In response to my earlier blog, Ron Shirtz wrote:
You know what bothers me about Armistice Day? The fact that the Allies and the Germans signed it at 5AM on November 11th, but both waited until 11:00AM for it to take effect.
So how many soldiers died in those 6 hours, until a perfect poetic alliteration of 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month was achieved for the sake of history? Both sides fired artillery at one another up to the last minute.
“My watch said nine o’clock. With only two hours to go, I drove over to the bank of the Meuse River to see the finish. The shelling was heavy and, as I walked down the road, it grew steadily worse. It seemed to me that every battery in the world was trying to burn up its guns. At last eleven o’clock came — but the firing continued. The men on both sides had decided to give each other all they had — their farewell to arms. It was a very natural impulse after their years of war, but unfortunately many fell after eleven o’clock that day.”
Colonel Thomas Gowenlock served as an intelligence officer in the American 1st Division. He was on the front line that November morning and wrote of his experience a few years later.
Just another example of the callousness of the state.
