Compiegne: Two Armistices in Pictures

                                          

 A couple of years ago we visited the site of the signing of the 1918 armistice that ended the fighting of WWI.  The final negotiations were carried out from two trains parked on adjacent tracks.  

Here is a photograph taken at the time of the November 11, 1918 signing.

Here is a model of the parked trains from the museum at the Armistice site.

The actual signing of the Armistice was done on a railway car belonging to Marshal Foch, the leader of the French forces. 

After Hitler invaded and defeated France in June, 1940, to add to the humialition of the French he insisted that the they sign their surrender in the same railroad car, situated in the same place, near Compiegne, France.

Here is the actual railroad car used for the WWI Armistice just before the French were compelled to meet with Hitler to sign their WWII surrender in June, 1940.

Afterwards, Hitler had the car taken to Berlin to be put on exhibit in triumph. It was later destroyed.An identical railroad car was eventually brought to Compiegne as a memorial to the WWI Armistice signed there.

Here is a picture I took looking into the identical car. at the Compiegne museum:

Here is a diagram of where the French, German, and English commanders sat during the WWI Armistice signing.

Our guide told us that after the French surrender, Hitler commanded that everything at the site commemorating the 1918 Armistice be obliterated, except for the statue of Marshal Foch. (See below.)

He wanted Foch to remain overlooking the devastation