On the 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th month it was decided that peace would fall across Europe.
Never mind that both sides actually threw soldiers in to battle, fire round after round right up until that time.
The commanders didn't see fit to think "Hey! after 4 years of blood-letting we now have a fixed time how about we dont give the order to go over the top. Perhaps we can save just a few extra souls in this insane action." But no!
Taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7696021.stm
The respected American author Joseph E Persico has calculated a shocking figure that the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000 casualties, more than those killed, wounded or missing on D-Day, when Allied forces landed en masse on the shores of occupied France almost 27 years later.
The treaty was signed a few hours before 11.00 in a railway carriage near Paris.
The french were, apparently, so ashamed that a soldier of their's died on the last day that they marked his headstone as his being KIA on the 10th.
Sadly, there is little doubt that men died even after the official time for the Armistice and even after the 11th.
- the war to end all wars-
sadly.... not so!
sadly.... not so!
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