Glade of the Armistice

Glade of the Armistice
France
For French soldiers of World War I and signing of the Armistice
Location
"1914-1918 / To the heroic soldiers of France / Defenders of the Fatherland and of Justice / Glorious liberators of Alsace-Lorraine"

The Glade of the Armistice (French: Clairière de l'Armistice) is a French national and war memorial in the Forest of Compiègne. It was built at the location where in 1918 the Germans signed the armistice that ended World War I. During World War II, Adolf Hitler deliberately chose the same spot for the French and Germans to sign the Second Armistice at Compiègne after Germany won the Battle of France.

Today, the Glade of the Armistice contains a statue of Ferdinand Foch and the Alsace-Lorraine Memorial.

History

The armistice, which put an end to World War I, was signed in a carriage of Foch's private train, CIWL #2419 ("Le Wagon de l'Armistice") in Rethondes. It was later put back into regular service with the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, but after a short period it was withdrawn to be attached to the French presidential train. From April 1921 to April 1927, it was on exhibition in the Cour des Invalides in Paris.

In November 1927, this carriage was ceremonially returned to the forest in the exact spot where the Armistice was signed, an part of the newly constructed monument "the Glade of the Armistice". Marshal Foch, General Weygand and many others watched it being placed in a specially constructed building; near, but not on, the exact place of the signing.

There it remained, a monument to the defeat of Imperial Germany and the triumph of France, until 22 June 1940, when swastika-bedecked German staff cars bearing Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop and others swept into the Clairiere and, in that same carriage, moved back to the signing-place, the Second World War armistice with France was signed; this time with Germany triumphant. William Shirer reported on Hitler's reaction to seeing the monument:

"Through my glasses I saw the Führer stop, glance at the [Alsace-Lorraine] monument.... Then he read the inscription on the great granite block in the center of the clearing: Here on the eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminal pride of the German empire... vanquished by the free peoples which it tried to enslave." I look for the expression on Hitler's face. I am but fifty yards from him and see him through my glasses as though he were directly in front of me. I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph. He steps off the monument and contrives to make even this gesture a masterpiece of contempt. He glances back at it contemptuous, angry. . . . Suddenly, as though his face were not giving quite complete expression to his feelings, he throws his whole body into harmony with his mood. He swiftly snaps his hands on his hips, arches his shoulders, plants his feet wide apart. It is a magnificent gesture of defiance, of burning contempt....

During the German occupation of France during World War II, the Alsace-Lorraine Memorial was destroyed and the carriage taken to Berlin, where it was exhibited in the Lustgarten.

After the Allied advance into Germany in early 1945, the carriage was removed by the Germans for safe keeping to the town of Crawinkel, but as an American armoured column entered the town, the detachment of the SS guarding it set it ablaze, and it was destroyed. Some pieces were however preserved by a private person; they are also exhibited at Compiègne.

After the war, the Compiègne site was restored by German POW labor, but not until Armistice Day 1950 was a replacement carriage, correct in every detail, re-dedicated: an identical Compagnie des Wagon-Lits carriage, No. 2439, built in 1913 in the same batch as the original and present in 1918, was renumbered No. 2419D.

Gallery

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  The Glade of Armistice.

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  Clearing of the Armistice, also called Rethondes clearing. In the foreground is the site where the car of the Armistice was; in the background, the museum of the Armistice which houses an identical car.

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  Replica of the Wagon de l'Armistice.