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War is Over!

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On November 9th, the Kaiser abdicated; slipping across the border into the Netherlands and exiled. A German Republic was declared and peace feelers extended to the Allies. At 5:00 am, on the morning of November 11th, an armistice was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines.
The terms of the agreement called for the cessation of fighting along the entire Western Front to begin at precisely 11:00 that morning. After over four years of bloody conflict, the Great War was finally at an end.
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"At the front there was no celebration."
Colonel Thomas Gowenlock served as an intelligence officer in the American 1st Division. He was on the front line that November morning and wrote of his experience:
"On the morning of November 11th, I sat in my dugout in Le Gros Faux, which was again our division headquarters, talking to our Chief of Staff, Colonel John Greely, and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Peabody, our G-1. A signal corps officer entered and handed us the following message:
Official Radio from Paris - 6:01 A.M., Nov. 11, 1918. Marshal Foch to the Commander-in-Chief.
1. Hostilities will be stopped on the entire front beginning at 11 o'clock, November 11th (French hour).
2. The Allied troops will not go beyond the line reached at that hour on that date until further orders.

With only a few hours to go until 11:00, the shelling was still heavy and, it grew steadily worse. It seemed that every battery in the world was trying to burn up its guns. At last eleven o'clock came - but the firing continued. The men on both sides had decided to give each other all they had with their farewell to arms. It was a very natural impulse after all their fighting, but unfortunately many fell after eleven o'clock that day.
All over the world on November 11, 1918, people were celebrating, dancing in the streets, drinking champagne, hailing the armistice that meant the end of the war. But on the front there was no celebration. Many soldiers believed the Armistice was only a temporary measure and that the war would soon go on. As night came, the quietness, unearthly in its penetration, began to feed their anxieties, eat into their souls. 
The men sat around log fires, the first they had ever had at the front. They were trying to reassure themselves that there were no enemy batteries spying on them from the next hill and no German bombing planes approaching to blast them out of existence. They talked in low tones. They were nervous.
​

After the long months of intense strain, of keying themselves up to the daily mortal danger, of thinking always in terms of war and the enemy, the abrupt release from it all was physical and psychological agony. 
Some, of a steadier temperament, began to hope they would someday return to home and the embrace of loved ones. While other, could think only of the crude little crosses that marked the graves of their comrades, brothers from boot camp. Some fell into an exhausted sleep. All were bewildered by the sudden meaninglessness of their existence as soldiers - and through their teeming memories that paraded a swiftly moving cavalcade of St. Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne and Sedan.
​
What was to come next? They did not know - and hardly cared. Their minds were numbed by the shock of peace.
In April and May 1919, the 361st Infantry Regiment returned to Washington and to welcome-home events. On April 25 a train carrying 500 soldiers of the 361st stopped in Spokane and they were greeted by cheering crowds.
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  • Home & What's New
    • Blog
    • Inspiration >
      • Why Family History?
      • American Migration
    • James Davidson Jordan
    • Patricia Jean Jordan
    • Jordan Family Tree
    • Davidson Family Tree
    • Wallace Family Tree
    • Murphy Family Tree
    • Campbell-Watson Tree
  • Jordans
    • JORDAN - Oregon >
      • Samuel Silas Jordan >
        • Battle of Nieuwpoort - 1600
        • Tempest
        • Jamestowne >
          • Jordan's Journey
          • House of Burgesses
          • Virginia Tobacco
          • 1622 Massacre
          • Who was Cecily?
          • Cecily Jordan
          • Cecily - An American Woman
      • James Jordan 1850 >
        • Gold Fever
        • Southwest Oregon Gold Rush
        • Rogue River Indian War
        • Alice Jordan
        • Ethel Jordan Stackpole
        • Ralph StackPole >
          • Montparnese
          • The Sculptor
          • 1939 EXPOSITION
        • Peter Stackpole
  • DAVIDSONS
    • Davidson Clan >
      • Clan Chattan
      • Red Comyn
      • Battle of Roslin
      • Innvernahavon
      • North Inch
      • Red Harlaw
      • Wallace
      • Davidson Timeline
    • Johne Davidson >
      • Edinburgh
      • King James
      • “Un Petit Diable”
      • Daemonologie
      • Royal Repentance
      • Last Days
    • Alexander Davidson I >
      • A Davidson II 'the Immigrant'
    • Alexander Davidson III >
      • Apprentice to a Blacksmith
      • Anne Bridges
      • Battle of Ramsour Mill
      • Justice of Peace
      • Kentucky 1792
      • An American Faith
      • Pioneer Preacher
      • First Church
      • Representative Delegate
      • The Great Comet
      • Memories of Alexander
    • Elijah Davidson >
      • Elijah & Margaret
      • Emancipationists
      • New Orleans
      • Monmouth Illinois >
        • LAST DRY TOWN
      • Black Hawks War
      • On to Oregon
      • Land of Promise
      • Elijah Jones Davidson
      • Carter Tarrant Davidson
      • Ol' Reelfoot
  • Campbells
    • Wallace Patrick Campbell
    • The Great War Pt One
    • The Great War Pt Two
    • Tragedy at Gesnes
    • ​Ypres-Lys Offensive
    • War is Over
    • Battle of the Crater
    • African Explorer
  • Murphy/Cook
    • Memory of an American Patriot
    • Murphy Generations
    • Turning the World Upside Down
    • Bluestone Church 1758
    • John & Rachel Murphy
    • Regulators
    • Battle of Alamance
    • Sarah Barton Murphy
    • Cook Family Massacre
  • Art all in the FAMILY
  • Quick Views
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact