The Armistice of Compiegne was the armistice between the German Empire and representatives of Britain and France which brought an end to the fighting between German and Allied forces on the Western Front of World War I. The armistice was signed on a train near Compiegne at 5:45 AM, coming into effect at 11:00 AM, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The armistice was prolonged three times before the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, formally ending the war.
Background[]
In autumn 1918, the deterioration of Germany's military situation and the collapse of its allies forced the country's leaders to seek an armistice. The success of Allied armies on the Western Front culminated in the breaching of the Hindenburg Line in late September. Meanwhile, the defeat of Bulgaria left the Allies free to march through the Balkans, with French and Serbian troops reaching Belgrade on 5 November. Turkey agreed to an armistice on 30 October. Austria-Hungary was defeated by the Italians at Vittorio Veneto and signed an armistice on 3 November. Germany was in the grip of revolution, leading to the fall of the Kaiser and the proclamation of a republic on 9 November.
History[]
On the night of 7 November, a German delegation, headed by the respected politician Matthias Erzberger, was taken to Rethondes in eastern France. Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies Marshal Ferdinand Foch and other Allied officers awaited their arrival on a train in a siding in the Foret de Compiegne. The Allies had agreed to present harsh armistice terms. Germany was to withdraw all of its troops from France, Belgium, and Alsace-Lorraine; German territory on the west bank of the Rhine would be occupied by Allied troops, who would also hold bridgeheads across the Rhine; and large quantities of military equipment, surface warships, and submarines were to be handed over to the Allies. The naval blockade of Germany would continue to operate.
Foch was not certain that Germany would accept these terms, which by rendering their country indefensible effectively constituted a surrender rather than a cessation of hostilities. Allied attacks on the Western Front continued unabated, as did planning for future operations into 1919. Opinion among Allied generals was divided. British commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig, impressed by the strength of German resistance, was eager for an immediate end to the fighting. American General John Pershing hoped the Germans would reject the Armistice so that they could be more thoroughly beaten in battle. "What I dread," Pershing said, "is that Germany doesn't know that she is licked."
Any possibility of the Germans rejecting the Armistice terms was annulled by the outbreak of revolution at home. The newly installed government of the German Republic, proclaimed on 9 November, was fully occupied with establishing a hold on power in Berlin. On the evening of 10 November, a telegram from the government authorized Erzberger to accept the Allied terms. Around 2:00 AM on the morning of 11 November, the German delegation stepped down from their train and walked on planks across muddy ground to Foch's train car. For the following three hours, various points in the Armistice agreement were discussed, but there were no real negotiations. Erzberger read out a statement of protest, concluding: "A people of 70 million are suffering, but they are not dead."
At 5:10 AM the Armistice was signed by Foch and British First Sea Lord Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss for the Allies, and by Erzberger and three of his colleagues for Germany. It was agreed that, since it was the eleventh day of the eleventh month, hostilities would cease at 11:00 AM to complete the coincidence.
The last shots[]
The war continued until the last minute. Everywhere, Allied troops were advancing. The Belgians had just retaken Ghent, the Canadians Mons, and the Americans Mezieres. There were 11,000 Allied casualties on the morning of 11 November, as officers ordered attacks to seize key points ahead of the ceasefire. Outside Mons, three British soldiers who had survived four years of combat were killed by a burst of machine-gun fire.
Canadian Private George Price is recognized as the last British and Commonwealth fatality of the war, shot dead by a sniper at 10:58. As the watches of the officers ticked to 11:00, the order was given to cease firing. An uncanny silence fell along the front. Soldiers realized, with amazement, that the war really had stopped. As the guns fell silent, reactions were mixed. At the front, there was no fraternization between opposing troops. Allied soldiers still manned their positions, while to the rear reactions ranged from decorous ceremonies to riotous celebrations with the local population.
Public reactions[]
The most joyous scenes took place in Allied cities. In London's Trafalgar Square, on Broadway in New York, and along the Seine in Paris, crowds danced and sang. Political leaders - Georges Clemenceau in France, David Lloyd George in Britain - made speeches. In some places, such as Chicago and Melbourne, Australia, celebrations degenerated into disorder. More frequently, well-behaved street parties took place, as families waited to be reunited with young ones.
For many people, in mourning for relatives killed in the fighting or struck down by the deadly influenza epidemic then sweeping the world, the rejoicing seemed inappropriate. The family of the English poet Wilfred Owen received the telegram announcing his death in combat as the bells were ringing for the Armistice. In Belgium, the celebration of the German defeat was accompanied by retribution against collaborators and profiteers. Belgian women alleged to have had relationships with German soldiers were forced to walk naked through the streets with their heads shaved, and traders believed to have exploited food shortages for profit had their shops looted and burned.
There was no rejoicing in the defeated countries. In Germany, shock and bitterness were widespread among civilians who had thought their country would win the war and soldiers who could not believe the German army had been beaten. One corporal, Adolf Hitler, heard the news of the Armistice while in the hospital recovering from a gas attack. In his memoirs, Mein Kampf, he described his anguish at the realization that four years of fighting had "all been in vein." The reactions of men such as Hitler to the experience of defeat were to become a dangerous factor in postwar German political life.
Aftermath[]
The Armistice was followed by a peace conference in Paris in 1919, at which the victors discussed the terms to be imposed on the defeated. The delay in finalizing peace terms slowed the demobilization of Allied armies, and soldiers demanded the right to go home. Many civilains in Germany and former Austria-Hungary suffered hardship due to the continuing Allied blockade and economic and political dislocation. All countries experienced high death rates from an influenza pandemic that in total probably killed more people than the war. The Treaty of Versailles, signed by the Germans under protest in June 1919, formally ended the war. Matthias Erzberger was assassinated by German nationalist extremists in 1921 for his "crime" in signing the Armistice.