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Grave and marker for an unknown French soldier at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France, a primarily British cemetery. © 2014 John M. Shea
Soldiers of the Great War Known Unto God, Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Islamic memorial, Verdun Cemetery and Ossuary. © 2015 John M. Shea
Victory Monument commemorating the Eighth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, an African-American unit that served in France reorganized as the 370th U.S. Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Division. The bronze sculpture is by Leonard Crunelle and was erected in 1927.The regiment saw action at St. Mihiel, the Argonne Forest, Mont des Singes, and in the Oise-Aisne Offensive. The monument lists the names of the 137 soldiers of the regiment who lost their lives in the war. © 2013, John M. Shea
Headstone of an unknown British soldier among those of French soldiers at the National Cemetery, Craonnelle, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"I. The German Government to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command:The German Government accepts the conditions of the Armistice communicated to it on November 8th. The Imperial Chancellor—3,084.II. The German Supreme Command to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command: . . .Your Excellency is authorized to sign the Armistice. You will please, at the same time, have inserted in the record the following:The German Government will do all in its power to fulfil the terms agreed upon. However, the undersigned deems it his duty to point out that the execution of some of the conditions will bring famine to the population of that part of the German Empire which is not to be occupied." ((1), more)
"When the sound of victorious guns burst over London at 11 a.m. on November 11th, 1918, the men and women who looked incredulously into each other's faces did not cry jubilantly: 'We've won the War!' They only said: 'The War is over.' . . .For the first time I realised, with all that full realisation meant, how completely everything that had hitherto made up my life had vanished with Edward and Roland, with Victor and Geoffrey. The War was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return." ((2), more)
"Bells are ringing. The air is full of their peals. Soldiers dance with ecstasy. They brandish flags. They wave bouquets of flowers. It is a pleasure to witness their delight. Tragedy was looming over them. The 1919 class . . . they were just on draft for reinforcements. Within six months they would all have been killed. At noon, we heard of the flight of the Kaiser to Holland.At three o'clock, I was informed by telephone from Paris of the terms of the armistice. . . . The only chance that this unparalleled war shall not entail further war, lies in vigorous action by international Socialism during the peace discussions. God grant it may play its full part! And now, for the moment, we must savour the gladness of salvation and echo the soldiers' words: 'The war is over.'" ((3), more)
"[Meriden, Connecticut, November 11, 1918] I had just turned four and I remember . . . awaking one morning in November to my mother asking my father to please turn down the record player. It was about six in the morning. My father had put on the 'Star Spangled Banner' and turned up the volume while I and my four siblings were still asleep. It was Armistice Day, November 11th, and World War I was over. Later that morning, my father, older sister and I walked down to the town square where crowds were celebrating. I became fascinated with a cluster of overhead wires with switchboards and electrical components to handle the trains that crossed right through the center of the square. I had never been down there before and the interruptions or invasions of the patch of sky that appeared between buildings seemed very strange and I asked my father if that were the Kaiser. That was a word that I had heard frequently in conversations between my father and mother. He was the bad guy leading the Germans. It was only a word to me. My father said no, but look over there: that's the Kaiser. And suspended from a pole was an effigy in three dimensions so life-life, I became frightened." ((4), more)
"Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers of the Allied Armies:After resolutely repulsing the enemy for months, you confidently attacked him with untiring energy.You have won the greatest battle in history and rescued the most sacred of all causes, the Liberty of the World.You have full right to be proud, for you have crowned your standards with immortal glory and won the gratitude of posterity.F. FochMarshal of FranceCommander in Chief of the Allied Armies." ((5), more)
(1) Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM on November 10, 1918, the German armistice negotiators received two wireless messages from the German Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden. The first appears above in its entirety, the second in part. The armistice was signed at 5:10 the following morning. 3,084 was a code to ensure authenticity.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 476, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(2) Excerpt from Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. Brittain served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), on the Western front. Her brother Edward was killed on June 15, 1918 serving with the Royal Artillery on the Italian Front. Roland Leighton had been Brittain's fiancé. He died on December 23, 1915 after being shot by a German sniper while inspecting wire defenses in Hébuterne, France on a moonlit night. Richardson and Thurlow were both friends first of Edward befriended by Brittain. Victor Richardson, was severely wounded in the head on April 9, 1917, in the Battle of Arras. Blind and hospitalized, seemingly recovering, he was visited by Brittain and his family, but died of a cerebral abscess on June 9. Geoffrey Thurlow was killed in action at Monchy-le-Preux, southeast of Arras, on 23rd April 1917.
Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925 by Vera Brittain, pp. 460, 463, copyright © Vera Brittain, 1933, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 1978, originally 1933
(3) Entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government based in Paris on November 11, 1918. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had renounced the throne and fled to the Netherlands, which had remained neutral through the war, as Wilhelm Hohenzollern on the 10th.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 387, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) John Cavanaugh speaking of his recollections of Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, in Meriden, Connecticut.
John Cavanaugh: Armistice Day, 1918 by John Shea, none, publication date: 2018-11-11
(5) General order issued by Ferdinand Foch on November 12, 1918, the day after the Armistice between the Allies and Germany took effect.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 488, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
