0:00:10 > 0:00:13On a windswept hill in Northern France
0:00:13 > 0:00:18stands one of the great memorials to the dead from the First World War.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22It was a war which affected almost every family in Britain,
0:00:22 > 0:00:23including my own.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33But even after the Armistice was signed, on 11 November 1918,
0:00:33 > 0:00:35the terrible reality was that
0:00:35 > 0:00:38soldiers continued to be killed in battle.
0:00:44 > 0:00:4790 years on, I'm going on a journey
0:00:47 > 0:00:50to tell the story of the last day of World War I.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Of the general who sacrificed lives storming a town,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00simply so his troops could have a bath.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04That lunatic decision cost something like 300 casualties,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08many of them battle deaths, for an inconceivable reason.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Of the sometimes forgotten victims.
0:01:11 > 0:01:17And you can see that the whole of the side of the face has been
0:01:17 > 0:01:20- literally just taken off. - Yes, just ripped out.- Yes.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24- And yet he was still alive. - He was still alive.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Of the men who would die in the instants before peace.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32He was hit by a single rifle bullet,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36fell and died two minutes before the Armistice.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43There's his. There's his grave, your grandfather's grave.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48'And how, 90 years later, that sense of loss still prevails.'
0:01:48 > 0:01:50- It's very emotional.- Yes.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Probably the first relatives to visit.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58This is the story of how the war which was meant to end all wars
0:01:58 > 0:02:00finally came to a close.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29Just after five o'clock on the morning of 11 November 1918,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34a moment of global significance was about to occur.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36In this forest north of Paris,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39the two sides in the bloodiest conflict the world had ever known
0:02:39 > 0:02:42faced each other for a final showdown.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Hidden in the trees here at Compiegne was a railway siding.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52On it, the personal train belonging
0:02:52 > 0:02:57to Allied Supreme Commander Marshall Ferdinand Foch.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Three days earlier, a German peace delegation had arrived here.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05And during the small hours of Monday the 11th,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10inside Foch's carriage, they agreed the terms for a ceasefire -
0:03:10 > 0:03:12an armistice.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20It was at this table in Marshall Foch's private train
0:03:20 > 0:03:23that the two opponents met. The Germans on the left here,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26the British and French facing them on the right.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30A member of the British delegation noted the Germans being very quiet,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35very servile and, by the end, cringing.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38At ten past five that morning, the two sides signed,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42bringing to an end the First World War.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Within 30 minutes of the signing,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52the news was flashed around the world that the War To End All Wars
0:03:52 > 0:03:55was now, finally, over.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Well, almost.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Although the Armistice had been signed, the war was not yet over.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03It still had six hours left to run.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Despite the celebrations on streets across the globe, the ceasefire
0:04:11 > 0:04:14would not come into effect until 11am,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18so that troops on the front line would be sure of getting the news
0:04:18 > 0:04:22that the fighting had stopped. At least, that was the plan.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28What actually happened that morning was not the expected peace,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31but more of the bloodshed and slaughter that had happened
0:04:31 > 0:04:32on an almost daily basis
0:04:32 > 0:04:36for the previous four years of the First World War.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48For four long years the war had raged, as the armies of Britain,
0:04:48 > 0:04:53France, Russia and their allies fought Germany and hers.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The slaughter was on an industrial scale.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02The conflict had become gridlocked in trench warfare
0:05:02 > 0:05:06along a static line known as the Western Front.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17From the border of neutral Switzerland in the south,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19the Western Front snaked its way
0:05:19 > 0:05:22450 miles northwards to the Belgian coast.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31For Britain, World War I had started over Belgian neutrality,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34so it seemed fitting that this is where it would end.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41On the 10th of November, British and Canadian troops
0:05:41 > 0:05:43led by General Sir Arthur Currie
0:05:43 > 0:05:45reached the outskirts of the Belgian town of Mons -
0:05:45 > 0:05:49a town that had been occupied by the Germans for the past four years.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54And with the Armistice approaching, it was from Mons,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58where the British had been forced to retreat in the opening weeks
0:05:58 > 0:06:03of the war in August 1914, that some of the final casualties would occur.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19The village cemetery at Nivelles on the outskirts of Mons
0:06:19 > 0:06:23is like any other in this part of Belgium, and yet, within it,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27there are nine white headstones which tell a remarkable story.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32These are British war graves and, er...
0:06:32 > 0:06:35these four, by chance,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39are an Englishman, an Irishman, a Welshman and a Scotsman.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Different nations, perhaps, but they share one thing in common -
0:06:43 > 0:06:49all of them died on the last day of the war, 11th of November 1918.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56And just here... That's the extraordinary thing
0:06:56 > 0:07:01about a place like this is there are five more British graves,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03and all these died
0:07:03 > 0:07:06at the very beginning of the war, in August 1914.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12So there you have separated by about five or six feet
0:07:12 > 0:07:17a war of four years and nearly a million British lives lost.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Amongst the graves of the four soldiers killed
0:07:26 > 0:07:28on 11th November 1918
0:07:28 > 0:07:32is Harold Walpole, from Geddington in Northamptonshire.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37In the seven months he had been in France, he was wounded three times.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43The third time, in the retaking of Mons, was to prove fatal.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Harold Walpole was just 19 years old.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52But how many other soldiers like Harold Walpole actually died
0:07:52 > 0:07:55on the last day of the First World War?
0:07:59 > 0:08:01The harsh reality is that headstones engraved
0:08:01 > 0:08:06with the date 11th November 1918 are far from rare occurrences.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09They are to be found on graves all around Mons,
0:08:09 > 0:08:10and much further afield as well.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33The graves and memorials of the British and Commonwealth soldiers
0:08:33 > 0:08:35who died in the First World War
0:08:35 > 0:08:39are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42The records of those who died
0:08:42 > 0:08:46are held at the Commission's headquarters in Maidenhead,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50and among them are those who died on 11th of November 1918.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59We are talking about First World War here alone.
0:08:59 > 0:09:031.1 million Commonwealth servicemen and women dying,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06and there is a huge amount of corresponding paperwork
0:09:06 > 0:09:09that's necessary to commemorate them.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Even amongst the chaos and carnage of war,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17the details of deaths were painstakingly recorded.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23By looking just at the 11th of the 11th, 1918,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28we get a figure of 863 Commonwealth servicemen and women
0:09:28 > 0:09:30dying on the very last day of the war.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41It's a sobering thought that 863 British and Commonwealth servicemen
0:09:41 > 0:09:45died on the last day of WWI, but, of course, many of them
0:09:45 > 0:09:49were dying of wounds sustained days, weeks, even months earlier.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59One of those 863 soldiers who died on 11th November 1918
0:09:59 > 0:10:04was Private Lewis Williams, from Charlton Kings in Gloucestershire.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07He was the last of three brothers to die in the war.
0:10:14 > 0:10:181918 had been a costly year for Britain and her allies.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21It had started badly in late March
0:10:21 > 0:10:24when the Germans launched one last offensive with which
0:10:24 > 0:10:27they hoped to finally break the deadlock of the Western Front.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The offensive during the spring of 1918 was really designed
0:10:34 > 0:10:38to end the war before the Americans could arrive in sufficient strength
0:10:38 > 0:10:41to tip the balance in the favour of the Allies.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44They often termed it the "last card" or "last gamble".
0:10:44 > 0:10:47There was a real recognition that their manpower would
0:10:47 > 0:10:50probably run out sometime in 1918,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53and that they had to use this last opportunity
0:10:53 > 0:10:57to try to force the French and the British to capitulate.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01On the first day of the offensive - the 21st of March -
0:11:01 > 0:11:05German forces ripped a hole 60 miles wide,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09advancing 40 miles deep into the British lines.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13It was the biggest territorial gain either side had made
0:11:13 > 0:11:16since the opening weeks of World War I.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19And then, at the point of defeat,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22the Allied commanders rallied their troops.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Douglas Haig, a general who is renowned in history
0:11:25 > 0:11:29as being inarticulate, as not having a great connection with his troops,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32issues his so-called "backs to the wall" order,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35that says that you'll be facing a crisis situation,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38the Germans are about to break through, we're facing defeat.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Everybody has to fight - our backs are to the wall.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44The gamble had almost succeeded.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48But weakened by their own losses, the Germans were first held,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52and then pushed back in July on the River Marne.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58And then the second moment, the 8th of August 1918,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01the British launched an attack at Amiens -
0:12:01 > 0:12:03the so-called "black day of the German army".
0:12:07 > 0:12:12From this point onwards, the Germans went from attack to defence,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14as the Allies forced them back over
0:12:14 > 0:12:17the ground they'd recently gained.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19They would never recover.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21By the summer of 1918, the German army is
0:12:21 > 0:12:23really starting to fall apart.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26They've suffered extremely high casualties
0:12:26 > 0:12:29in their offensives throughout the spring and early summer.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33They are literally starving as well. The Allied blockade is
0:12:33 > 0:12:38really sort of biting into German Army and into the German society.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44The Allied naval blockade was not only biting into the German Army,
0:12:44 > 0:12:49it was affecting the German people too.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53This photograph of a dead horse being butchered in a German street
0:12:53 > 0:12:57shows the length the half-starved civilian population was driven to.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10But what Germany had most feared was already happening -
0:13:10 > 0:13:15the arrival of American soldiers who called themselves the Doughboys.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19The Americans come in a flood tide.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23Almost every other day, a troop ship is landing in France
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and it's disgorging 10,000, 15,000 Doughboys. They're arriving
0:13:27 > 0:13:31at a rate of 300,000 a month and this is just overpowering.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35The sheer numbers of the Americans make clear the hopelessness
0:13:35 > 0:13:38of the situation for the Germans and it tips, er...
0:13:38 > 0:13:41the decision of the war in the Allies' favour.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50The British and French had wanted the fresh American troops
0:13:50 > 0:13:54absorbed into their armies to replace their ever-mounting losses.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59But General John Pershing, the leader of American Forces, refused,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02insisting that American troops would fight
0:14:02 > 0:14:05as an independent army under his command.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09The Allied Armies co-ordinated their counterattacks
0:14:09 > 0:14:13along the front line, with Pershing and his American forces
0:14:13 > 0:14:16converging on an area west of the River Meuse.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22It was here in the Argonne Forest in the east of France
0:14:22 > 0:14:25that the real fighting for the Americans began.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29In the first four hours in action here in autumn 1918,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31the Americans sustained more casualties
0:14:31 > 0:14:34than on the whole of D-Day in World War II.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It seemed that Pershing and his generals had failed to heed
0:14:40 > 0:14:44the lessons learnt by their allies in the preceding years of the war.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48The Americans fought the same early battles all over again,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52above-ground advances, and they took punishing, punishing losses
0:14:52 > 0:14:56in the months in which they were engaged towards the end of the war.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05'In the Argonne Forest, there is still evidence of the bloody battles
0:15:05 > 0:15:09'in the autumn of 1918. Local historian Jean-Paul de Vries
0:15:09 > 0:15:13'has been walking this ground for the past three decades.'
0:15:13 > 0:15:16On this position, just with a few machine guns,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19you can hold everything. Because it's high, you are well entrenched.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23And was this trench taken eventually by the Americans?
0:15:23 > 0:15:27It's been taken, yes. It took them three days and a lot of casualties,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30hundreds of men fell by taking this ridge.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34But they took it after three days. 32nd Division took it.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37This photograph shows the Kriemhilde trench
0:15:37 > 0:15:41not long after the Americans captured it that autumn.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44It had been taken, but with heavy casualties.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57That is a very, very steep hill
0:15:57 > 0:16:00the Americans had to come up to take this position.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03And they were thousands and the Germans were just hundreds.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06And they stopped them for three days.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08This wasn't the only hill taken?
0:16:08 > 0:16:11No, they already had about 20 hills before they came.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13They still have 20 to go.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29And each year you can come back, because each year...
0:16:29 > 0:16:33'This field close by was once part of the American battleground.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36'Since the end of the First World War,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38'it has remained completely undisturbed.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42'Now it's giving up its iron harvest.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49'The earth here groans with unused munitions. Every turn of the plough
0:16:49 > 0:16:52'reveals yet more evidence of bitter fighting.'
0:16:52 > 0:16:56There are detonators. I don't pick them up, cos they are too dangerous.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58- You have one there.- Yes. - And you've got one.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01So if you... Those could explode?
0:17:01 > 0:17:04- They could explode.- So actually, just ploughing this field,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08as they have done now, that must be pretty dangerous?
0:17:08 > 0:17:12- Look there. Bullet clips. All American clips.- Oh, wow.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Cluster of clips. God, look at that.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25'Unfired rounds from American rifles litter the field 90 years on.'
0:17:25 > 0:17:29There you've got a piece of shell. Shrapnel you call it, I think.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32- Yes.- You can still see the screwing lines for the head.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Can I have a look at that? One hears so much about shrapnel.
0:17:35 > 0:17:36Now, that is heavy.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39And this is coming a few hundred kilometres at you.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Yeah. Imagine a shard of that going into you.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52You see here, you've got the American quarter.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56'In 30 years, Jean-Paul has found over 40,000 artefacts
0:17:56 > 0:18:00'from the First World War - all within five miles of his home,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04'and now on display in his museum in the village of Romagne.'
0:18:04 > 0:18:07You've got all this stuff in front.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09And this looks...
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Wow, can I just feel this?
0:18:11 > 0:18:14It's heavy, you can feel the weight of it.
0:18:14 > 0:18:20- German, French?- No, it's American. US17, they called it the P17.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23It's an Enfield rifle, the sister of the English Enfield.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27- It's almost become a part of the countryside, like some wood.- It is!
0:18:27 > 0:18:31- You've got the bolt and everything. - It's been 90 years in the water.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34- People's boots. Look at these. - They come out of the fields.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39And to find a pair of boots in the field, I think it's not a good sign.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42- That's an American army boot, is it? - Yeah. Very bad shape.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46This is a nice one, because I don't like wars.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51This canteen is marking - "GW Flint. No Good For Shit."
0:18:51 > 0:18:53This was, er...
0:18:53 > 0:18:55It was the lid of the mess tin.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57- This is the mess tin.- Oh, yeah.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00You've got normally your fork, knife and spoon in there.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04This one has been hit and you can see the shell, through and through.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07That is the extraordinary thing. Just an ordinary,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10almost domestic object, just for keeping you alive,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12for eating your food, has got that scar of the war.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17If you're missing this, there's something wrong.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22- You're wounded or you're dead or I don't know what it is.- Yes.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27This is what I like very much. It's Colgate shaving sticks.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- Colgate and Company.- New York, USA.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34- It's still used each day.- And they look like something rather nice
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and kitschy you'd get in a store. But these were in someone's kit.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41This one's too complete to be thrown away.
0:19:41 > 0:19:42They would have shaved.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46I mean, they might have been killed a couple of hours later.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02As the autumn of 1918 wore on,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07the Allied armies continued to force the Germans to withdraw.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12So we shouldn't really think of this last period of the First World War
0:20:12 > 0:20:15as being like the trench warfare that we normally think of and
0:20:15 > 0:20:18normally associate with the middle years of the First World War.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21This is what's called semi-open warfare.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25So, although parts of the German Army are still resisting quite hard,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28particularly specialist machine gunners, artillery units,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31a lot of the German Army is in full scale retreat.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34The British are trying to keep contact with it,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37cos they don't want a chance for another defensive line to be formed.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42But that's precisely what happened
0:20:42 > 0:20:46just seven days before the war ended. The Germans formed up
0:20:46 > 0:20:48along a 20 mile stretch of the Sambre-Oise Canal,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52a natural defensive barrier to the Allies' advance.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Nothing much has changed beside this French canal in 100 years.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03It looks almost exactly as it would have done
0:21:03 > 0:21:07on the morning of November the 4th 1918 when, along this stretch,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10began the last set battle of World War I.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14A contemporary aerial photo from the time
0:21:14 > 0:21:18shows the objective for one group of soldiers that day.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23An isolated lock house, called simply "Lock Number 1".
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It's a building which still stands to this day.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32'Military historian Paul Reed has interviewed
0:21:32 > 0:21:35'over 300 British veterans from World War I,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38'some of whom fought here that November morning.'
0:21:38 > 0:21:40So what happened, exactly, here?
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Well, this particular point, Lock Number 1,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47got the lock house here and the lock in front of us.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50The 2nd Royal Sussex, supported by Engineers and Australian Engineers,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55- crossed the flat ground.- Why did they attack here, a German position?
0:21:55 > 0:21:58The tempting thing here was the lock, because it's much narrower.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02And it's a very strong lock, so you could actually support
0:22:02 > 0:22:05a proper bridge later, to get wheeled transport across.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09- Artillery across and so on. - They were virtually defenceless.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11- Absolutely no cover at all.- Yes.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15One of the machine gunners from the Sussex rushes to the far lock gates.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17He opened fire with his Lewis machine gun
0:22:17 > 0:22:19straight up into the building.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23And that burst of fire silenced temporarily German machine gunners,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26enabling them to drop the bridges on this narrow gap here.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30At the point of the bayonet, they rushed the remaining Germans.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32- Hand-to-hand fighting? - Hand-to-hand fighting.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36The German defence buckled under that sort of pressure.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38What were the losses during the battle?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41There was just over 30 men killed here, about 120 wounded.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44And the killed included three Australians who became
0:22:44 > 0:22:48the last Australians to be killed in action on the Western Front.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52The Australian "sappers" Barrett, Johnson and Corporal Davey,
0:22:52 > 0:22:57now lie in a small cemetery less than a mile from where they fell.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07By 8am on the 4th of November, the canal had been crossed,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and along the entire front,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12the Germans pushed back a further two miles.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19But for the British, this last set battle of the war
0:23:19 > 0:23:21had come at a heavy cost.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23More men went over the top here
0:23:23 > 0:23:27than on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916
0:23:27 > 0:23:31when so many were killed. The casualties here were much smaller.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33But even then, nearly 2,000 British soldiers
0:23:33 > 0:23:36gave their lives on the front line that day,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39including a 25-year-old lieutenant from the Manchester Regiment -
0:23:39 > 0:23:42the war poet Wilfred Owen.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50In the years following his death,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Wilfred Owen's poetry would symbolise what many considered
0:23:54 > 0:23:58to be the cruelty and the waste that was the First World War.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15With hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war taken by the Allies,
0:24:15 > 0:24:20the German Army was now on the brink of total collapse.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Back in Germany itself, revolution was afoot.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Soldiers and sailors mutinied and deserted,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35leaving the remnants of the army with the unenviable task
0:24:35 > 0:24:39of fighting the Allies on one front and their own people on the other.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48Faced with disaster, the German government despatched
0:24:48 > 0:24:51civilian representatives to negotiate a ceasefire
0:24:51 > 0:24:55with the Allied commanders in France.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05On Thursday, November the 7th, French soldiers
0:25:05 > 0:25:09on the front line near La Capelle witnessed the extraordinary sight
0:25:09 > 0:25:15of several large German cars bearing white flags emerging from the mist.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Inside the cars was a peace delegation, and leading the party
0:25:21 > 0:25:25was the German politician Matthias Erzberger.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31They're driven through this devastated countryside.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35The German delegation believes they're deliberately taken
0:25:35 > 0:25:38on this roundabout journey to show them the devastation
0:25:38 > 0:25:40France has suffered under German occupation.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46When the cars reached Homblieres,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49the Germans were then transferred to a train.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52And, with the blinds pulled down to ensure secrecy,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56they proceeded to its final destination -
0:25:56 > 0:25:59a gun siding in the forest of Compiegne.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Here, they would come face to face
0:26:04 > 0:26:08with Allied Supreme Commander Marshall Ferdinand Foch.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12When the German delegation first met Foch in his railway car,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Foch was extremely cold to them.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18The first words out of his mouth are, "What do you want from me?"
0:26:18 > 0:26:21The Germans said, "We are here to negotiate an Armistice."
0:26:21 > 0:26:24And Foch said, "There will be no negotiation.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27"If you're here, you're here to receive terms from me."
0:26:27 > 0:26:32The very sensible suggestion by Matthias Erzberger,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34the head of the German delegation, was,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38"We're meeting here on November 8th. We don't know when we'll conclude.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41"Let's stop the fighting in the meantime."
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Marshall Foch said no.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49The French had sustained over six million casualties in the war.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Marshall Foch himself lost his son and son-in-law on the very same day.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56He was in no mood for compromise.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01The Germans returned to their train in the knowledge that Foch
0:27:01 > 0:27:05had given them just 72 hours to agree to his terms.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12But despite the expectations of a ceasefire,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14the fighting would continue.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Pockets of German soldiers
0:27:20 > 0:27:23continued to offer stiff resistance to Canadian troops
0:27:23 > 0:27:27who'd fought their way through Northern France and into Belgium.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32On November the 9th, the Canadians launched an attack on Mons,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36a town the Allies had been driven from at the very start of the war.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40The Canadian Corps was probably one of the most respected formations
0:27:40 > 0:27:45on the Western Front in terms of British or Allied formations.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47It had a reputation by the fall of 1918 of
0:27:47 > 0:27:51always getting the job done and they tended to be thrown
0:27:51 > 0:27:57into the line at the places where really the shock troops were needed.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02Leading the Canadian Corps was General Sir Arthur Currie,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06one of Field Marshall Haig's most successful generals.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13They're met with machine gun fire, artillery fire, with snipers.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16There are Germans resisting in the city.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19There are Canadians who are wounded and killed
0:28:19 > 0:28:21on the 10th and in the early hours of the 11th.
0:28:24 > 0:28:25Early that morning,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Currie was to receive the news that he was waiting for.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30His Canadian Infantry Brigade
0:28:30 > 0:28:34had captured Mons during the night of the 10th and 11th of November.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40As fighting over Mons concluded,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44at Compiegne, the negotiations were reaching their climax.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48The Germans' chief negotiator, Matthias Erzberger,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51was under increasing pressure to sign.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Erzberger has to telegraph the terms back into Germany.
0:28:57 > 0:29:03And he receives a reply from the High Command in Spa, which says
0:29:03 > 0:29:07that they are to accept any terms, because the situation is so grave.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11These messages are sent back in the clear, they're uncoded.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13The Allies read the messages
0:29:13 > 0:29:16as they're coming into the German delegation,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19and they realise the German delegation has no choice
0:29:19 > 0:29:21but to accept any demands that they put forward.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Despite the almost inevitable capitulation of the Germans,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39some of the American generals were determined to continue fighting
0:29:39 > 0:29:41that day with the same ferocity
0:29:41 > 0:29:44that had marked the previous four years of the war.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48One of those generals was Charles Summerall.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50General Summerall sent his men,
0:29:50 > 0:29:56beginning around midnight of the 11th, to cross the Meuse River.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59The Meuse on this day was cold, it was icy,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02and in the middle of the night,
0:30:02 > 0:30:07his troops are cobbling together these rickety pontoon bridges,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09and they are sent across to the other side,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12where the Germans are posted with their machine guns,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14their artillery, their sharpshooters,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17and these men crossing the Meuse on the last day of the war
0:30:17 > 0:30:20are picked off like ducks in a shooting gallery.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28We're in the American sector, overlooking the Meuse River,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31which was crossed on the morning of the 11th of November 1918
0:30:31 > 0:30:33by the United States Marine Corps,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37in conditions very similar to that last morning of the war.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41The Marines scrambled their way down through the trees here,
0:30:41 > 0:30:45coming out into the open ground that led down to the river bank itself,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49and they reached the bridges that the engineers had made for them
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and the conditions themselves in crossing the river were appalling,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55with machine gun, shell fire dropping all around them,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58and one veteran recorded the differing noise
0:30:58 > 0:30:59of the machine gun bullets
0:30:59 > 0:31:02as they first struck the water and the wooden planking,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and then the thud, thud noise as they hit the bodies of his comrades,
0:31:05 > 0:31:07who began to drop around him.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12American troops had suffered over 1,100 casualties
0:31:12 > 0:31:16crossing the Meuse River that morning.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24Meanwhile, back in the Compiegne forest,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28the negotiations had reached their climax.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32The Armistice terms dictated by the Allies were severe.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Foch told Erzberger that Germany must evacuate Belgium and France,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38including Alsace-Lorraine.
0:31:40 > 0:31:42They were to hand over prisoners of war,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45and a huge quantity of their munitions,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49from battleships to U-boats, from artillery to machine guns...
0:31:52 > 0:31:54..while all the time,
0:31:54 > 0:31:57the crippling Allied blockade of Germany would continue.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07After three days of negotiations,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Marshall Foch had conceded virtually nothing.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15The Germans decided the time for talking was over.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19And at ten past five on the morning of November 11th 1918,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21the two sides signed.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29No photographs of the signing exist.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33Just this one image of the British and French military delegation
0:32:33 > 0:32:36standing outside Foch's carriage at Compiegne.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Immediately, signals were sent to troops in the field
0:32:43 > 0:32:45that the Armistice would come into force,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48but not until 11am that morning.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Jubilant newspapers around the world splashed the news
0:32:55 > 0:32:58that the Armistice had at last been signed,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and the war was now effectively over.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04This meant in Paris that work crews were sent out
0:33:04 > 0:33:07to light the lamps that had been out
0:33:07 > 0:33:10since the war's beginning in the City of Light.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13In England, you have Big Ben tolling for the first time in four years.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18And in America, you have people pouring into the streets
0:33:18 > 0:33:21upon this news, banging pots and pans.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23You have firehouse sirens shrieking.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26You have factory whistles blowing.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30There's only one catch, and that is, this war is not over.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32It's going to run another six hours.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37Some generals were prepared to let their men stand easy,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40bide their time for the remaining six hours.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47They were not going to send men to die
0:33:47 > 0:33:50in the last hours of the war to gain territory
0:33:50 > 0:33:54that these men could walk into peacefully after 11 o'clock.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59But it had been no great secret that the American commander
0:33:59 > 0:34:03General John Pershing had been unhappy about the Armistice.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07You might think that the fact that this war is ending
0:34:07 > 0:34:10would mean that the lives of his men would be saved
0:34:10 > 0:34:14would be satisfying to him. He took a longer view.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Pershing wanted to see the Germans driven back to Berlin,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20and to end the war on their knees,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23not on their feet in an unconditional surrender,
0:34:23 > 0:34:27and he said at the time, rather prophetically,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29that they won't believe now that
0:34:29 > 0:34:32they were beaten if we do a ceasefire,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35and we'll just have to do this all over again.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44Some of Pershing's generals were still prepared to send men
0:34:44 > 0:34:49into action, knowing that the Armistice had already been signed.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53You had generals who saw a fast-fading opportunity,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57even these last six hours, for victory, for glory,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01for promotion, and they sent their men out of the trenches
0:35:01 > 0:35:04with an hour to go, a half hour to go.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06And, in some cases, 15 minutes to go.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12One of the more contentious decisions made that morning
0:35:12 > 0:35:14happened here on the River Meuse
0:35:14 > 0:35:20at the French town of Stenay, which was held by German troops.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24General Wright with the 89th American Division had heard
0:35:24 > 0:35:28that there were bathing facilities available in that town,
0:35:28 > 0:35:33and he concluded that, well, my troops are tired, they're exhausted,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36they're dirty, we'll take Stenay,
0:35:36 > 0:35:38and then they can refresh themselves.
0:35:38 > 0:35:45Well, that lunatic decision cost something like 300 casualties.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Many of them battle deaths for an inconceivable reason.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54BELL TOLLS
0:35:55 > 0:35:59Stenay would be the last town taken by the American troops
0:35:59 > 0:36:01in the First World War.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04This photograph shows American soldiers,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06the survivors of that attack,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10in the town centre a few minutes before the 11 o'clock ceasefire.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17But Stenay wasn't an isolated incident.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22Soldiers on all sides would continue to go into action
0:36:22 > 0:36:24right up till the last minute.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34As the hours and minutes ticked away towards the Armistice,
0:36:34 > 0:36:35the ceasefire at 11 o'clock,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39who were the last soldiers to die in World War I?
0:36:43 > 0:36:46The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
0:36:46 > 0:36:48gives a name to the soldier
0:36:48 > 0:36:51believed to be the last British battle casualty
0:36:51 > 0:36:53of the First World War.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Killed on patrol on the outskirts of Mons,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00his name was George Edwin Ellison.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03So we know very, very little
0:37:03 > 0:37:06about the life of Private George Edwin Ellison.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11What we can tell you is that he was in the 5th Royal Irish Lancers.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14That he's buried in St Symphorien Cemetery.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16And we can give you the plot, row and grave number.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23As a person, George Ellison has remained almost totally forgotten
0:37:23 > 0:37:24since the day he died,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27so we have tried to build up a picture of his life.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34We know that George Ellison was born in 1878, and at some stage,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36joined the army as a regular soldier.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40By the time he was married in 1912,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45he had left the army and become a coal miner.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54On the outbreak of war in August 1914, he is recalled to the army,
0:37:54 > 0:37:59and joins the 5th Lancers at the age of 36.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03What we do know about George Ellison's war
0:38:03 > 0:38:09comes largely from this thing called the National Roll of the Great War.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13A compilation of all those involved in the Great War
0:38:13 > 0:38:16made up from interviews with their families afterwards,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19and this is the Leeds volume, because he was from Leeds.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23And here we see him listed, Ellison, G E, Private,
0:38:23 > 0:38:255th Royal Irish Lancers.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It tells us that after serving at the outbreak of war,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31he was a serving soldier when war began,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35he went to France and fought in the retreat from Mons.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40He also played a prominent part in engagements at Ypres, Armentieres,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43La Bassee, Lens, Loos and Cambrai.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47But was, and here they just use this very sort of hard
0:38:47 > 0:38:49but bland understatement,
0:38:49 > 0:38:50"was unhappily killed,
0:38:50 > 0:38:55"only an hour and a half before the Armistice came into force."
0:38:55 > 0:39:00And a quote rounds it off. "The path of duty was the way to glory."
0:39:00 > 0:39:04The thing that strikes me about Ellison's career
0:39:04 > 0:39:06is how it spans the war,
0:39:06 > 0:39:11and how his war began, really, in Mons,
0:39:11 > 0:39:17and ended four years in Mons, the very, very last day of the conflict.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Amongst the Commonwealth War Graves records,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33there is the mention of a son, James Cornelius Ellison.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36James was just five days short of his 5th birthday
0:39:36 > 0:39:38when his father was killed.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44It's just along up here...
0:39:44 > 0:39:47'James Cornelius never visited his father's grave.'
0:39:47 > 0:39:49You don't know much about him.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53- No, no.- 'James' two daughters, Catherine and Marie, have come
0:39:53 > 0:39:58'to Mons for the first time to see where their grandfather is buried.'
0:39:58 > 0:40:02There's his grave, your grandfather's grave.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04Probably the first relatives to visit.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21- That's quite something, isn't it? - It is. Yeah.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27- It's very emotional.- Yeah.
0:40:27 > 0:40:28Very proud.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30An hour and a half before...
0:40:30 > 0:40:32That must have been terrible for my grandma.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36- To hear about it at the very end of the war.- Yeah.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40We hear that peace has broken out, and then later, you get the message.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43- I suppose she was looking forward to him coming home.- Yeah.
0:40:43 > 0:40:49- We have found a picture of him from the paper.- I can't believe that!
0:40:49 > 0:40:52- We haven't got any photographs.- No.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56- Here you are.- Thank you.- Just a reproduction.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Looks like me dad.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05Did your father know much about his father, and how he died?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Did he talk about it much to you?
0:41:07 > 0:41:10- No.- No, no, because I don't think he knew much about it,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12to be quite honest with you.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14My grandma mentioned him to me.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19Usually, Remembrance Sunday, she used to get upset.
0:41:19 > 0:41:20Did she talk about him at all?
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Yes, she just said he was a gentleman,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26and we seem to think he was fair,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29- because she said that I looked like him.- Yeah.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Whether or not it's true...
0:41:32 > 0:41:37It's just marvellous seeing his grave and an actual photograph.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41We've never had a photograph of him.
0:41:47 > 0:41:5140-year-old Private Ellison may have been the last British soldier
0:41:51 > 0:41:55killed in action, but he wasn't the last combat death of the war.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03As the final minutes ticked away until the 11 o'clock deadline,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05still more soldiers were to die.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14The last Frenchman to be killed in the First World War
0:42:14 > 0:42:17officially died at ten minutes to the Armistice.
0:42:17 > 0:42:18That's ten to 11.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21He was a man named Augustin Trebuchon,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24and he was in the 415th Infantry Regiment at a place
0:42:24 > 0:42:27called Vrigne Meuse, which is up on the River Meuse near Sedan,
0:42:27 > 0:42:28and he was a runner.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32That meant he carried messages from place to place,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and he was taking a message to say that the Armistice
0:42:35 > 0:42:38was going to come into force at 11 o'clock,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41and at 11.30, there would be hot soup available
0:42:41 > 0:42:43in the dug-outs by the canal.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45And he was killed carrying the message.
0:42:47 > 0:42:5040-year-old Trebuchon from Lozere in southern France
0:42:50 > 0:42:55was one of 75 French soldiers killed in action on that day.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58In the churchyard where he's buried,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02his death is actually dated 10th November.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06All the men who were killed on the 11th had their deaths backdated
0:43:06 > 0:43:09to the 10th, possibly to avoid any question
0:43:09 > 0:43:12about whether a pension should be paid or not,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15possibly that the government didn't want families to know
0:43:15 > 0:43:17that they were still sending men into battle
0:43:17 > 0:43:19right up to the very end of the war,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22and so a decision was taken to change the date.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25But all these men have a date of 10th November.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34'But as the clock moved ever closer to 11,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37'there were even further battle deaths to record.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41'Canadian soldier George Lawrence Price was to lose his life
0:43:41 > 0:43:43'in the closing minutes of the war
0:43:43 > 0:43:46'beside this modern bridge which is named after him,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49'yet again, on the outskirts of Mons.'
0:43:49 > 0:43:51So the fighting was really going on,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55quite organised fighting, right up till the ceasefire at 11, then?
0:43:55 > 0:43:58It was, and here, on the outskirts of Mons,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02the Canadians were moving up the ground here in an urban environment.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04There's no trenches here.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08But they knew that the Armistice was going to come into effect.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Their officers ordered them to keep on fighting?
0:44:11 > 0:44:14Right up to the last minute. Find out where the German are.
0:44:14 > 0:44:15There was a machine gun here
0:44:15 > 0:44:18that had been firing across onto Price's battalion.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20When they got here, the machine gun had gone.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22The Germans, whoever were manning it, had bolted.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Him and his mates were talking to some of the Belgian civilians.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28They were thanking them for liberating Mons
0:44:28 > 0:44:31after four years of occupation when a single shot rang out.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33Price fell. The Belgian civilians
0:44:33 > 0:44:35who he and his mates had been chatting to
0:44:35 > 0:44:38a few minutes before assisted in carrying him into the building.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41And one young lady ran across the street to assist.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44Maybe she had some medical skill or something.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48As she got there to assist, it was too late.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50The minutes ticked away.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52Price succumbed to his wounds,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54and died two minutes before the Armistice.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58The last Commonwealth casualty of World War I.
0:45:00 > 0:45:0550 years later, George Price's comrades returned to Mons,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09and erected a plaque in his memory close to where he was killed.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18George Price is buried in St Symphorien Cemetery,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21just yards from where the British soldier George Ellison
0:45:21 > 0:45:24is also buried.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27But even at two minutes to 11, George Price's death
0:45:27 > 0:45:31wasn't the last before the Armistice came into effect.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Near the village of Chaumont-devant-Damvillers,
0:45:51 > 0:45:52here in the Argonne,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55American troops launched one final attack.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59We're above Chaumont.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02We're on the hillside above, the Vetin Hill,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06and we're looking down over a wide valley
0:46:06 > 0:46:08towards a line of hills on the other side,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10which is where the American troops were
0:46:10 > 0:46:12on the morning of 11th November.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17One of the battalions had been given the order to attack east.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19The order came in at 9.30 in the morning,
0:46:19 > 0:46:20and they didn't know, at that time,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23when the Armistice was going to take effect.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28Among the troops was Private Henry Gunther, an American,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31ironically of German origin.
0:46:33 > 0:46:34Just with minutes to go,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Gunther and other Doughboys
0:46:37 > 0:46:41are advancing on a German machine gun position.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43The Germans are horrified by this.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46They know that this war has minutes to run,
0:46:46 > 0:46:48and they're waving these Doughboys back.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Gunther keeps advancing.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53He's killed, he's shot through the head, dies instantly.
0:46:53 > 0:47:00He becomes the last formal American death recorded in World War I,
0:47:00 > 0:47:02and he died at 10.59.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09Henry Gunther's divisional history records that, almost as he fell,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14the firing died away, and an appalling silence prevailed.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19The fighting was over, the roar of the guns had ceased, as if by magic.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25At 11 o'clock, a German machine gunner
0:47:25 > 0:47:28opposite the South African Brigade north of Mons,
0:47:28 > 0:47:32having fired off his last round of ammunition, stood up,
0:47:32 > 0:47:38took off his helmet, bowed, and walked off to the rear.
0:47:39 > 0:47:45After 1,568 days, the Great War, as they called it then,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47was finally over.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50CHEERING AND TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
0:48:09 > 0:48:16As the troops celebrated, artillery was muzzled for the last time.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20Soldiers symbolically buried the last German "dud shell."
0:48:26 > 0:48:30But even as American and German troops fraternised,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32there were still tragedies to come.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36Very probably the last German casualty of the war
0:48:36 > 0:48:38was killed after the ceasefire,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42when an officer, Lieutenant Thomas, approached American troops
0:48:42 > 0:48:46who were unaware that the Armistice now had come into force.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Thomas wanted to inform the Americans that his troops
0:48:51 > 0:48:55will be vacating housing that they have been in
0:48:55 > 0:48:57for the last months of the war,
0:48:57 > 0:49:00and this will be available to the American troops now.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Unfortunately, he's walking on a group that didn't get the word.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05This happens invariably in war.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08There is always somebody who doesn't get the word,
0:49:08 > 0:49:09and he was shot afterwards,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11and very likely, and maybe symbolically,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14should be viewed as the last German casualty.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25Back in Britain, Queen Mary reflected on the Armistice,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30describing it as "the greatest day in the world's history."
0:49:32 > 0:49:34While the bells rang out in Shrewsbury,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38the parents of Wilfred Owen received the telegram
0:49:38 > 0:49:41informing them of their son's death seven days earlier.
0:49:52 > 0:49:57But for one group of soldiers, those wounded on the final day of the war,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59there would be weeks, months,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02perhaps a lifetime of suffering to follow.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Those who survived long enough to make it back to Britain
0:50:08 > 0:50:11often ended up here in Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup, Kent,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15where some of the most horrific facial injuries were treated.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26What sort of injuries were you seeing
0:50:26 > 0:50:30coming into Queen Mary's at the very end of the war, the Armistice time?
0:50:30 > 0:50:34I've got a set of notes here of a chap who was admitted here
0:50:34 > 0:50:36just before the Armistice, in fact,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39and his name is Thomas, of the 1st Cheshire's,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and you can see that the whole of the side of the face
0:50:42 > 0:50:44has been literally just taken off.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48- Just ripped out? - Yes.- And yet he was still alive.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50He was still alive, and conscious.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53One wouldn't have thought that was possible.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55Well, as long as it doesn't take off a major artery,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58then he's not going to bleed to death.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01When were these pictures taken, how soon after the injury?
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Ah, this was taken about two weeks after the injury,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07and this is actually dated 6th of November,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09and so we know he would have been here
0:51:09 > 0:51:13at the time of the Armistice itself. And as you go through,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15looking at the reconstructions,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18just watch the dates, we're now into 1921,
0:51:18 > 0:51:23and a whole series of tubes and flaps are being raised,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26and then, when we get to August 1922,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28we've recreated the upper lip,
0:51:28 > 0:51:33and then you bring down a last flap to recreate the nose.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35And at the very end,
0:51:35 > 0:51:40this is what you end up with, our guy is now presentable.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43- Put his face back, really.- Yes.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53What do you feel about the way the wounded,
0:51:53 > 0:51:57- and that side of the war is seen? - It's neglected.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Perhaps one of the things that really bothers me
0:52:00 > 0:52:02about the way that we look at war,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05and perhaps even the First World War in particular is
0:52:05 > 0:52:08we only focus on the glorious dead, and in a sense,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12we're not allowed to see the people who have been disfigured
0:52:12 > 0:52:15in the way that Private Thomas was disfigured,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18and if we don't look at that sort of thing,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21how can we possibly understand what war was really all about?
0:52:34 > 0:52:36No-one will ever know for certain
0:52:36 > 0:52:40how many soldiers died on that final morning of the First World War,
0:52:40 > 0:52:42but one nation in particular
0:52:42 > 0:52:45suffered more battle deaths than the others.
0:52:48 > 0:52:5125 miles north of Verdun in France
0:52:51 > 0:52:55is the American Meuse-Argonne military cemetery.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58With over 14,000 graves of US soldiers killed
0:52:58 > 0:53:01in the closing weeks of World War I,
0:53:01 > 0:53:05this is the biggest American war cemetery in Europe.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Despite its vast size,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14this only represents one third of those
0:53:14 > 0:53:16who were originally buried here.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21Two thirds of American servicemens' families chose to bring the bodies
0:53:21 > 0:53:22of their loved ones home,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25including the family of Henry Gunther,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29the last US soldier to die in the First World War.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33Ah, now this is the grave of Curtis Southern.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36The same regiment as Henry Gunther.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Also died on the last day of the war.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41It's one of over 100 crosses in this cemetery
0:53:41 > 0:53:45which bear the date November 11th, 1918.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49But when you consider how many of the Americans originally buried here
0:53:49 > 0:53:51were repatriated home,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53the number of crosses bearing this date
0:53:53 > 0:53:55should have been considerably greater.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Official US figures reveal that America suffered nearly
0:54:04 > 0:54:103,000 casualties on the final day of the war.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13They were casualty figures which the American public back home
0:54:13 > 0:54:17found unacceptable, and resulted in a Congressional hearing
0:54:17 > 0:54:20on the actions of the American commanders that day.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28The initial report found that there had been a dereliction of duty
0:54:28 > 0:54:32by officers who sent men to die for yardage
0:54:32 > 0:54:36that they could have walked into peacefully the following day.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39In the end, the report was suppressed,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43essentially because it was felt that the Americans had been victorious,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45they'd been led by these generals,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49and it would be a stain on their name and on their honour
0:54:49 > 0:54:50to publish these results.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57General John Pershing, the bullish leader of the American forces,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01was unrepentant about the huge number of casualties that morning,
0:55:01 > 0:55:02giving a robust defence
0:55:02 > 0:55:05to the Congressional investigating committee.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11General Pershing was not at all apologetic.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16He felt that the war had to be continued until the very last minute
0:55:16 > 0:55:18because, in his judgement,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Germany had to be proven to have been defeated,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and if it had been up to him,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28they would not have stopped fighting in a ceasefire at all,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31he would have pushed on all the way to Berlin,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33and demanded an unconditional surrender.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41It would be seven months later in June 1919
0:55:41 > 0:55:43at the Treaty of Versailles
0:55:43 > 0:55:47when the First World War would officially come to a close.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53But for one German soldier,
0:55:53 > 0:55:58the signing of the Armistice at the railway carriage at Compiegne
0:55:58 > 0:56:00was an act of national betrayal.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05Adolf Hitler had been a corporal in the German Army in World War I,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09and when he learns of the Armistice, he bursts out into tears,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13he's shattered that his country has lost the war,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17and he claims in Mein Kampf that at this point he said,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21"I will devote my life to erasing that shame."
0:56:24 > 0:56:26In June, 1940,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30following the fall of France at the start of the Second World War,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34Hitler symbolically returned to that same railway carriage,
0:56:34 > 0:56:35in the same location,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39where, in a ceremony full of Nazi pomp and theatre,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43he accepted the French surrender.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45NEWSREEL NARRATION IN GERMAN
0:56:48 > 0:56:54The forest of Compiegne played a pivotal role in two world wars.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56The Armistice of 11th November 1918
0:56:56 > 0:57:00may have brought an end to the first round of slaughter,
0:57:00 > 0:57:02but even so, some estimates
0:57:02 > 0:57:07put the figure of those soldiers killed, wounded, or missing
0:57:07 > 0:57:12on the last day of World War I in excess of 10,000 people.
0:57:14 > 0:57:19The shocking numbers of those killed in the final hours of World War I
0:57:19 > 0:57:23doesn't even include those who would have died of their wounds
0:57:23 > 0:57:25days, weeks, months later.
0:57:25 > 0:57:30In the end, does a death on the last day of the war...?
0:57:30 > 0:57:33Is it any worse than a death on any other day of the war,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37like that of my great uncle Harry Palin,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41who was killed in action on the Somme, September, 1916?
0:57:42 > 0:57:45When all's said and done,
0:57:45 > 0:57:49November 11th 1918 was like any other day of that brutal war -
0:57:49 > 0:57:53a day of slaughter, bloodshed.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55A terrible waste of life.