tell you," Landis said.

He signed up to fight the Germans again in 1941, but was rejected as too old at 42.

"I registered, but that's all there was to it," Landis said.

"I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Mr. Landis," said LeRoy Collins Jr., executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs. "He was the last World War I-era veteran in Florida, and with his passing we say goodbye to a generation."

Landis was born in 1899 in Marion County, Mo. He joined the Student Army Training Corps in 1918 but got out when the war ended.

He was a manager at S.S. Kresge Co., which later became K-Mart, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Dayton, Ohio. His fondest memory is taking golf vacations with three friends and their families, a tradition that ended more than five decades ago with the death of his best friend.

"We really looked forward to getting our old foursome together and going somewhere for a couple of weeks," Landis said. "Sadly, my favorite best friend lived until he was only 60 years old. We were like brothers. We could talk about business, serious things and we could act like a couple of kids."

Landis retired to Florida's warmer climate in 1988 and lived in an assisted living facility with his wife of 30 years, Eleanor, 100.

His first wife, Eunice, died after 46 years of marriage. Landis had no children. He said he enjoyed a good game of golf until his health kept him off the course.

Landis laughed when asked the secret to his longevity.

"Just keep swinging," he said.

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