Anne Mateer: Who Fired the Last Shot of WWI?

8/21/2011

This week we welcome Anne Mateer to Author Memories.

Anne Mateer is an avid reader, writer, and lover of all things historical. After listening to myriad family stories and practicing the craft of writing for a decade, she is excited about the release of her first novel, Wings of a Dream. Anne and her husband have three young adult children and live in Texas.

Who Fired the Last Shot of WWI?
by Anne Mateer

My father comes from a family of talkers. When they get together, words flow more freely than sweet tea on a sultry summer afternoon. Their words most often fit together to form stories. Family stories. And they fuel my writing.

One of the legends in our family has always been that my great-grandfather, James A. Kaffka from Jonesboro, Arkansas, fired the final shot of World War I. They say there is even a plaque somewhere in Washington D.C. declaring this to be true. Not long ago I decided to do a bit of research on this family story. I wanted to see the evidence of its truth. And today we can find anything on the Internet, right? So I began to search.

I googled every combination of words I could think of: Last shot of WWI, WWWI final shot, Kaffka WWI shot. I got several results, but none mentioning my great-grandfather and several mentioning other men as having taken that historic shot. I dug into family scrapbooks and found out he was in the Navy, stationed at the Railway Battery at Charney, France. So I changed my search words. Still nothing.

I’ll admit I got kind of depressed. Would this family story—one that had even been written up in newspapers—prove to be false? But the historian in me felt I hadn’t yet reached the sources I needed. So I went to my “go to” site for historical research for my novels: Google Books.

I typed in my search parameters and held my breath. Lo and behold, it pulled up a publication by the US Office of Naval Records and Library, written in 1920. Here’s what it said:

Battery No. 4.—Gun ready to load at 9 a. m. Between 10.05 a. m. and 10.58 a. m. fired five rounds at railway garage, Longuyon. Last shot fired by J.A. Kaffka, S. F. 2c, U. S. N. Primer turned over to Lieut. Commander Bunkley for Gen. Barnes. Sponged out and secured. One-third of men given liberty in afternoon.

So there you have it. Last shot fired at 10:58. The armistice went into effect at 11:00. Those storytellers in my family had it right, even if it took a bit of digging to find the official word on the subject and even if others in different locations took final shots at the same moment.

Papa looms as a larger-than-life figure in our family history, so I’d have hated to be the one to debunk any of his exploits. Besides, I have a special place in my heart for my great-grandfather. It is his story of returning home from World War I that spurred my imagination to write Wings of a Dream, my first published novel.

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Wings of a Dream, Bethany House

available September 2011

Available at:

Christian Book
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

visit Anne on the web at

www.annemateer.com

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if you want to be entered in the Welcome Prize Giveaway.

20 Comments

Carole Brown link

8/21/2011 11:07:33 pm

Loved the post. I'll have to ck back more often to read some of these. Enjoy histoy very much. :)

browncarole212@yahoo.com

Ane Mulligan link

8/21/2011 11:24:25 pm

Now, that's just cool. :) I have seem WWII stories in my family. They're fun to authenticate, aren't they? :)

Anne Mateer link

8/22/2011 12:34:10 am

Isn't history fun, Carole? Especially when it's personal to someone and not just an overview in a history book!

James Allen Kaffka

1/15/2016 06:38:41 pm

I am the great grandson of James Abner Kaffka and would like to know more of our great grandfather. I am currently stationed in OK with the army.

Anne Mateer link

8/22/2011 12:35:09 am

I had never tried to authenticate any of them until now, Ane. And that was just because I got curious! It is amazing what you can find these days.

Maureen Lang link

8/22/2011 02:39:16 am

Love the story and your research, Anne! As you already know, the First World War era fascinates a lot of us. All the best to you with your new release. :-)

Cathy Gohlke link

8/22/2011 03:12:40 am

What a great family story, Anne! So nice to be known for having fired the LAST shot of the war! : )
Please enter me in your drawing: cathygohlke@gmail.com
I'm looking forward to reading your book! WWI fascinates me, too.
So sorry I missed seeing you at Proverbs 31. I saw your name in the prayer room, and had hoped to connect. God bless you in your writing!

Anne Mateer link

8/22/2011 04:05:13 am

Thanks, Maureen. I still love seeing your sweet words on that first blurb page of the book! :)

Anne Mateer link

8/22/2011 04:06:53 am

Cathy! I hate that I missed you there! I mentioned you in my comment on Ronie Kendig's blog today asking for best ACFW Conference memories. It made me cry again just recounting the very short version of our encounter. :)

Christine Lindsay link

8/24/2011 05:20:21 am

What a wonderful story, Anne. I'm the same, have these stories about India that fueled my writing. There's one I've been too afraid to verify---as per our old family stories---were we really related to the great General Roberts of India fame and the Boer War?

Your story inspires me to find out the truth once and for all.

Anne Mateer link

8/24/2011 07:45:13 am

You definitely should, Christine, even if it is a dabble here and there. A not-writing-but-still-kind-of-writing distraction!

Anita mae

8/28/2011 06:43:37 am

Thank you for sharing your story on Author Memories, Anne. I wish you lots of success with Wings of a Dream.

Anita Mae

9/15/2011 05:47:58 am

Anne, this comment for you was over on my giveaway blog:

Herald Kaffka
j.a. kaffka is my grandfather/ i have been colecting geneology for several years/if j.a.k. is your great grandfatherthen you have to be on his sisters side/their mother was lenaand the sisters
were -- gertie- peral-and aunt mickey/if u are interested /idonot have picture you posted of j.a. for more inf. email me/hk information for more email me

Stanley Kaffka

11/26/2012 12:18:10 pm

I am Henry's son. I don't know if you know who I am, and I don't know if we've ever even met. I know the story too, I have been told that grandpa has a statute at the Smithsonian. He has his head looking inside of one of those big guns. He used to tell me stories about the war when I was little.

Justin Kaffka

6/4/2013 09:20:00 pm

I wasn't aware this story was so prolific among the family. I'm Herald Kaffka's grandson, and I've heard this story a couple dozen times. I was just talking about it with my uncle when I decided to confirm and found this post. Thank you for putting in the research!

Herald Kaffka (Jr)

10/29/2013 04:44:35 am

Grew up in Jonesboro, "Papa" (James, my Great Grandfather) lived over in Bono (15 miles away maybe?), down on "Kaffka Lane" (at one time there was nothing down that road but his farm). He loved to tell his great / great great grandkids about his time in the navy working on a Railroad in France. (Navy inherited the RailRoad artillery in that war as they were using the same 14' guns on their battleships, Papa had worked as a track repair forman for the JCL &E (Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern) before the war, this moved him pretty high up on the Navy's Short List for RailRoad artillery, as very few in the Navy knew anything about running a RailRoad, and most would rather die than ask the Army for help...). The full story was something of a Greek Tragedy, with a massively unhappy ending that haunted James to his dying day (thinking back on it, maybe one of the reasons the he keep telling the same stories over and over was thereputic, never underestimate the evil that lurks in the hearts of men, or what happens when good men do nothing). If you are interested in the full story, email me and I'll tell you what I know (you decide if its post worthy or not...). Also, if you didn't know, Papa had two wifes/families. His first wife died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 (While Papa was still serving in France). Her niece (Ruth) moved down on the farm to take care of the kids who were too small to take care of them selves. In the end, Papa wound marrying her and starting a 2nd family. Our line runs Papa => Dan => Herald (sr) => Herald (jr) => Justin. Family tree looks a little funny, and could probably bring up a few Arkansas Jokes (Some of Dan's 1/2 brothers/sisters were also his cousins, but no actual inbreeding (think what happens when a Man marries one of his late wife relatives, but this was not actually uncommon back then, consider the reality of running a farm with small children, no machinery , and a father who was off at war, someone had to step in, & Ruth got very attached to the children in the process...). Rememer, there was no "social services" in the goverment back then, either family, or the church (if there was no other family) stepped in when things went south...

John Meffen link

5/14/2015 04:59:39 am

Some slight qualifications should be made about any such claims. The shots fired may have been two minutes before the armistice, but that does not mean the last shot of the War. The most glaring example of this is that German East African colonial troops on patrol in South-Eastern Africa did not even find out about the armistice until the 14th of November, and then did not Surrender until they had requested and recieved confirmation on the 25th of the same month, this is all accepted & documented, http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol066ed.html sorry

Herald Kaffka (Jr)

5/14/2015 05:09:36 am

"Official last shot" is a key point here. The ordinance was a 14' naval artillery shell that weighed ~1 1/2 tons, the round was serial numbered and inventoried. (The round represented an investment of several thousand dollars, which was a LOT of money at the time). Yea, wouldn't be surprised if individual troops didn't fire off thousands if not tens of thousands of small arms rounds in the last few seconds of the war, this was simply the last round that was officially tracked/inventoried...

James Allen Kaffka

1/15/2016 06:29:54 pm

Anne Mateer link

1/16/2016 07:28:10 am

Hi, James,

I'm one of his great granddaughters. Email me at anne (at) annemateer (dot) com and we'll see where our ancestors intersect. Herold probably knows the most details, but I know a few.