Armistice of 11 November 1918

This photograph was taken after reaching an agreement for the armistice that ended World War I. This is Ferdinand Foch's own railway carriage and the location is in the forest of Compiègne. Foch is second from the right.

The armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918, and marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front. Principal signatories were Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Commander-in-chief, and Matthias Erzberger, Germany's representative.

Negotiations process

Front page of The New York Times on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918.

The Armistice was agreed at 5 AM on 11 November, to come into effect at 11 AM Paris time (that is 11 AM GMT), for which reason the occasion is sometimes referred to as "the eleventh (hour) of the eleventh (day) of the eleventh (month)". It was the result of a hurried and desperate process.

Acting German commander Paul von Hindenburg had requested arrangements for a meeting from Ferdinand Foch via telegram on 7 November. He was under pressure of imminent revolution in Berlin, Munich, and elsewhere across Germany.

The German delegation crossed the front line in five cars and was escorted for ten hours across the devastated war zone of Northern France. They were then entrained and taken to the secret destination, Foch's railway siding in the forest of Compiègne.

Foch appeared only twice in the three days of negotiations: on the first day, to ask the German delegation what they wanted, and on the last day, to see to the signatures. In between, the German delegation discussed the detail of Allied terms with French and Allied officers. The Armistice amounted to complete German demilitarization, with few promises made by the Allies in return. The naval blockade of Germany would continue until complete peace terms could be agreed upon.

There was no question of negotiation. The Germans were able to correct a few impossible demands (for example, the decommissioning of more submarines than their fleet possessed), and registered their formal protest at the harshness of Allied terms. But they were in no position to refuse to sign. On Sunday 10 November, they were shown newspapers from Paris, to inform them that Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated.

Erzberger was not able to get instructions from Berlin because of the fall of the government. However, he was able to communicate with the German Army Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg in Spa who instructed him to sign at any price as an armistice was absolutely necessary. Signatures were made between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM, Paris time.

The armistice was signed in CIWL #2419 ("Le Wagon de l'Armistice"). The same wagon was also used for the 1940 armistice between France and Hitler-Germany. The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, and destroyed by the SS in 1945 in Crawinkel, Thuringia.

Key personnel

For the Allies, the personnel involved were entirely military:

• Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch, the Allied supreme commander
• First Sea Lord Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, the British representative
• General Weygand, Foch's chief of staff

For Germany:

• Matthias Erzberger, a civilian politician;
• Count Alfred von Oberndorff, from the Foreign Ministry;
• Major General Detlof von Winterfeldt, the army;
• Captain Ernst Vanselow, the navy.

General Weygand and General von Gruennel are not mentioned in the (French) document.

Terms

The terms contained the following major points:.

• Termination of military hostilities within six hours after signature.
• Immediate removal of all German troops from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine.
• Subsequent removal of all German troops from territory on the west side of the Rhine plus 30 km radius bridgeheads of the right side of the Rhine at the cities of Mainz, Koblenz, and Cologne with ensuing occupation by allied and US troops.
• Removal of all German troops at the eastern front to German territory as it was on August 1, 1914.
• Renouncement of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia and of the Treaty of Bucharest with Romania.
• Internment of the German fleet.
• Surrender of materiel: 5,000 cannons, 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 minenwerfers, 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotive engines, and 150,000 railcars.

Aftermath

The peace between the Allies and Germany would subsequently be settled in 1919, by the Paris Peace Conference, and the Treaty of Versailles that same year.

Last casualties

The news was quickly given to the armies during the morning of 11 November, but even after hearing that the armistice was due to start at 11:00, intense warfare continued right until the last minute. Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that should fighting re-start, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently 2,738 men died on the last day of the war .

Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 am. The last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed earlier that morning at around 9:30 am while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. The final Canadian solder to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was killed just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons, in street fighting with retreating German soldiers. And finally, American Henry Gunther is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in WWI. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them.

The last reported German casualty occurred after the 11 a.m. armistice. A Lt. Tomas, in the Meuse-Argonne sector, went to inform approaching American soldiers that he and his men would be vacating houses that they had been using as billets. However, he was shot by soldiers who had not been told about the ceasefire.

Matthias Erzberger was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist death squad on August 26, 1921 for signing the armistice.

See also

• Paris Peace Conference, 1919
• Treaty of Versailles (1919)
• Armistice Day
• Armistice with France (Second Compiègne) - signed on 22 June 1940 at the same location
• Aftermath of World War I

External links

• La convention d'armistice du 11 novembre 1918 (in French)
• The Armistice Demands, translated into English from German Government statement The World War I Document Archive, Brigham Young University Library, accessed 27 July 2006
• Watch six online National Film Board of Canada documentaries about the Armistice