The Armistice Clearing, Compiegne forest

Category

Library Item

Item no

30674

Title

The Armistice Clearing, Compiegne forest, bollards mark the spot where Foch's wagon stood during negotiations

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1926

Size

9.0 x 13.8 cm

Type

Postcard

Location

Reference Library

The armistice which ended the First World War was signed in a remote clearing in the Compiegne forest in the Picardy region of France. Marshal Ferdinand Foch believed it best to hold the negotiations somewhere far from the prying eyes of journalists and the public. The clearing was later turned into a national memorial. A number of statues were erected including one of Marechal Foch, the head of the allied delegation. The places where the railway carriages which carried the opposing delegates to the area stood are marked out on the ground. On the spot where the armistice was signed a plaque reads 'Here on the eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminal pride of the German Reich...vanquished by the free peoples it tried to enslave.' The original plaque was destroyed during the Nazi occupation of the country but was replaced after France's liberation.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Memorial monuments

Architecture > Monuments > War Memorials

Events > Wars > War allies

Events > Wars > Wars

Events > Wars > World wars

Places > Europe > France