[armistice day] the essential meaning of the day

This is a re-posting of an article from one year ago. It essentially argues against war. You might like to take in the comments section as well.

Please, I urge you, readers, whether you read my post or not, do go over to Jams after this and read the human side of the story. Please then go on to Cherie's, a lovely post. Do check these out too - Nunyaa and Anndi. Check out Aaron's links too. Here is Cassandra's historical look. Here is JMB's.

Armistice Day, Veteran's Day, Remembrance Day

This piece below is indebted heavily to Wikipedia.

Hawks, backed and abetted by the finance, have always prearranged wars long before the opening salvos. Dearieme brought my attention to another angle on it but the two are not mutually exclusive, as far as I can see. Just a question of emphasis.

Nowhere was this prearranged willingness to sacrifice boys' lives for political purposes more glaringly obvious than in The Great War, a term which already had currency in the corridors of power long before the due date. Even Buchan admitted as much in The Thirty Nine Steps [available online]. Check Chapters 1 and 2.

The Schieffen Plan

For complicated reasons you can read yourselves, the Germans were long harbouring a desire to punish France and for what? Because France had punished them for a wrong which they had perpetrated on France and so on.

This is the eternal cycle of war so beloved of two classes – the aristocracy and the old money of Europe.

Some speculate that if Helmuth von Moltke the Younger has not lost his nerve, Germany might have shortened the war but I think not. Historians almost always fail to take into account the invisible factor in all public life – the Old Finance.

So the long drawn out and extremely lucrative conflict and devastation of the common man was very much anticipated.

Helmuth von Moltke the Younger

French Plan XVII

It is erroneous to suppose that the French were the poor victims in this.

Almost immediately following her defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, together with the humiliating annexation by the newly unified Germany of the coal-rich territories of Alsace and Lorraine, the French government and military alike were united in thirsting for revenge.

To this end the French devised a strategy for a vengeful war upon Germany, Plan XVII, whose chief aim was the defeat of Germany and the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine. The plan was fatally flawed, and relied to an untenable extent upon the "élan" which was believed to form an integral part of the French army - an irresistible force that would sweep over its enemies.

Like Caesar's Soothsayer

It wasn't that no one spoke out:

A few dissident intellectuals in Europe had been trying to warn their nations about how different a war among the great industrial powers of Europe would be from wars of the previous century.

This has always been the way and even the kudos of this very blog has suffered for sometimes speaking a truth which is not generally recognized at the time. When it does come out, it is often too late.

And so to Compiègne

This photograph was taken in the forest of Compiègne after reaching an agreement for the armistice that ended World War I. This railcar was given to Ferdinand Foch for military use by the manufacturer, Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Foch is second from the right.

I sometimes imagine that meeting in the forest of Compiegne after all the trench warfare, the slaughter and massive dislocation imposed on a bewildered and yet highly patriotic people.

It was 4.30 in the morning of Monday, November 11th in France and perhaps they'd travelled from Paris via Foch's special train, rugged up for the occasion.

Think for a moment what it would have looked like and felt like that morning.


The German delegation crossed the front line in five cars and was escorted for ten hours across the devastated warzone of Northern France (perhaps, they speculated, to focus their minds on the lack of sympathy they could expect). They were then entrained and taken to the secret destination, Foch's railway siding in the forest of Compiègne.

Telegrams were passed to and from the German team:

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

[General Weygand and General von Gruennel are not mentioned in the French document]

... to both the German Army Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg in Spa and the hastily assembled civilian government of Friedrich Ebert in Berlin.

Erzberger apparently attempted to take negotiations to the limit of the 72 hours Foch had offered Hindenburg, but an open telegram from Berlin imploring him to sign immediately somewhat undermined his team's credibility.

Ebert was desperate, facing imminent insurrection in many large German cities. Signatures were made between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM, Paris time.

How it affected some people

Colonel Percy Dobson wrote:

It was hard to believe the war was over. Everything was just the same, tired troops everywhere and cold drizzly winter weather- just the same as if the war were still on.

Stephen Longstreet, in the Canvas Falcons (1970), wrote:

On that November 11, 1918, morning, another flier, Capitaine Jacques Leps, commander of the French 18th Squadron, sat in his Spad. He was about to take off with his fliers and their planes, all marked with the insignia of a leaping hare chased by a greyhound. The engines were turning over, the props spinning silver.

It was time to get into the air, to escort a major bombing raid on Metz. As Leps raised his arm to signal the take-off, someone came running from the airdrome's communication room, running agitatedly, arms waving.

"La guerre!! C'est finie, la guerre!"

Jaques Leps took in the heart-bursting news. He switched off the Spad's engine. The engines of the rest of his fliers went silent, one by one, as the cry "C'est finie, la guerre!" spread throughout the field. Capitaine Leps unfastened his safety belt and slowly got out of his cockpit.

Penultimate

At 11:00 a.m. this day, we put down whatever we're doing and remember long-suffering humanity who have had to endure these things and especially the brave men and women who gave their lives to defend their homes and families from totally unnecessary and indefensible aggression.

Lovely piece on the issue from the Domestik Goddess who writes of singer-songwriter Terry Kelly, who witnessed an act of philistinism and did what artists have always done, in the grip of the strongest emotions — he channelled his anger into his music.

Here is an account of the time:

On the stroke of 11:00, all the store fell silent.

All, that is, except for one man, who was accompanied by his little daughter. Oblivious of the example he was setting for the child, the man continued to try to talk to the sales clerk all through the respectful silence.

I have a copy of the Last Post and will play it during that time. What I love about this day is that it brings all of us together - American, Canadian, Britain, Commonwealth and many others.

Finally

Do not forget the modern German either - he is as much against this madness as any of us. He is not to be excluded from this remembrance day. Many of the British recognize this new reality and it seems to me to be a good step towards the ultimate exclusion of war as a means of resolving disputes.

Check Juliet's post - it really brings it home. Also, last year's series from Jams.