Original: Henry John '' Harry '' Patch ( 17 June 1898 -- 25 July 2009 ) -- known as '' the Last Fighting Tommy '' -- was a British supercentenarian , briefly the oldest man in Europe , and the last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War .
Simplified: In the same series , he talked about his friends who were killed , and about the moment when he came face to face with a German soldier .