German envoys before Foch

At about seven in the morning on 8 November 1918 a train carrying the German plenipotentiaries for the armistice negotiations stopped on a siding in the Forest of Compiègne, near Rethondes station. Beside it already stood the special train of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who had come there the previous evening from his headquarters at Senlis. Both trains had been placed on tracks built for heavy railway guns, away from onlookers and journalists. The delegation was led by State Secretary Matthias Erzberger. He was accompanied by the diplomat Count Alfred von Oberndorff, Major-General Detlof von Winterfeldt and Captain Ernst Vanselow of the navy.

Across the front line

Their journey took more than a day. After the Lansing note, which directed the Germans to Foch, at about half past midnight on the night of 6–7 November the German Supreme Army Command informed the marshal by radio of the composition of the delegation. It asked him to name a meeting place and expressed the hope that its arrival would bring about a provisional suspension of hostilities. Foch’s reply was brief: if the German plenipotentiaries wished to meet him to ask for an armistice, they should present themselves at the French outposts on the road from Chimay through Fourmies and La Capelle to Guise.

The delegation left Spa at noon on 7 November. It was due to reach the French lines between 4 and 5 p.m., but the congested roads behind the German front delayed it so much that the cars crossed the line only at about 9 p.m., near La Capelle. On that sector both sides ceased fire while the delegation passed, and according to French tradition the cease-fire call was sounded by the bugler Pierre Sellier. French officers drove the Germans through war-ravaged country to Tergnier, and from there by train to the Forest of Compiègne. Some sources say the train stopped on the siding as early as 5.30 a.m.

“Do you ask for an armistice?”

According to Foch’s report, the first meeting took place at 9 a.m. in the office car of his train, although some accounts say 10 a.m. The marshal was accompanied by the British First Sea Lord, Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, his chief of staff, General Maxime Weygand, and Admiral George Hope. After examining the credentials signed by the Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, Foch asked his visitors the purpose of their visit. Erzberger replied that the delegation had come to hear the Allies’ proposals for an armistice. Foch answered that he had no proposals. When Oberndorff asked in what form they should express themselves, and suggested that they ask for terms, the marshal replied that he had no terms to offer. Erzberger therefore read out the Lansing note. Foch explained that he could present terms only if the Germans asked for an armistice, and asked them outright whether they did. Erzberger and Oberndorff said that they did.

Weygand read out the main points of the terms agreed at Versailles on 4 November: the evacuation of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine; withdrawal behind the Rhine; occupation of the left bank with bridgeheads; the surrender of guns, machine guns, aircraft, locomotives and wagons; the internment of the fleet and the surrender of the submarines. Erzberger asked for an immediate cessation of hostilities. He spoke of the disintegration of the army, which had had difficulty even carrying out the order to cease fire while the delegation passed, and of the threat of Bolshevism, which after Germany might engulf Western Europe. Foch refused. He replied that he could not halt operations before the Germans had accepted the terms that were their consequence. Disintegration was the usual malady of defeated armies, and Western Europe would find a way to defend itself. He gave the same reception to a statement prepared in advance by Winterfeldt, who on behalf of the government and the Supreme Army Command renewed the request for a provisional armistice so that soldiers and civilians would not die needlessly in the last days.

72 hours

The Germans had 72 hours to reply, until 11 a.m. French time on Monday 11 November. Foch rejected a request to extend the deadline by a day, because the deadline had been set by the Allied governments. At 11.30 a.m. the delegation sent a radio report to the Chancellor and the Supreme Army Command, and since there was no other practical means of communication, a courier, Rittmeister von Helldorff, set off for Spa at 1 p.m. with the full text of the terms. In the afternoon Oberndorff and Winterfeldt talked with Weygand, and Vanselow with Admiral Hope. They asked whether the Allies had not drawn up such harsh terms so that the Germans would reject them. They argued that the army was exhausted, revolution was engulfing the country, and the surrender of rolling stock and the continuation of the blockade would condemn the population to starvation. They asked for weeks instead of days for the evacuation and to be left the machine guns needed to keep order. Weygand replied that the disintegration of the German army was the result of four months of victorious Allied offensive, and that the command had to keep every advantage it had won. All requests were to be submitted in writing.

Meanwhile the country in whose name they were negotiating was falling apart. On the night of 7–8 November a Bavarian republic was proclaimed in Munich, and in one city after another workers’ and soldiers’ councils were taking power. While the delegation waited in the Forest of Compiègne for instructions, it was not certain who in Berlin would be able to give them.