THE ARMISTICE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 48, 20 November 1920, Page 5

THE ARMISTICE

HOW IT CAME IN FRANCE THE LAST NIGHT OF WAR (By F. M. Cutlack,' in' the Sydney "Herald.") Over many miles of country newlydelivered from the German occupation of four years the French refugees were streaming back. Tjje ureas of them neemed endless, pushing great barrows over tho ■ broken cobbles, shouldering bulky burdens of alt (heir domestic possessions. their homes' probably destrovec and oriTy chance shelter before them, yet their faces .the happiest which man could wish to see.' As they stumbled on westward they stputed to every human being that came into sight—'"Guerro nm. Ui'crre fini! Vive la FraneeThat moving crv began first the day aftor the hot battle of Landrecien.' in winch the Germans were completely overthrown in front of the llormal Forest m their last stand before the British Fourth Army. That was November i. 191 S. Thereafter it mav be said there was no fighting.. Tho enemy's one des:re was to disappear before tho victors as speedily as- possible; he blew up all cross-roads, railway bridges, and canal bridges, tore up great lengths of railway line, exploded ammunition trains in railway stationsall with the one purpose of delaying the pursuit. , The work was effective enough. Roads became impassable. Tho army had to move forward without guns, without the railway, aiul with precious little transport of any .sort. The cavalry went forward to foliow the enemy as closely as possible, aided by the aeroplanes. The rest of the army went warily for fear of new road-mines and got forward slowly behind the cavalry as best it could. Among tho infantry division? moving up- behind the cavalry were tho Ist and 4th Australian Divisions. Through October the Australian corps had been resting around Abbeville, by the sea; at tho end of that .month, before the rapid disintegration of the German Army was fully a"ppo r ent, the corps had orders to move up to tho front line egain, and it was meant that it should return to of tho Fourth Army front after the Battle of Landrecies. 'In ilio event tho Australian? were jiot required to fight. So, as the armistice drew near, it happened that the two Australian divisions mentioned, vanguard of the corps, were marching up by stages through the vill.'Ces, fairly whole, but with ruined roads and bridges, just south of Le 'Cateau.

Fourth Army Headquarters was housed in a train, as far forward a 9 the damaged railway line would permit, and located on November 7 just sout-west of ', Le Cateau. Cfce Australian still possesses as a souvenir the telephone message aswritten down in that train on reccntion over the wires f rom G.H.Q. It came that afternoon (November 7), and read:— "lha following German 'plenipotentiaries are arriving to-night at the H.Q. of tho Ist French Army (just south of the British Fourth Army), (Names are then given.) They are leaving for Paris by nuecial train to-morrow morninar." Isext day I'ourtli Army Headquarters was regaling itself, and, all visitors, with a story of how the Germans arrived. The delegates chose their own route into tho Allied lines, and preferred to enter by the Laon Road through tlic French front ru-tlier than,our own. They came in several cars, the foremost hying from its roof an enormous tv-hite .sheet. The Germans asked for a few hours' truce on a front ot 20 kilometres while the delegates crossed. The French agreed to a truce, but over only four kilometres, an indication of distrust winch grieved the German wireless greatly. Moreover, as' soon a* tlje French soldiers saw ths wonderful they could not re*rom a great burst of chirring', under the stimulating effect of which they promptly continued the advance along their .whole line, tmco or no truce. When tile German delegates met Foch at Compiegne, announcing that they had brought terms, Foch told them that the only terms admissible were waiting on the table for them to sign, and thiti they could take those conditions or leave them. When they demurred he gave them 72 hours to send one of their number back to Spa to get authority to accept. The proposed signing of the armistice on November 8 was thus postponed till November 11. When one of the German delegates attempted. to cross the lines again by car the French lot him 'through, but the German soldiers trained a ma-chine-gun on to the car, and- told their man that his job was to sign the armistice, and he would not be allowed to return until he had. The delegate had therefore to turn back, and eventually was taken to Spa by aeroplane: Thc'iiexl two days were filled with tho moans of the German wireless protesting against tho harshness of the terms and the hard- ' heartedness of an enemy which would admit no negotiations, but at 5 a.m. ou November 11 they signed the terms presented. The last night of the war fell on tho British Army, at tiny late, that part ot it aljout I/e Cateau, with a great calm. Our troops before Le Cateau had almost lost touch with the enemy owing to-tho impossibility of ÜBing raosS of the road*. No aeroplanes disturbed the evening air. Firea lit up the. eastern sky, but far away. Busigny, Catillon, other villages on the line of march south of Landrccies, were littered with brigades of the Ist. and 4th Australian Divisions. .Everybody was dead tired with excitement and hard work—hungry, too, for the ration dumps of the A.S.C. were few and far between. In billet' No. 2-1, in the village of St. Souplet, the Long J Un by the lißnt of a bit of candle disentangled a lump of bacon from a bundle of maps whilo his companion bent a piece of old tin over his knee to some rude semblance of a fry-pan. The little house smelt badly of Hun soldiery, that smell was a smell distinct. The new arrivals found a few sticks of wood, frizzled and ate their bacon, and rolled up in blankets on the floor of the -house against the wall nearest the main rond.

All the traffic in the world seemed to be passing through St. Souplet that night. The street was nnrrow and muddy.. The rattle of wheels and the jingle of harness were unceasing. Some refugee's barrow, trundling about ill the dark, upset under the n0663 of a Run team's leaders. "Walk, march " camo from somewhere. .Some stamping more harness-rattling, and an expostulation: "Can't, sergeant, roads full of blmkm French barrows." Finally, after much jabbering, the block of transport moved on, always succeeded by another, I hen came a new. flavour of language. "Here are some Dixgfjis, said the Long 'Uii, and got up to flash a torch on them to see them. "No, this isiit billot 17, this is 24. Don't know; might be a few houses along or hall a nule. Those houses have been numbered several times. Sony, I can't: don t know "where the ration Sump is, and haven t got a skerrick of ajiything ourselves. . , Then, back inside the room again— "Jones's battery. Haven't had an.y rations all day Winning a battle like this is nearly as awkward as being traffic clearly swirling into the stream; florae raised voicos,clearly those of Tommies. Steps outside the house .door and a flash of light. Then somebody read out: "A.I.F. war correspondents. Do themselves all Tight. French refugees again and more greetings of "Guerro fini!" Ah. p amo," responded a Tommy from the other mass, "aver, vous les ooufr "Ah, oui, ave/.-vous les Armistice, when it came to the British Army, seemed something of an anticlimax.

The Wairarapa Amateur Athletic Club has arranged to hold a twclve-nub cycle —~v. iv* ShnnkUr in Dwwlwr.