Armistice Day on the Western Front and in Russia

World War I ended in Russia on March 3, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The signatories included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Lenin’s Bolshevik regime. Lenin traded land for peace so that he could focus on consolidating power in Russia and defeating the White armies in Russia’s civil war. Lenin was able to seize power in Russia largely because the Provisional Government that succeeded Czarist rule continued to fight the war at the urgings of Allied powers, including the United States. Lenin believed that bringing peace to Russia would allow him to deal with the regime’s enemies at home while the world’s “capitalist” powers weakened each other and became ripe for takeover by the worldwide communist revolution.

The Allied powers were rightly concerned that Russia’s exit from the war would mean that Germany could focus its military effort in the West, where stalemate and trench warfare were bleeding both sides. In March 1918, Germany launched its spring offensive, which petered out in July 1918. The Allied armies counterattacked and pushed toward Germany’s borders until an agreement was reached to sign the armistice, which would take effect on November 11 at 11:00 am — the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour.

Tragically, on November 11, the generals on both sides, who knew two days previously that the armistice would take effect that morning, continued to soldiers for nothing. In fact, one minute before 11:00 am that morning, the last American war casualty on the Western Front, Private Henry Gunther, age 23, was killed by German machine gun fire.