Foch's Wagon House

Category

Library Item

Item no

30676

Title

Foch's Wagon house, The Armistice Clearing, Compiegne Forest

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1926

Size

9.0 x 13.8 cm

Type

Postcard

Location

Reference Library

In 1927 the French authorities built an ornate carriage house to enclose the train car in which the armistice was signed. The building housed Foch's carriage and a small museum explaining the significance of the area. In 1940 the clearing was the stage for the surrender of France's leaders to Hitler after the occupation by German Forces. He had the carriage carried off to Berlin, the structure which had been its home razed to the ground and the lovingly tended clearing lain to waste. This was revenge for the wrongs Hitler believed to have been done to his homeland as a consequence of the armistice treaty signed there in 1918. Very soon after the liberation the clearing was restored using the labour of German Prisoners of war. A new Carriage House stands on the same spot housing a 1950 replica of the carriage and a few surviving pieces of the stolen original retrieved after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Architecture > Monuments > Memorial monuments

Architecture > Monuments > War Memorials

Events > Wars > War allies

Events > Wars > Wars

Events > Wars > World wars

Places > Europe > France