The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. Primarily, Germany insisted that it would only enter into negotiations on the understanding that US President Woodrow Wilson’s so-called documented ‘Fourteen Points’ would form the basis for a settlement: “The actual terms, largely written by French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, included the cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of German troops to behind their own borders, the preservation of infrastructure, the exchange of prisoners, a promise of reparations, the disposition of German warships and submarines, and conditions for prolonging or terminating the armistice.” 

The Germans responded to the policies proposed by the American President in his Fourteen Points, whose terms were nevertheless punitive. 

The German government was determined to negotiate an armistice with the Allies on 6 November, having issued preliminary diplomatic feelers two days earlier. Consequently, on 7 November the German Army Chief of Staff exchanged a series of telegrams with Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch to agree a date, time and place for formal negotiations.

The German negotiators were alarmed by the severity of the Allies’ armistice terms presented to them on 8 November 1918; there was no question of negotiation but they registered a formal protest at the harshness of Allied terms.

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, grandson of Queen Victoria, was obliged to abdicate on 9 November 1918, when German military morale was evidently declining on the Western Front and revolution brewing at home. 

The Germans were able to correct a few impossible demands but were in no position to refuse to sign. The Treaty consisted of VII Sections comprising 35 clauses, the final one reading: “This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within seventy-two hours of notification.”

On Sunday 10 November, newspapers in Paris reported that the Kaiser had abdicated. Instructions from Berlin could not be obtained because of the fall of the government. The instructions to sign came from Hindenburg, who felt an armistice was absolutely necessary, and the revised terms were reluctantly signed at 5am [French time] on 11 November. The armistice was to come into effect six hours later, at 11am on 11 November 1918 − a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although technically not a surrender. The Allies agreed to an armistice only on the basis that Germany effectively disarm herself, thereby avert renewed hostilities.

The First World War was a turning point in our perception of war. In the past, war had been heroic, possibly glorious. Even an incompetent disaster, such as the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, was seen partly as romantic, the story of a few brave and obedient men.

The first two-minute silence was held one year after the end of the war on 11 November 1919, when King George V asked the public to observe a two-minute silence at 11am. He made the request so “the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.

What I remember of my schooldays, two decades after the end of the Great War, seemed a different world. Remembrance Day was solemnly recalled: wearing poppies on our school uniform, observing two minutes’ silence, even in the middle of a lesson, on the click of the eleventh hour and the sound of guns, meditating a symbolic commemoration of cessation of hostilities.

Wearing a poppy demonstrates you are remembering those who died for their country. Poppies are used because they were the flowers that grew on the battlefields after the end of World War I. The British Legion is the organisation in charge of raising funds for old soldiers or veterans. As a young girl it was a great pleasure for my sister and I to volunteer to go out with a tray of poppies and donation box on the road, in establishments, offices, and so on … until the poppies were sold out! 

As the final veterans pass away, we must not forget what led to the carnage on the battlefield: Poppy Day Sunday, 11 November, is Armistice Day, lest we forget the horrors of the First World War.  

The Great War of 1914-18 is the key to remembrance. This anniversary – a national ritual - − to commemorate all the people who have died in wars since World War I, including World War II, the Falklands War, the Gulf War and conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo. Let us not pretend that we believe in the sanctity of human life while squandering it in war! This should be the resolution as we mourn those who died whichever war.

Carmelina Grech

IBRAG