The presentation will be live and online.
In this talk Professor Stephen Badsey examines the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended the war on the Western Front. The heart of the story is how the negotiators on either side were selected, how they were able to meet safely on board the famous railway carriage in Compiegne forest, what their rival objectives were in negotiating, the resulting Armistice, and what it meant at the time to the soldiers on the Western Front and to the British people at home.
The part that the victory on the Western Front played in winning the war was being argued about from even before the Armistice was signed. This talk also puts the victory on the Western Front in context, including the importance of the Allied victories on other fronts and at sea, the German claim that their armies were not defeated but "stabbed in the back" by the collapse of their home front, and the remarkable sequence of political events and decisions that took place while the battles of the Hundred Days campaign were being fought.
Members wishing to participate will need to register: details of how to register will be circulated via The Western Front Association's newsletter 'Trench Lines'. If you are not a subscriber to 'Trench Lines' please subscribe now.
To subscribe to Trench Lines, go to the home page of The Western Front Association web site and complete your details in the 'Newsletter sign up' box.
It is also possible to register by clicking this link: November 1918: The Armistice and How the War Ended
The talk will be undertaken using the 'Zoom' software which is freely available. It may not be necessary to load the software to your PC / iPad etc: but we would recommend doing so if you wish to participate in this event.
Please Note: Once registrations hit capacity (we have a 1000 limit on the webinars) then you won't be able to register. If this happens, you can still watch the event via the Facebook Live Stream (subject to any technical hitches) on our Facebook page. Alternatively, these are loaded to our YouTube channel where they can be watched a few weeks after the event.