ARMISTICE AND THE END OF WORLD WAR I COMBAT

Armistice and the End of World War I Combat

On November 11th, 1918, guns along the Western Front at last fell silent as the armistice between the Allies and Germany took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For American soldiers and Marines of the American Expeditionary Forces, it marked the end of a brutal year of major offensives at places like Cantigny, Belleau Wood, Saint-Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne. Many units spent the morning under orders to keep fighting until the deadline, and lives were still lost in the war’s final hours. When the clock reached the appointed time, men who had been in constant danger for months stepped out of trenches into an uncanny quiet. The armistice did not solve all of the political and social tensions that had led to the conflict, but it did stop the killing on a scale the world had never seen. In the United States, the date would become a day of remembrance for all who served, eventually known as Veterans Day.