Last WWI Combat Vet Has Died

[jimmy olsen]

RIP 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13289607

Last WWI combat veteran Claude Choules dies aged 110

The world's last known combat veteran of World War I, Claude Choules, has died in Australia aged 110.

Known to his comrades as Chuckles, British-born Mr Choules joined the Royal Navy at 15 and went on to serve on HMS Revenge.

He moved to Australia in the 1920s and served in the military until 1956.

Mr Choules, who had been married to his wife Ethel for 76 years, was reported to have died in his sleep at a nursing home in his adopted city of Perth.

He is survived by three children and 11 grandchildren. His wife died three years ago.

Mr Choules' 84-year-old daughter, Daphne Edinger, told the Associated Press news agency: "We all loved him. It's going to be sad to think of him not being here any longer, but that's the way things go."

Demolition officer

Born in Pershore, Worcestershire, in March 1901, Mr Choules tried to enlist in the Army at the outbreak of WWI to join his elder brothers who were fighting, but was told he was too young.

He lied about his age to become a Royal Navy rating, joining the battleship HMS Revenge on which he saw action in the North Sea aged 17.

He witnessed the surrender of the German fleet in the Firth of Forth in November 1918, then the scuttling of the fleet at Scapa Flow.

Mr Choules remembered WWI as a "tough" life, marked by occasional moments of extreme danger.

After the war he served as a peacekeeper in the Black Sea and in 1926 was posted as an instructor to Flinders Naval Depot, near Melbourne. It was on the passenger liner to Australia that he met his future wife.

He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and after a brief spell in the reserves rejoined as a Chief Petty Officer in 1932.

During World War II he was chief demolition officer for the western half of Australia. It would have been his responsibility to blow up the key strategic harbour of Fremantle, near Perth, if Japan had invaded.

Mr Choules joined the Naval Dockyard Police after finishing his service.

But despite his military record, Mr Choules became a pacifist. He was known to have disagreed with the celebration of Australia's most important war memorial holiday, Anzac Day, and refused to march in the annual commemoration parades.

He took a creative writing course at the age of 80 and recorded his memoirs for his family. They formed the basis of the autobiography, The Last of the Last, which was published in 2009.

The last three WWI veterans living in Britain - Bill Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - all died in 2009.

Another Briton, Florence Green - who turned 110 in February and was a waitress in the Women's Royal Air Force - is now thought to be the world's last known surviving service member of WWI. An American veteran, Frank Buckles, died earlier this year.

[Martinus]

The war ended when he was 17. Not exactly someone I would call a "vet". 

[Caliga]

He lied about his age to become a Royal Navy rating, joining the battleship HMS Revenge on which he saw action in the North Sea aged 17.

Oh, are you assuming by "action" something else was meant?

[Valmy]

Well he was in the navy...

[Caliga]

Well he was in the navy...

Exactly.

[Camerus]

The war ended when he was 17. Not exactly someone I would call a "vet". 

The article said he saw action and lied about his age in order to serve.  Exaggerating one's age in order to fight was pretty common in WW1 - heck, even my great-grandfather did it.

[katmai]

The war ended when he was 17. Not exactly someone I would call a "vet". 

The article said he saw action and lied about his age in order to serve.  Exaggerating one's age in order to fight was pretty common in WW1 - heck, even my great-grandfather did it.

Yeah, my maternal grandpa lied and joined army at 16 in 1915, just in time to be sent after Pancho Villa the next year and still be in army and sent to France and fight. By time of armistice he was only 19.

[Habbaku]

The war ended when he was 17. Not exactly someone I would call a "vet". 

As Africa and the WW II Eastern Front (among others) have shown, age has nothing to do with being capable of being a veteran.

[grumbler]

   Why is everyone responding to Martitroll's comment?  It was one of the more feeble trolls he has posted recently, and he is just a pathetic troll at best.

[dps]

Well, when we think of WWI vets, we think of someone who went through the horrors of trench warfare.  While I'm sure that serving aboard the Revenge wasn't all fun and games, it was almost certainly better than being in the trenches.

[Martinus]

Well, when we think of WWI vets, we think of someone who went through the horrors of trench warfare.  While I'm sure that serving aboard the Revenge wasn't all fun and games, it was almost certainly better than being in the trenches.

Yeah, this. I guess technically a word "veteran" means anyone who simply served in a war, no matter for how short, but to me the word's origin implies some broader experience or longer service.

Would you say Ratzinger is a "veteran of WW2" because he was drafted into the anti-aircraft defense service during the last days of the war?

[Caliga]

Would you say Ratzinger is a "veteran of WW2" because he was drafted into the anti-aircraft defense service during the last days of the war?

No, I'd say he's a Nazi.

[Martinus]

Here's what Merriam-Webster has to say about this:

Definition of VETERAN
1a : an old soldier of long service
b : a former member of the armed forces
2: a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill (as politics or the arts)

I guess he was a veteran in the meaning listed under 1b (but then anyone who was drafted at the time, whether seeing any combat action or not, would be a "veteran of WWI"), but to me the word "veteran" has an implied vibe of 1a, and that's what I meant when I challenged the word's use here.

Would you guys say that calling someone who was drafted on the eve of the end of WWI a "veteran of WWI" is justified?

[The Brain]

The war ended when he was 17. Not exactly someone I would call a "vet". 

The article said he saw action and lied about his age in order to serve.  Exaggerating one's age in order to fight was pretty common in WW1 - heck, even my great-grandfather did it.

My great-grandfather was much much too old to serve in WW1 at 60. Woulda taken one hell of a lie. I don't even know if he was still alive in 1914. Now my grandfather's younger brother did serve in WW1...

[The Brain]

Here's what Merriam-Webster has to say about this:

Definition of VETERAN
1a : an old soldier of long service
b : a former member of the armed forces
2: a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill (as politics or the arts)

I guess he was a veteran in the meaning listed under 1b (but then anyone who was drafted at the time, whether seeing any combat action or not, would be a "veteran of WWI"), but to me the word "veteran" has an implied vibe of 1a, and that's what I meant when I challenged the word's use here.

Would you guys say that calling someone who was drafted on the eve of the end of WWI a "veteran of WWI" is justified?