The timing of the US federal holiday of Veterans Day is based on the celebration of Armistice Day, the day that the fighting was halted in World War One, on November 11th, 1918. The armistice had been signed early on the morning of the 11th, and 11:00AM Paris Time was chosen as the hour at which hostilities would end, so that word could get to all units on both sides of the Western Front.
This restored recording from the Imperial War Museum records the sounds of war going silent on that eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month in 1918. A moment later, a birdsong can be heard.
I have to wonder what the men were thinking as they continued to carry out orders to fire at 10:59? Did anyone die in those last few minutes? How meaningless that would be?
ReplyDeleteRan across it on another blog... I forget which. Last casualty was an American at 11:59, who was still charging a German position. They were reluctant to fire, apparently, and tried to yell to him that the war was about to end, but he kept coming.
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