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Show ""'HERE HISTORY WAS MADE JlEk November 11,1918 & YV ' . iti , '- fa - v ' , , ' ;.' . yZL-""-r-. A , ""'(. " , ' !. '. "' V 'C:y-- - - .",1, ,'j,Ai(', . o."' A . ) fr ..- -wtfi-'! s I jL " "X " ' ' , ',. " Where the Armistice Cay Stood - FocK JT- ? 1?v- n 1 -iU n 'x5, - 'hi XIif rf J- P- - MM f , U f 4 The Armistice Cay y 1 x 4 A i fcl flS,Xl v'Crsi ' angels or of Mme. la Eepublique, it Is difficult J s sx' t iv. xl NSf " ' t0 sfty wnicn. for the light it not too good. One x As 1 2 '""O plaque bears an inscription which begins, 'In j A ' Cc 7 v I IfwA"- ' 4 JJs this car there was signed at Francport near ' VNy x N m 7 ft Compiegne on November 11, 1918, at five o'clock j fi s - I ""VT T,4t-'" ? tie Al'nlistice imposed on the Germans by the S- s ysr t victories of the Allied Armies,' and continues ss x i ' "!. Jt "v 1l with the names nllie5 an3 German sig- " "y i U y X ( k 37 uatories. At the opposite end of the saloon the Admiral Sir RoSsliJlT. WemiJSS ' C V 8ther Plaie bears the names of the battles s" 'S vvf " which the old dining car attended: "The Marne f "v K '" 1924, the Yser 1015, Verdun 1916. the Sorame By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ; V 1016. the Battle of France 191S." f-1 1 1-- itio i ti, a- N V 'J' " 1 " I "Paris, however, is fifty miles from Compiegne. HP iii Tzi z: xi:i2P when tthr oid r r vau plt,ce with the ?r I hnn in mi hi!fnr. v will firt immortals m the Invalides, there was nothing Admiral Sir Rossli-jri Wemijss a By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1 HIS is the story of a dining car, the most famous dining car perhaps per-haps in all history. You will find it enshrined in a memorial building at the little town of Rethondes in Compiegne Forest in France. It 2? does not have a name. It is only ivKJi Dining Car No. 2410D of the ""litMjjM Wagons-Li ts company. But here fev&Wjj history was made, for in this car ViXM 0D November 11, 101S, the terms of 'hfjl the Armistice, which ended the ?j3Sl greatest war In all history, were Dining Car No. 2419D Joined the French army In 1914 to be converted .into a railway rail-way saloon of a senior French officer. It served throughout the war and in 1918 it was used by General Ferdinand Foch when he became Marshal Mar-shal Foch, commander in chief of the Allied armies. So it was into this car early in the morning of November 8, 1918, that the repre-eentatives repre-eentatives of the German government came to -listen to the terms of an Armistice, for which they had asked, which Foch would be willing to gTant them. Fieture now the scene which took place on that morning. In the center of the car is a table. On one side stand French and British officers, the victors. On the other side stand German officers and civilians, the vanquished. General Weygand, Foch's chief of staff, was at his right and at his left were two English admirals, ad-mirals, Hope and Wemyss. As they took thehr seats Mnthias Erzberger, the head of the German Ger-man delegation, was facing Admiral Hope. General Gen-eral Von Winterfeldt, the second German plenipotentiary, pleni-potentiary, was facing Foch. A German marine. Captain Vanselow, was seated beside Von Winterfeldt Win-terfeldt and the German diplomat. Count Oben-dorf, Oben-dorf, sat beside Erzberger. Lieutenant Leperche seared himself at the end of the table and two of Foch's staff officers. Major Riedinger and Captain de Mierry were seated at two small ftibies at one side. Here Is the story of what took place as told by Foch himself: "When they entered my drawing room in the car, I saw them standing, pale and stiff. One of them, whom I guessed to be Mathias Erz-berger, Erz-berger, asked in a rather weak voice, permission permis-sion to make the presentations. "I simply said. 'Gentlemen, have you any documents? docu-ments? We shall examine their validity.' Then they showed me documents signed by Prince Mai of Baden, which I deemed to be satisfactory. satisfac-tory. Then turning toward Erzherger. I said to him, 'What do you want?" He replied in a still troubled voice, 'We have come to receive the proposal of the Allied Powers in view of an armistice.' I cut in rather sharply (and this was the only time I was sharp), 'I have no pro-posnl pro-posnl whatsoever to make.' The four Germans consulted one another with their eyes. 'Well,' said one of them, Count Ollendorff, 'Tell us. Monsieur le Marechal. how you wish us to express ex-press ourselves. Our delegation is prepared to ask yon the conditions of an armistice.' I Insisted, 'Do you ask formally for an armistice? 'Yes, we do.' 'Then, please sit down and I will read the conditions of the Allies to you.' "I began to read the conditions of the armistice ar-mistice slowly. After each paragraph I stopped to permit the interpreter to translate. Then I looked at my Interlocutors and followed the impression im-pression of their faces during the translation. TVIathias Erzberqer Gradually I saw those faces change. Winterfeldt Winter-feldt especially was very pale. I even think that he wept When I had finished reading I simply declared, 'Gentlemen, I leave this text with you, you have seventy-two hours to reply to it. Meanwhile, you may present observations of details to me." "Then Erzberger became pathetic. 'For God's sake. Monsieur le Marechal,' he said, 'do not wait for those seventy-two hours. Stop the hostilities hos-tilities this very day. Our armies are a prey to anarchy. Bolshevism threatens them, and that Bolshevism may gain ground over the whole of Germany and threaten France herself.' I replied: 'I do not know In what state your armies are; I only know in what situation mine are. Not only can I not stop the offensive, but I am giving orders to continue it, with redoubled re-doubled energy.' "Winterfeldt Intervened in his turn: 'Monsieur 'Mon-sieur le Marechal, it will be necessary for our staffs to consult each other and to discuss together the whole of the details of execution. How will they be able to do so if the hostilities hos-tilities be continued? I beg of you, for technical reasons, to stop the hostilities.' Again I retorted: re-torted: 'The technical discussions can just as well take place in seventy-two hours. Until then the offensive will continue.' This time tt was finished. The four plenipotentiaries rose and withdrew." During the next two days, November 9 and 10, Foch slept but little. He was certain that the Germans would accept his terms hut in the meantime wireless messages received by the Eiffel Tower told of the outbreak of a revolution revolu-tion in Berlin so he did not know what government govern-ment these men represented nor how much power they now had. On the evening of November 10 the German plenipotentiaries came back to request re-quest that, on account of the troubled state of affairs In Germany, the army be permitted to retain a greater number of machine guns for the purpose of maintaining order. Foch granted them this and a little after five o'clock on the morning of November 11 they signed the Armistice. Ar-mistice. Of the subsequent history of this famous dining din-ing car a recent visitor to Compeigne writes in the New York Times as follows: "What happened to Dining Car 2419D after that eventful night does not seem clear. It appears eventually to have been demobilized but not to have returned to civilian life. A small plate beneath the arms on one side of it announces that it was 'given by the Wagons-Lits company, May 1, 1921,' and it was presumably about that time that it turned up in the Court of Honor at Invalides in Paris where, with all its war medals upon it, it took its place with the other inanimate heroes of such a war as the first Napoleon never dreamed of. Its medals are a little difficult to see from the outside, for they are high up at both ends of the main saloon inside, in that strip which in the common herd of dining cars is occupied by advertisements of Scotch whiskies, Riviera hotels and Atlantic steamship lines. They take the form of two small red plaques adorned with cream-colored flags, laurel wreaths and figures of Wagons-Lits angels or of Mme. la Republique, it Is difficult to say which, for the light it not too good. One plaque bears an inscription which begins, 'In this car there was signed at Francport near Compiegne on November 11, 1918, at five o'clock the Armistice imposed on the Germans by the victories of the Allied Armies,' and continues with the names of the nllied and German signatories. sig-natories. At the opposite end of the saloon the other plaque bears the names of the battles which the old dining car attended: "The Marne 1924, the Yser 1915, Verdun 1916, the Somme 1916, the Battle of France 191S." "Paris, however, is fifty miles from Compiegne. When the old car took its place with the other immortals in the Invalides, there was nothing at the site in the forest except two boards nailed to trees marking the positions of the two trains, ie Matin or fans was tne nrst to move for a permanent monument, choosing a spet beside the Compiegne-Francport road 200 yards away, presumably on the assumption that nobody would ever leave the road and enter the forest to reach the actual site. Its monument monu-ment is a striking piece of work, a golden sword with Its point resting on a fallen German eagle, but although it bears the Armistice date there Is a stronger flavor of Alsace-Lorraine in Its inscription than of the Armistice. "The next step was taken by Fournier Sar-loveze, Sar-loveze, deputy from the department of the Oise and mayor of Compiegne. This was directed to the raising of a monument at the actual site which, although it is five miles from the town, is just within the municipal boundary. The monument which resulted was dedicated on Armistice day, 1922, in the presence of President Presi-dent Millerand and an impressive assembly of marshals, admirals, ambassadors, troops and townsfolk. It consists of a broad boulevard 200 yards long which has been carried into the forest from the main road, and at the end of which is a clearing 100 yards in diameter with a circular road surrounding the gardened circle of the actual site. The railway tracks from Rethondes station have been torn up elsewhere In this end of the forest but in the clearing they remain. Between the rails of each track slabs of granite mark the positions which the two trains occupied. "Of late years the old dining car had been showing the effect of the weather to which its outdoor position at the Invalides has exposed it. Its return to the site in the forest had been contemplated for some time, but the prohlem of the cost was not solved until A. H. Fleming of Pasadena, after consulting M. Sarloveze at Compiegne, offered lHO.OOO francs (say S6.000) for the construction of a suitable building at the site. Accordingly in April, 192S, the old car was moved on temporary rails to the outer court of the Invalides, where it was taken off its trucks and placed on two-wheeled floats to be towed to the Wagon-Lits repair shops for a coat of paint and a general sprucing up before starting on its last voyage. As soon as the builders were ready for it at the site, it was hauled hack to Rethondes station and a line of tracks into the forest was especially laid for it. It was pushed carefully into its new home at the edge of the clearing and is now permanently built in. And there, with an ex-poilu who limps wlien he walks in charge of it, yon will find It today, roped off, smelling of fresh paint, and at the first glance looking like well, looking about like a dining ear. "It is disconcerting to discover that the table on which the Armistice was signed was so unpretentious un-pretentious a table and that the chairs in which the signatories sat, Vori Winterfeldt opposite Foch, Erzberger opposite Wemyss, were ordinary ordi-nary Wagons-Lits dining car chairs. It is difficult diffi-cult to fit the play to Rs banal theater, to connect con-nect this culminating episode of the greatest of all wars, one of the supreme moments in history, his-tory, with the old dining car in which it transpired. trans-pired. Such, however, is the immortality of Dining Car No. 2419D." ( by Western Newspaper Union.) |
