Armistice day and its aftermath

Verneuil's painting of the Armistice signing. Foch, receiving
the German plenipotentiaries is standing, flanked by his deputy,
Weygand, and Admiral Wemyss.

The signing process was completed at 5.20am on 11^th November, and the outcome was passed swiftly to the Allied capitals. First to announce publicly was Paris at 9.00am, and one hour later Foch arrived in person at the War Ministry to brief the Prime Minister Clemenceau. In London, PM Lloyd George issued a communiqué via the press bureau at 10.20am; and in New York the communiqué was released at 2.30pm. Within minutes the streets were thronging with jubilant crowds. Along the Western Front itself, the reaction was less of jubilation than a mixture of happiness, relief and resignation. The order for the 11.00 ceasefire was passed inconsistently along the lines. In many areas artillery and infantry action continued until close to, or right up to the deadline. Poignantly. 2,738 men died after the signing of the terms at 5am. The two last British and Empire fatalities of the war both occurred close to the very first – Mons. George Ellison of the 5^th Royal Irish Lancers* was killed at 09.30 in the outskirts, and the Canadian Private George Price was killed by a sniper just north of Mons at 10.58.

In Germany the depression of defeat was worsened by uncertainty and the political and revolutionary turmoil. Generally, returning troops were received as heroes who had not been defeated but let down by their leaders (akin to Kuhn’s paradigm?). This created the climate for the ‘stab in the back myth’, which later provided a springboard for Hitler’s rise to power.

This armistice was the definitive one, following those signed with Bulgaria (September 29^th), Turkey (October 30^th) and Austria-Hungary (November 3^rd). Although it brought about cessation of hostilities it did not bring peace, which was to be a more drawn out affair. Peace was not officially declared until 1920, when the final ratifications of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles were completed. During that period, the Compiegne Armistice had to be extended on three occasions. But on that auspicious day, the main (and severe) requirements placed on the German nation were:

·     All invaded territory including Alsace-Lorraine was to be immediately evacuated and the inhabitants repatriated

·      Germany was to surrender a large amount of war materials, specified under different classes

·      The Allies were to take control of the Rhine and of three bridgeheads on the right bank in the Cologne, Koblenz and Mainz districts, and a neutral zone was to be established all along that bank between Switzerland and the Dutch frontier

·      All Allied prisoners were to be repatriated forthwith, but not so German prisoners in Allied hands

·      German troops in Russia, Roumania and turkey were to withdraw within the frontiers of Germany, as they existed before the war.

·      The treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest were cancelled

·      German troops operating in Africa were to evacuate the country within one months

·      All submarines were to repair to certain specified ports and be surrendered

·      Certain units of the German Fleet were to be handed over to the charge of the Allies, and the rest to be concentrated in specified German ports, disarmed and placed under Allied surveillance….

·      The existing (naval) blockade was to be maintained.

The duration was for 36 days, with the option to extend (see above). Any failure by Germany to adhere to these stipulations would mean annulment of the agreement.

A sombre Allied team after the signing

In subsequent years, as hindsight shaped the debate, a strong view emerged that the Allies should not have granted an armistice to Germany but gone on to finish the job properly – whatever that means (to paraphrase Machiavelli: in victory you must either be generous to your enemies, or crush them totally). This is surely wrong? The Germans may have been defeated, but the Allies were exhausted and still incurring large numbers of casualties. From their recent advances they now had extended communication lines over difficult, battle-scarred territory. They were not in a state to advance rapidly into Germany, where resistance would undoubtedly have been more stubborn, extending the war well into 1919. In any case, the terms of the armistice were effectively those of unconditional error, short of the German troops throwing down their rifles. They gave the Allies everything they wanted - and everybody had had enough. The Armistice was a military document, not based on Wilson’s Fourteen points, and not necessarily directing the agenda for necessary peace conference.

A final quote from John Buchan’s “A History of the Great War”, a mammoth chronicle of the whole conflict, which has provided so much material and detail for my own efforts:

“At two minutes to eleven, opposite the South African Brigade, which represented the easternmost point reached by the British armies, a German machine gunner, after firing off a belt without pause, was seen to stand up beside his weapon, take off his helmet, bow, and then walk slowly to the rear.”

* Another of the battalions that had fought at Mons in August 1914