Northumbrian Gunner: Paris 2025 - Glade of the Armistice

Friday, 28 March 2025

Paris 2025 - Glade of the Armistice

The city of Compiègne lies 60 km north of Paris. To the east of the city near the village of Rhetondes is the Clairière de l'Armistice, (Glade of the Armistice), the scene of two significant events in European history; the signing of the Armistice in 1918 that brought an end to the First World War and the surrender of France in 1940 during the Second World War.

Clairière de l'Armistice Compiègne

Clairière de l'Armistice Compiègne IJ

At 05:00 on November 11 1918 the Armistice that would come into force at 11:00 that day was finalised in a railway carriage in a forest clearing near the village of Rhetondes.

The location was chosen as it was near the front line and it was in a secluded woodland that could be accessed by two trains; one carrying the French delegation and one carrying the German delegation. The actual site was a clearing which was used to store artillery ammunition supplied by train.

Rhetondes artillery clearing 11th November 1918
The two trains are within two parallel spurs

The railway carriage where the Armistice was agreed was a converted Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Restaurant Car, No. 2419D, which was part of a personal train for Marshall Foch.

Armistice negotiations 11th November 1918

Allied Delegation 11th November 1918

The significance of the Clairière de l'Armistice, (Glade of the Armistice) to the French nation was such that the site would become a memorial. Two sections of railway tracks were restored with signs marking the location of the Allied and the German trains. In the centre of the memorial area was a large granite slab inscribed:

ICI LE 11 NOVEMBRE 1918 LE CRIMINEL ORGUEIL DE L’EMPIRE ALLEMAND VAINCU PAR LES PEUPLES LIBRES QU’IL PRÉTENDAIT ASSERVIR

Here, on 11 November 1918, the criminal pride of the German empire was vanquished by the free peoples it had sought to enslave

On the 11th November 1922 the Clairière de l'Armistice memorial was opened by Marshal Ferdinand Foch and the President of France Alexandre Millerand in the presence of of the French veterans.

Clairière de l'Armistice
Opening Ceremony 1922

Clairière de l'Armistice Memorial Slab
Opening Ceremony 1922

The Alsace-Lorraine Monument made of pink granite from the French Vosges mountains was also unveiled on 11th November 1922. It commemorated the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France which was lost to Prussia when France was defeated during the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71.

Clairière de l'Armistice
Unveiling Alsace-Lorraine Monument 1922

Clairière de l'Armistice
Alsace-Lorraine Monument 1922

After the First World War one ended the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits donated Armistice Car No. 2419D to the French nation. It went on display in Les Invalides in Paris from April 1921 to April 1927. After restoration 2419D was transported to the Clairière de l'Armistice where a carriage shelter had been built serving as the Musée de l'Armistice (Museum of the Armistice).

Opening of Musée de l'Armistice 1927

Musée de l'Armistice Carriage Shed

Musée de l'Armistice Carriage Shed
No2419D Armistice Carriage

On the 20th March 1929 Marshal Ferdinand Foch passed away. He was buried near to Napoleon Bonaparte in the Hotel des Invalides. A statue was erected in the Clairière de l'Armistice to commemorate his contribution to the French nation.

Musée de l'Armistice Marshall Foch Statue

Marshall Foch Statue

Clairière de l'Armistice

On the 3rd September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany after they had invaded Poland. On 10th May 1940 Hitler launched his assault in the West. The Low Countries soon capitulated and German troops penetrated into France. The British Army was forced to withdraw through Dunkirk and on 17th June 1940 France capitulated.

Hitler ordering the signing of the armistice agreement between France and Germany would take place in the same railway carriage in the exact same spot in Compiègne where the armistice of 1918 was signed. To do so German engineers removed Armistice Carriage 2419D from the Museum of the Armistice carriage shed and positioned it where it was on 11th November 1918.

Armistice Carriage 2419D removed from Carriage Shed

Armistice Carriage 2419D repositioning

Clairière de l'Armistice 21st June 1940

On the afternoon of 21st June Adolf Hitler arrived at the Clairière de l'Armistice. He and the German delegation toured the site and then boarded the Armistice Carriage. They were followed later by the French delegation. Hitler would leave in the evening as the Armistice negotiations continued into the night. At 6.50 p.m. German summertime on June 22 1940 the Armistice was signed.

Hitler Clairière de l'Armistice 21st June 1940

Hitler and German delegation board Armistice Carriage

French delegation board Armistice Carriage

Armistice Carriage June 1940

Armistice Signing June 1940

After the Armistice signing Hitler ordered the destruction of the Clairière de l'Armistice as it symbolised the victory of France over Germany in 1918. The central memorial slab, the Alsace-Lorraine Memorial and the Armistice Carriage were removed and taken to Berlin. The Clairière de l'Armistice with it's markers stones was leveled to the ground. The only thing left was the statue of Marshall Foch who now looked over a site of desolation, not a site of French victory.

Musée de l'Armistice Carriage Shed Destruction

Marshal Foch statue Clairière de l'Armistice 1940

Clairière de l'Armistice 1940

France would remain under German occupation until September 1944. On the 6th June 1944 Allied troops landed in Normandy, the start of the liberation of Nazi Occupied Europe. The invading troops would breakout from Normandy and liberate Northern France. There were further Allied landings in August in Southern France with forces proceeding to liberate Southern France.

On the 11th November 1944, French, British, Polish and American representatives paraded at Marshall Foch's statue to commemorate the Liberation of France.

Clairière de l'Armistice 1944 Liberation Commemoration

After the war was over work began to restore the memorials and marker stones. On 11th November 1946 the restored site was inaugurated.

Restored Clairière de l'Armistice 1946 Inauguration

The actual Armistice Carriage 2914D taken away to Berlin in 1940 was destroyed during the war. The Compagnie Internationale des wagons-lits which donated 2914D to the French nation after WW1 donated a carriage from the same series, 2439D, after WW2. This was restored to the same appearance as Armistice Carriage 2914D in 1918. A new carriage shed and museum were built and artefacts that were hidded away in 1940 were returned to the museum.

The opening ceremony of the new Musée de l'Armistice Carriage Shed took place on November 11, 1950.