Armistice: November 11th, 1918
The manner in which the Great War was fought after 1916, writes John Terraine, has decided the nature of the century we live in.
When the guns ceased firing at 11am on November 11th, 1918, and the war ended at last, the land forces of the British Empire numbered over four and three-quarter million combatant troops. Of this total, more than three and a half million were from the United Kingdom. These figures embody the most significant fact about the First World War from the British point of view. The rejoicing and happiness of Armistice Day, as of VE Day and VJ Day twenty-seven years later, were spontaneous and natural. But both in 1918 and in 1945 they were compounded mainly of relief at the ending of a dreadful ordeal, and pride at the fortitude with which it had been borne. For Britain, on each occasion, the victory lay in what had been averted, not in what had been achieved. Each struggle contributed a stage in the contraction of British power, in the diminution of Britain’s status in the world. The origin of that transformation lies in the manner in which she fought the First World War.
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