The AEF's 11th Hour

On the cold, wet morning of 11 November, the American First Army gathered on the banks of the River Meuse. The air above was rent by the sound of artillery pounding German positions east of the river. Behind the First Army, the wet earth was well churned over by seven weeks of bitter fighting. More than half a million American soldiers walked over that ground. 26,000 would never leave and 95,000 more left part of themselves there. As far as anyone knew the Meuse-Argonne campaign was over and the battle for the Woëvre Plain and the great citadel of Metz was about to begin.

A few miles north of Verdun the gunners of the 101st Field Artillery, 26th (Yankee) Division, bombarded German positions on the Woëvre Plain. A historian of the 101st describes the scene as the hour approached 11:00 A.M., 'The breech blocks closed with a sharp, metallic snap. The empty shell cartridges clanked and clattered on the trials. The odor of powder and of hot metal and of oil hung on the cool, motionless air.'[1] News of the armistice reached the 101st at 8:42 A.M. Most of the gunners refused to believe it, brushing off the news as another rumor. Finally convinced of the truthfulness of the message, the artillerymen got on with it. The subsequent deluge seemed bizarre, as men who had mastered the complicated military specialty of gunnery realized that soon they would have no need for that skill, though they would carry it with them the rest of their lives. The Massachusetts men simply went about their jobs, performing their tasks by rote. Finally, someone shouted, 'Hey, for Christ's sake, what time is it?' Realizing that the 11th hour approached, many crews quickly fitted their guns with long lanyards so that the entire crew could grab on and fire their piece's last round. At 11:00 A.M. it all stopped. Artillerymen accustomed to the constant drum of their guns looked about in confusion in the silence of the 11th hour. What now? It seemed to many a terrible, cruel pause. Some waited for the German fire to resume. Eventually the gunners realized that the armistice would hold. Some sang, others asked when they would eat. One man dryly commented 'it sure was a great little war while it lasted.'[2]