WWII · Battle Death Record
Charley Havlat
Private First Class, U.S. Army · Nebraska
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Charley Havlat
- Entered the Service From
- Nebraska
- Rank
- Private First Class
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, Reconnaissance Company
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- May 7, 1945
- Awards
- Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal
- Burial / Memorial
- Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-Avold, France
- Grave
- Plot C, Row 5, Grave 75
Their story
Charley Havlat is recognized as the last U.S. Army soldier killed in combat in the European Theater of World War II. On the morning of 7 May 1945, while serving with a reconnaissance patrol of the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion near Volary, Czechoslovakia, he was shot in the head by German fire roughly ten minutes before a cease-fire order reached his unit and hours before Germany's unconditional surrender took effect.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.