World War I As It Happened (1918)

Not everyone is pleased with the news of the armistice. General Charles Mangin (right) laments: "We must go right into the heart of Germany. The Armistice should be signed there. The Germans will not admit they are beaten... It is a fatal error and France will pay for it!"

It is 11 AM on November 11, 1918, and the guns are finally ordered to cease firing all along the Western Front. Crowds in Paris and London can barely believe it, but it is true: The Great War is, practically if not technically, over.

10:59: The Armistice is one minute away, but American Pvt. Henry Gunther (recently demoted) charges alone towards a German machine gun crew. The Germans try to wave him off; with their warnings ignored, they fire, and Henry Gunther is immediately killed.

The guns keep on firing, into the very end; the artillery crews know that the more shells they fire, the less they have to carry home. Blood is shed on both sides; men are dying all morning.

The word is spreading amongst troops on both sides: an end to the fighting is mere hours away. Some are celebrating loudly; many are silently moving on, savouring the news in their own way. Many, no doubt, are incredulous: what happens next?

Allied demands for an armistice are severe and call for Germany to utterly demilitarise and hand over an enormous quantity of weapons and machinery. But the Allies have allowed the Germans to keep a bulk of machine guns, in case they have to stamp out a Bolshevik uprising.

Slightly after five in the morning, the German delegation signs off on the Allied demands for an armistice: At 11 AM, less than six hours from now, the fighting will finally end on the Western Front.

Much like Tsarist Russia, the German Kaiserreich has crumbled much due to widespread hunger and war weariness; when a horse gets killed during the confusing street fighting erupting throughout German cities, hungry bystanders will quickly harvest what they can.

Seeing no way to reclaim the reins of power, Kaiser Wilhelm II has asked for, and received, permission to enter the neutral Netherlands. While not officially abdicating just yet, the reign of the Hohenzollerns appears to be over.

As armed militias engage police forces throughout Germany to establish a new, socialist-leaning state, Kaiser Wilhelm insists that he will be able to regain power with the aid of the army. Paul von Hindenburg assures him, however, that there is now no hope for the crown.

Speaking from a window at the Reichstag, Philipp Scheidemann, another prominent social democrat, announces the end of the Kaiserreich: "The old and rotten, the monarchy, has collapsed. Long live the new! Long live the German Republic!"

The Hohenzollern regime appears to be in freefall; Prince Maximilian of Baden, just over a month into his chancellorship, has handed over the position to Social Democratic leader Friedrich Ebert. Reading the room, Baden sees no better way for Germany to avoid complete chaos.

The Germans, anxious about the deteriorating state of civil order, want an immediate stop to the fighting, but are equally anxious about signing an armistice without explicit approval from Berlin. Foch insists that the Allies will continue the advance until it is signed.

The German delegation, meeting Marshal Foch in the forest outside Compiègne, has received the Allied demands for an armistice. Unsurprisingly, they are severe and include the evacuation of Alsace-Lorraine (conquered by Germany in 1871).

The Italian Army is notorious for its harsh approach to discipline and has little sympathy for those returning from captivity. Some argue that former prisoners should be sent to forced resettlement in Libya, to bolster the population in the Italian colony.

Italian soldiers released from Austrian captivity are receiving a cold treatment from their home country: prisoners are to be interned until interrogated, specifically regarding the nature of their capture.

Seeing the rising unrest, the King of Bavaria, Ludwig III, has already left Germany with his family, for what they hope will be a short stay in Salzburg, from where they can return once the revolutionaries have been crushed.

The social unrest has now well and truly spread across most of urban Germany, as socialists, led by the well-known journalist Kurt Eisner (recently released from prison for instigating strikes amongst munition workers), proclaim a new Socialist Bavarian Republic from Munich.

A German delegation is currently en route through a French countryside ravaged by years of war. Their destination: the private train of Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch near Compiègne. Their task: finding an end to the Great War, at any cost.

Chancellor Max von Baden, spearheading the German quest for an armistice, has been told by SPD leader in the Reichstag, Friedrich Ebert, in no uncertain terms: "If the Kaiser does not abdicate, the social revolution is inevitable. But I do not want it, I even hate it like sin."

Having replaced Ludendorff as quartermaster general, Wilhelm Gröner (right) probes the generals on the front if their troops would obey orders to march on their own population. Out of 39 replies, only one says yes; 15 say maybe, 23 say no.

Unrest is spreading from Kiel to other German cities, with Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen and Wilhelmshaven seeing risings by militant sailors, soldiers and trade unionists. The Kaiser is furiously planning to march the armies on the Western Front back to Germany to quash the rebels.

There has been some confusion amongst the Austrian leadership regarding the armistice, and hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting soldiers, approaching the advancing Allies, have become prisoners in the past 24 hours. They thought the armistice was effective immediately (Nov. 3).

Kaiser Wilhelm is livid at the news of the spreading unrest, and he is personally affronted that the navy (a personal passion project of his) is the source of such insubordination. (Here he is seen inspecting marching sailors earlier in the war).

Several companies of soldiers have entered Kiel to suppress the growing mutiny; to the alarm of their officers, the soldiers appear highly sympathetic to the protesting masses.

7 people are killed and 30 wounded as Kiel's police force fires into the crowd to force a dispersion; reinforcements from military units are underway, and expected to arrive tomorrow.

Thousands of sailors and dock workers are marching through the streets of Kiel, protesting the arrest of sailors for refusing to follow orders to prepare for battle.

The Emperor was reluctant to agree to the Allied terms, which would give them free passage through Austria to attack Germany from the south, something he had assured Kaiser Wilhelm he would not allow. He now has to go back on his word, and Germany must face another front.

With his empire collapsing around him and his army heading home, oblivious to its officer's orders, Emperor Karl finally relents to Allied demands for surrender: An Armistice has been signed at Villa Giusti; from 15:00 tomorrow, Austria-Hungary is no longer at war.

The Germans are in full retreat in Belgium, but not without fighting, and, as always, civilians get caught in the crossfire. Here, a Canadian soldier comforts a wounded Belgian baby; the mother died by the same grenade that scarred the child.