The November 11, 1918 It was the last day of the First World War, and has since been popularly known as Armistice Day. Despite the fact that November 11, 1918 was the last day of the war, the reality is that in many parts of the world, especially on the Western Front, the fighting continued normally. This meant, therefore, that even days later casualties continued to be counted, even though the citizens of Paris, London or New York were already beginning to celebrate the end of the fighting.
After three days of intense negotiations on a railway outside Compiegne, the German delegation was ordered by its government in Berlin to sign the terms put on the table by the Allies. A decision that was especially motivated by the social unrest that, in recent weeks, was taking place in the streets of Berlin, as a consequence of the chronic food shortages caused by part of the British naval blockade.
Therefore, finally, the German delegation led by Matthias Erzberger signed the terms of the Armistice. It was 5:10 a.m. on November 11, 1918. However, the actual ceasefire would not start until 11.00, as it was the time needed to allow information of the end of the War to reach most of the Western Front. However, the technology that already existed at that time allowed the first news to reach the capitals of many countries at 5:40 a.m., beginning the celebrations. In fact, celebrations by many citizens began before many soldiers even knew about it.
And, in particular, it is known that the Americans suffered heavy casualties on the last day of the war. Why? Many historians point to General John Pershing as one of the main culprits, who continued to argue that the Germans had to be severely defeated militarily in order to effectively “learn a lesson.”
Thus, Pershing himself saw the terms of the Armistice as quite “soft” for the Germans, and supported those commanders who wanted to be proactive in attacking the different German positions, despite the fact that the end of the War had already been signed. .
In particular, the Americans suffered a good number of casualties trying to cross the Meuse River, accounting for more than 1,100 casualties. In fact, if they had waited until 1100 hours, they could have crossed it with hardly any obstacles or casualties.
On the other hand, the US 89th Division was ordered to attack and take the town of Stenay during the morning of November 11. The result: Although it became the last city captured on the Western Front, it was at a cost of 300 casualties.
Information on German casualties, however, tends to be somewhat more difficult to determine. Although it is known that the last German victim of the First World War was a non-commissioned officer named Tomas, who approached some Americans in order to convey to them that the war was over, and that they could keep the house that he and his men were vacating. However, no one had warned the Americans about it yet, due to a communications failure, and Tomas was shot and killed.
Finally, officially over 11,000 men were killed, wounded or missing on November 11, 1918. In fact, the Americans alone suffered more than 3,000 casualties. And when these human losses became public, such was the anger of the citizens that the Congress of the United States of America was forced to hold a hearing on the matter. So in November 1919, Pershing himself faced a House Military Affairs Committee, which examined whether senior army commanders had acted accordingly in the last days of the war.
However, as is the case in most cases, no one was charged with negligence. It’s more, Pershing did not apologizeconvinced that the Germans had lightly left the war in the terms in which the Armistice had been drafted.