Paul Simon – "Armistice Day" (1972)

On Armistice Day

The Philharmonic will play

The Armistice that ended the fighting in World War I was signed by representatives of the Allied and German governments at 5:12 am on November 11, 1918.  But it did not officially take effect until 11:00 am – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Over 2700 soldiers on both sides were killed in action in the hours between the time the Armistice was signed and the time it went into effect.  

Henry Gunther's headstone

American Henry Gunther, a Baltimore native of German ancestry, was the last of those men to die.  

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Gunther’s squad learned of the Armistice at about 10:30 on the morning of November 11.  Just before 11:00, Gunther suddenly jumped up and charged a German machine-gun nest.  

Gunther had recently been demoted from the rank of sergeant to that of private after writing a letter that was sharply critical of the Army to a friend back home.  

Baltimore Sun reporter James Cain – the same James Cain who later wrote Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice – believed that Gunther’s suicidal act was the result of his demotion:

According to his comrades, Gunther brooded a great deal over his reduction in rank, and became obsessed with a determination to make good before his officers and fellow soldiers.  Particularly he was worried because he thought himself suspected of being a German sympathizer.  The regiment went into action a few days after he was reduced and from the start he displayed the most unusual willingness to expose himself to all sorts of risks.

Gunther still must have been fired by a desire to demonstrate, even at the last minute, that he was courageous and all-American.  When the Germans saw him coming they waved at him and called out, in such broken English as they could, to go back, that the war was over.  He paid no heed to them, however, and kept on firing a shot or two as he went.  After several vain efforts to make him turn back, the Germans turned their machine gun on him.

Gunther died at 10:59 am.

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The Armistice was signed in a railway car that had been parked in a forest clearing about an hour northeast of Paris.  The car was part of the train that had been reserved for the use of French general Ferdinand Foch, the supreme commander of the Allied forces on the Western Front.

Foch statue at the
“Glade of the Armistice” 

Several years after the war ended, the French turned the location where the Armistice had been signed into a memorial park, which they named Clairière de l’Armistice – or “Glade of the Armistice.”  A building was built to house the railway car and some other artifacts relating to the Armistice.

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After the German Army conquered France in 1940, der Führer went to the Clairière de l’Armistice and insisted that the French sign the surrender documents in Foch’s railway car.

Hitler and his officers standing
 in front of the Foch railway car

That car was then transported to Berlin, where it was displayed in a park for several years.  When Allied forces advanced into Germany in 1945, the SS burned it to keep it from falling into the enemy’s hands.

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After World War II ended, the French rebuilt the Clairière de l’Armistice and put on display a railway car identical to the one in which the Armistice had been signed.  

Last July, I visited the small museum that contains the replica Armistice carriage:

There are a number of other World War I artifacts on display at the Clairière de l’Armistice, including this Renault FT light tank:

The most dramatic monument on the grounds of the Clairière de l’Armistice is the Alsace-Lorraine monument, which pays tribute to the French soldiers who fought so bravely in World War I.  

That monument depicts a German eagle that has been impaled by a sword:

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“Armistice Day” was released in 1972 on Paul Simon’s eponymous solo album.  Here’s what he had to say about that song to Rolling Stone’s Jon Landau:

Well, “Armistice Day,” which I consider to be the weakest song on the album, is an old song, written in 1968 – the first part of it was.  That song mainly meant, let’s have a truce.  I chose the title “Armistice Day,” because it’s not even called Armistice Day anymore, it’s called Veterans Day.  Armistice Day is like an old name, and I didn’t really mean it to be specifically about the war.  I just meant that I’m worn out from all this fighting, from all the abuse that people are giving each other and creating for each other.  

As Simon notes, Americans used to celebrate November 11 as Armistice Day.  

Armistice Day – “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace” – was established by an act of Congress in 1938.  

Armistice Day officially became Veterans Day – a federal holiday that honors all veterans of the United States Armed Forces, whether living or dead – in 1954.

Prior to 1954, Americans celebrated November 11 as Armistice Day

Click here to listen to “Armistice Day.”

You can click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: