Lindsey Graham (4:01)
It's November 7, four days before the armistice is signed. Three German automobiles wend their way through a no man's Land, an apocalyptic hellscape of artillery craters and razor wire. Inside one of the cars, German Secretary of State Matthias Erzberger peers gloomily out across the desolate battlefield. He has been sent by his government to negotiate a peace treaty with France and Great Britain, and he is feeling the pressure. The war, Erzberger knows, is already lost. A ceasefire might look like a more respectable result for Germany than unconditional surrender, but the difference is largely semantic. This war has not ended in a stalemate. The Germans are beaten, and the French and British want to make sure this truce looks like a defeat, and a humiliating one at that. Ersberger balances his pince nez eyeglasses on the bridge of his porcine nose and reads through the proposed terms without any real bargaining power. His main aim here is to minimize the damage. For the German military, the outlook has been bleak for months. Defeat at the Battle of Amiens in August heralded the start of the Hundred Day Offensive, a string of successive Allied victories along the Western Front, victories that dismantle Germany's territorial advantage. And now, with the support of the United States, who joined the allied cause in 1917, Germany's enemies are amassing even greater stocks of weaponry and manpower. Making matters worse, morale at home in Germany is at rock bottom. Food shortages caused by the Allied blockade are leading to widespread discontent. In 1918 alone, nearly 300,000 German civilians will die from hypothermia and starvation. Germany's allies aren't faring much better. The Ottoman Empire is close to exhaustion, while the Austro Hungarian Empire is descending into chaos under the privations of war. Germany's own monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm ii, has been steadily losing his grip on power. In a matter of days, his government will be overthrown. So it is in this context of military collapse and domestic turmoil that a car carrying a low spirited Matthias Erzberger snakes its way through the no Man's Land. Soon he and three other envoys will board a train that will take them deeper into enemy territory. On the morning of November 8th, they pull into a railway sighting in the forest of Compigne, 60 kilometers, or just 37 miles north of Paris, where the British and French delegates are already waiting. There, the screech of metal makes Marshal Ferdinand Foch glance up from his desk. The commander in chief of the Allied forces stands and walks to the window of his office, temporarily housed in a train carriage in the forest of Compigne. He looks out the window to see that the German delegates have arrived. Emerging from the carriage, Foch is joined by his chief of staff, General Maxime Weingand, the British representative, Admiral Rosalind Weems, as well as two British naval officers named George Hope and Jack Marriott. The five men line up stiff in their military uniforms. The German envoys climb down from their train. A strained silence ensues as the sworn enemies stand face to face, neither party certain of how to greet the other. There were never going to be warm handshakes, no water under the bridge sentiments. The French and British aren't here to go easy on their enemy. Nevertheless, many will criticize the armistice. When Foch first received a radio message from the Germans requesting a ceasefire, the Allied position was strong. American support, better equipment, and a number of decisive military victories in key locations all helped the Allies establish superiority by November 1918. For soldiers on the winning side, the opportunity to march through Berlin to stamp their authority over those who had slaughtered so many of their compatriots would have been a satisfying end to the conflict. But invading Germany, even in their weakened state, would have cost countless more lives for no discernible advantage. In addition, the war was becoming cripplingly expensive for all involved. And so, despite their advantage, the Allied powers chose to accept Germany's request. They would sign a ceasefire, but Germany would have to agree to their terms. As Matthias Ersberger reads through the conditions of the armistice, he can hardly believe his eyes. He was expecting severe measures, but these are harsher than he feared. This is no peace settlement. This is revenge, as well as a complete withdrawal of German forces from France. The Allies are demanding that Germany disarms completely and cedes huge tracts of territory. But there will be no end to the naval blockade of Germany, and they'll have to pay economic reparations for years to Come. The next three days are spent in tense negotiation. But the German delegation has little leverage. They must accept these humiliating conditions or face annihilation. Finally, at 5am on November 11, the armistice is signed. But when Ersberger tries to shake Ferdinand Foch's hand, Foch declines. There is still plenty of bitterness between the two former combatants. The representatives emerge from the train carriage into the predawn gloom. The faraway rumble of artillery still shakes the forest floor. Many more thousands of soldiers will die before the shooting stops. And it's these final deaths that will exemplify the tragedy of this cataclysmic war.
