Bill's Aviation Log

The Armistice site was demolished by the Germans on Hitler's orders three days later. The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, along with pieces of a large stone tablet. The Alsace-Lorraine Monument (depicting a German Eagle impaled by a sword) was also destroyed and all evidence of the site was obliterated, except notably the statue of Ferdinand Foch: Hitler ordered it to be left intact, so that it would be honoring only a wasteland. The railway carriage was later exhibited in Berlin, and then taken to Crawinkel in Thuringia in 1945, where it was destroyed by SS troops and the remains buried. After the war, the site and memorials were restored by German POW labour.

France June 2016 - Armistace Clearing, Compeigne
We left Chantilly and headed for Compiegne, about an hours drive. In Compiegne, we wanted to see Napoleon's Chateaux de Compeigne and the Armistice Clearing. Unfortunately, because we were spending the night in Reims, we simply didn't have time to stop at Napoleon's Chateaux. We did a drive by which is pretty lame. Will have to come back. But we did get to go the Armistice Clearing which I really enjoyed. Here I am at the Armistice Clearing, where on November 11, 1918, the armistice ending World War I was signed in a railway carriage at this spot. But it didn't end there. In World War II, after Hitler's armies conquered France, a second armistice was signed on June 22, 1940. Hitler had the same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice had been signed removed from a museum and placed exactly where it was in 1918. Then it was used again for the signing.

The Armistice site was demolished by the Germans on Hitler's orders three days later. The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, along with pieces of a large stone tablet. The Alsace-Lorraine Monument (depicting a German Eagle impaled by a sword) was also destroyed and all evidence of the site was obliterated, except notably the statue of Ferdinand Foch: Hitler ordered it to be left intact, so that it would be honoring only a wasteland. The railway carriage was later exhibited in Berlin, and then taken to Crawinkel in Thuringia in 1945, where it was destroyed by SS troops and the remains buried. After the war, the site and memorials were restored by German POW labour. The Armistice Clearing really is in a clearing, in the big Compiegne forest where the French Kings liked to hunt.

The statue of Ferdinand Foch, the Supreme Allied Commander during the World War One.

The Alsace-Lorraine Monument depicting a German Eagle impaled by a sword. It's clear why Hitler didn't like it and had it destroyed.

In the small museum at the Armistice Clearing is this exact replica of the railway carriage where the signings took place. The railway carraige is also known as the Compagnie Wagon. In 1950, French manufacturer Wagons-Lits, the company that ran the Orient Express, donated a car from the same series to the museum — 2439D is identical to its ravaged twin, from its polished wooden finishes to its studded, leather-bound chairs. This car had also been part of Foch's private train during the 1918 signing. At the 1950 ceremony, it was renumbered No. 2419D. It is parked beside the display of the original car's remains: a few fragments of bronze decoration and two access ramps

I liked this model of the railway carriage, which allows you to look in from above.

A photo of the scene on November 11, 1918.



General Pershing, the Commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, sat at this spot at the 1918 signing.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you get the idea of where the VIPs sat during the WWI armistice.

An early French tank. I found the Armistice Clearing site very interesting and was glad we got see it.


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France June 2016 - Armistace Clearing, Compeigne