Train carriage a symbol of war and peace

WHEN

the French, British and German entourages met in 1918 to sign the Armistice that would end the Great War, they met in a railway carriage in the forests of Compiegne, northern France.

In this carriage of the Compagnie Wagon-Lit, belonging to France’s Marshall Foch’s private train, the terms of the Armistice were set out and it was agreed the cessation of fighting would occur at 11am on November 11.

The carriage itself went back into regular service for a while and then in 1921 it was moved to be part of an exhibition in the Invalides in Paris where it remained for six years.

Then on Armistice Day 1927 in it was moved back to the exact spot where the Armistice was signed for it to become part of a memorial museum there.

The old saying goes that revenge is a dish best served cold and Adolf Hitler, nearly 22 years later, exacted that revenge.

As an act of retaliation, Hitler chose the same location and the same railway carriage to demand the surrender of France on June 22, 1940.

William Shirer, historian of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, wrote that Hitler appeared that day with the springy step of a triumphant conqueror, because he believed he was reversing Germany’s fate.

Hitler arrived at that spot that day in a Mercedes accompanied by Goering, Hess and Van Ribbentrop.

The terms of the surrender were read and then in an act of contempt, Hitler left the carriage early to leave the signing to his underlings.

In order to highlight the surrender of France as a momentous event in German history, the railway carriage was moved to Berlin as a symbol of triumph.

As World War II entered its final year of 1945, the railway carriage was moved for safekeeping to the town of Ohrdurf.

However, as it became obvious that nowhere in Germany was safe from the Allied invasion, the order was given from on high to destroy the carriage.

As an act of retaliation, Hitler chose the same location and the same railway carriage to demand the surrender of France on June 22, 1940

The SS did so and thereby there was no chance of a humiliating repetition of events that occurred back in 1918.

Shirer recorded that the surrender therefore took place in a red schoolhouse in Reims where General Eisenhower had his headquarters.

In 1950, the original site in Compiegne was restored and a replica of the 1918 Compagnie des Wagon-Lits carriage was placed there.

It remains there today and no doubt this year on November 11, the Museum of the Wagon L’Armistice, will attract more than the usual numbers of visitors as a symbol of both war and peace.