Lest we forget. Two minutes silence are observed on 11th November: at 'the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month' (although in the UK the main ceremony of commemoration is Remembrance Sunday on the 2nd Sunday of November). The date and time mark the agreement that ended the First World War: the Armistice of Compiègne which went into effect at 11 am on 11th November 1918. The Armistice was signed in a carriage of the private train of Allied Commander French Generalissimo Ferdinand Foch [I doubt there are many in the UK and US who have even heard of him] who later - as the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 - declared, when Germany was allowed to remain a united country, that "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years"...
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
2 comments:
Avenue Foch is a well walked (by me) boulevard in Paris, one of the twelve avenues leading off from Place Charles De Gaulle (Arc de Triomphe). I agree that Marechal Foch's name has been largely forgotten, the Nazi's didn't forget though and during the occupation of Paris No.84 was used as the headquarters of the SS and the torture of suspected resistance members took place there - they were keen to make a statement.
Wet and windy at the war memorial opposite where I work today and the sound of the last post carried across the field on the wind. They used to stop the traffic on the roads for two minutes but that seems to have been forgotten, we still have the maroon gun fired to start and end the two minutes though.
Good info! (not about you walking down Ave Foch although that adds to it and I appreciate the comment) :-)
Yes, some places still stop the traffic.
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