ARMISTICE: 11 NOV 1918

Armistice Day, 11th November 1918

World War One ended on 11.00am on 11th November 1918 when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice in a railway carriage in Compiègne, France.

The terms were written by the Amercan President Woodrow Wilson and French Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch. The armistice brought the war to an end but it took 6 more months before a peace treaty was declared in Versailles.

The Cenotaph

The Cenotaph is a war memorial near Whitehall in London, it was first erected as a temporary structure at the end of the First World War but in 1920 it was relaced with a permanent structure designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens. Every year a National Service of Remembrance is held at the site on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to 11 November each year. Lutyens cenotaph design has been reproduced elsewhere in the UK and other countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Bermuda and Hong Kong.

The Last Post

The Last Post was used in British Army camps to signal the end of day when the duty officer returns from the tour of the camp. In battle times it was used as a signal to those who were still out and wounded or separated that the fighting was done, and to follow the sound of the call to find safety and rest

The Last Post, Remembrance Sunday, London Cenotaph 2008

Flowers of the Forest

This is an ancient Scottish tune played as a lament on the bagpipes. It describes the grief of losing young men in battle. It is played at every official memorial service.

This version with lyrics is sung by Scottish folk singer Isla St. Clair

The War to End All Wars?

At the end of four years of fighting the cost of the war was huge:

• 8.5 million soldiers killed

• 19.7 million soldiers wounded

• 8.8 million civilions killed

• £116 billion spent

• 4 Empires collapsed: Russian, Germany, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman

Approximately 250,000 presumed missing in action and have never been identified. More than the entire population of Southampton.

Sources:

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Post)

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIIOGka3LKI)

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=12

http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-war-i-statistics/