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Armistice - The End of the
Great War
The politicians dispatched by Ludendorff to seek an
armistice finally met with the overall Allied Commander, French
General Foch. The meeting occurred inside of Foch's personal railroad
car that had been brought in for the occasion (this was to be the
same car Adolph Hitler forced France to surrender in during the
Second World War).
The conditions set out in the armistice caused one of the politicians
to break down and cry. They believed the terms were extremely harsh,
but had no choice in the matter. They signed the document on behalf
of the German people at five AM, November 11.
General Foch stood up from his chair, and without shaking hands
with the German representatives left the carriage. The armistice
was to go into effect at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the
11th month, 1918. The Great War had come to an end on paper.
The End of the War - The Battlefield
The war came to an end in various ways along the hundreds of miles
of trenches. In some cases the British launched attacks with ten
minutes before the armistice. The war ended as several major offensives
were underway. These offensives were led by Canadian troops and
had successfully broken the German lines. At other points along
the line, silence met the approach of 11 o'clock.
Eyewitness Report
At 11:15 AM it was found necessary the
end the day of a Hun machine-gunner on our front who would keep
on shooting. The armistice was already in force, but there was no
alternative. Perhaps his watch was wrong, but he was probably the
last German killed in the war - a most unlucky individual!
Daily Report
11 November 1918
An officer commanding a battery of six-inch
howitzers was killed at one minute past eleven - at which his second
in command ordered the entire battery to go on firing for another
hours against the silent German lines.
Private
F. Lushington
11 November 1918
Any firing still going on ended on the
last second of the tenth hour, sometimes with droll little ceremonies
- as on the British front near Mons, where … a German machine-gunner
blazed off his last belt of ammunition during the last minute of
the war and then, as the hour struck, stood up on his parapet, removed
his steel helmet, bowed politely to what was now the ex-enemy opposite,
and disappeared
Private Gordon-Shepard
11 November 1918
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