The guns fall silent on the Western Front

Germany and the Allies signed an armistice in a railway carriage in France, and fighting ended at 11 a.m. Paris time. The war formally ended with later peace treaties.

Context

By autumn 1918 Germany's army was retreating, its allies had collapsed or quit, and unrest was spreading at home. A German delegation led by politician Matthias Erzberger met Allied commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch in his railway carriage in the forest near Compiegne. The agreement was signed in the early morning of November 11, with fighting set to stop at 11 a.m.

The terms required Germany to leave occupied territory and the west bank of the Rhine, hand over weapons and ships, and accept an Allied blockade that stayed in force until the peace treaty. The armistice was renewed several times and was a ceasefire rather than a surrender or a peace settlement.

Fighting continued right up to the deadline, and thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded on the final morning even though the signing was already done. The anniversary became Armistice Day, now Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States.

Maps of the front changed little in the final days, but political change was dramatic. Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated on November 9, and a new German government under Friedrich Ebert took responsibility for the armistice. Political leaders on the German side later faced accusations from nationalists that the army had been betrayed at home, a claim historians generally reject.