The Armistice
November 11th, 1918
In Autumn 1918, after four years of devastating war, Germany was on the verge of economic and social collapse.
With the spring offensive ending and failure, all hopes were gone that Germany could win the war.
In late September 1918, the French, American and British troops started the offensive on the entire Western Front putting great pressure on the exhausted German forces.
General Ludendorff resigned and was replaced by Vilhelm Groaner.
The whole army was severely lacking morale by the beginning of November. All of its allies:
Austria-Hungary the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria had been defeated, so Germany was left fighting alone.
Germany was also caught by winds of political change:
Soldiers began to revolt,
Protests and revolutions erupted in the big German cities.
The imperial government was replaced by a democratic one while Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and went into exile to the Netherlands.
Facing a total chaos in the country and a complete breakdown on the front lines, the Germans were desperate to sign a truce
Germany did try to negotiate peace conditions with US President Woodrow Wilson earlier in October,
but were reluctant to make the great concessions that the other allies demanded this time.
The Republican government was ready to accept any conditions asked by the Allies.
The meeting was arranged to be held far away from the eyes of the public in the forest of Compiègne
40 miles or 65 kilometers north of Paris negotiations
Were led by German state secretary Matthias s Berger and marshal Foss who was delegated by the Allies to sign the truce
For the occasion martial forces trained carriage was brought in as a place of formal signing of the armistice
For the Allies there was no room for any kind of negotiations instead
They just handed over to Germany their terms of unconditional surrender
The German delegation could only object on the number of submarines that were to be handed over to the Allies
But they were asked to hand over more than they actually had
the Armistice was to cease all hostilities on the land air and sea the German army was asked to leave the occupied territories of
France Belgium
Luxembourg and alsace-lorraine in
15 days as well as to repatriate all the inhabitants of the same territories and allied prisoners of war
The Germans also had to evacuate its troops from the left bank of the Rhine River and to establish a demilitarized
Six mile or ten kilometer wide buffer zone on the right bank of the river
The left bank of the Rhine the Rhineland would be occupied by French British Belgian and American troops
The Germans were obliged to leave the infrastructure of this territory intact with all its industrial stores of coal and other materials
The Germans also had to surrender
2,500 heavy guns
2,500 field guns
25,000 machine guns 3,000 trench mortars and
1,700 fighter and bomber airplanes
They also had to give away 5000 locomotives with
150,000 wagons and 5000 lorries all of these had to be in good usable condition
All of these requirements were made to prevent any German attempt to continue the war
In order to secure the safety of the sea routes the Allies required Germany to surrender all of their submarines
to completely disarm their six battle cruisers 10 battleships 8 light cruisers and
50 modern destroyers and to in turn them into neutral ports under allied surveillance
All other vessels were allowed to stay in German ports, but also had we disarmed and put under allied surveillance
Finally on November 11th at 5 a.m. French time
the armistice was signed by marshal Ferdinand Fache and First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Rosalyn Weems on behalf of the Allies and
Secretary of State Mathias asperger count Alfred von Oberndorf of the Foreign Ministry
General Detlef on Binta felled and Admiral Ernst van Saleh on the German side
The armistice came into effect six hours later at 11:00 a.m. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918
Even at the time when the piece was so close soldiers were still dying
Almost 3,000 men died on the last day of the war
The last British soldier to be killed on the front was George Edwin Ellison from the fifth Royal Irish Lancers
He lost his life while he was on scouting duty near Mons Belgium
Just 15 minutes before the war was ended the last French soldier to die on the front augusten
Trebuchet was killed he was shot as he was running to inform his comrades that hot soup was on the menu to celebrate the ceasefire
Canadian George Lawrence price was killed two minutes before 11 a.m. Being the last Commonwealth soldier killed in the war a
Minute after just seconds away from the Armistice an American soldier of German origin Henry Guenther
Charged at stun German soldiers who were aware that peace was just seconds away
Gunther ended up being the last American soldier to die in the war
The last German casualty is harder to determine as records are less clear
Some records say that it was 18 year old German soldier Alphonse Bala. He was killed only moments after hostilities ceased
He joined the Army in August
1914 at the very beginning of the war
Many soldiers were in disbelief when they heard of the armistice as ammunition and supplies were still arriving to frontlines
however, when the news was confirmed soldiers across the entire western front started to celebrate the fact that they were finally going home to their
loved ones
The duration of the Armistice was to be 36 days
But was prolonged on three occasions
Until peace was finally ratified On January 10th 1920 putting an end to the First World War
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