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| The Armistice occurred at 11.00 on November 18th 1918. The Armistice brought an end World War One – a war that had completely redefined warfare with the terrible suffering in the trenches and the deprivations experienced in various home fronts.
Many historians feel that the accepted turning point in World War One came in March 1918 when the Germans began their ‘big push’. This was initially successful but by the summer had run out of impetus. The Allies pushed back the German advance. General Luderndorff described August 8th 1918 as a “black day”. On September 28th, the Hindenburg Line was crossed and on September 29th, Luderndorff insisted that an armistice was needed if Germany was not going to suffer a catastrophic collapse with Allied soldiers actually advancing into the heart of Germany. On October 4th, 1918, a request for an armistice was sent to Washington DC.
Germany was in a dire position by October 1918. Her military position on the Western Front was very weak. On other secondary fronts, former allies were pulling out of the war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was breaking up and soldiers in the Austrian Army deserted and went to their homelands. Austria-Hungary abandoned her alliance with Germany and sought her own armistice. Bulgaria and Turkey also withdrew from the war.
The situation in Germany itself was dire. By the autumn of 1918, many civilians only existed off 1,000 calories a day. Malnutrition was common. Weak bodies were also very open to disease. The civilian death rate in 1918 was 37% higher than in 1913. There were chronic shortages in many vital every day items as a result of the British naval blockade on the German coastline.
“The shortage is so great it is a mystery to me what the people of Berlin live on. The workers say, “Better a horrible end than an endless horror”.
In October the first signs of flu appeared in Germany – an illness that was to have an enormous impact on Europe as a whole.
Germany was also a political tinderbox. The occurrences in Russia were bound to have an impact on Germany and one of the reasons some politicians and generals wanted an armistice was to stave off a revolution in Germany itself. Luderndorff had lifted wartime restrictions on the German press. Therefore, many left wing political organisations were free to promote their views. People who were starving, cold and at the end of their tether were at the very least willing to listen. The political hierarchy in Germany believed many were also willing to support.
Germany approached America on October 4th for an armistice.
“The German Government requests the President of the United States of America to take steps for the restoration of peace…..The German Government accepts, as a basis for peace negotiations, the programme laid down by the President of the United States….In order to avoid further bloodshed the German Government requests the President to bring about an immediate conclusion of a general armistice on land, on water and in the air.”
The Americans were likely to take a more conciliatory approach when compared to the likes of Georges Clemenceau and Lloyd George.
When the Armistice was declared on November 11th, a German delegate at the meeting that concluded in the Armistice wrote:
“The German nation which for fifty months has defied a world of enemies, will preserve, in spite of every kind of violence, its liberty and unity. A nation of seventy million suffers but does not die.”
Germany certainly expected to be treated with a degree of dignity at any future peace settlement. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were to horrify many and give extremists on both left and right a boost that they were to exploit.
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