How did World War One end?
“Officially” it ended w/ the signing of the peace in 1919. For the US, the war w/ Germany did not officially end until 1920 when Congress ratified the peace treaty w/ the Germans. The armistace of November 1918 was like a ref calling out ‘time out!’ in the middle of a game. The war was still on but on “pause”. By way of comparison, as a side note, the Korean War stopped w/ the Armistace of 1953. However, none of the warring countries ever signed a peace treaty. So, technically, we’re still at war w/ North Korea til we sign a peace treaty.
The French army in Greece, using Serbian troops, defeated Bulgaria. (No, I’m not making this up…) The same week, British and Canadian forces in Belgium broke through the Hindenburg Line, the main line of defence left to the Germans. German troops were surrending all over the place, and their army was in full retreat. The German commander-in-chief, General Ludendorff, had what amounts to a nervous breakdown and told his government “We’ve had it, the war’s over, surrender now!” The Germans went to the Americans and asked for terms of surrender. President Wilson said “We won’t negotiate with a monarchy: get rid of the Kaiser!” The Germans didn’t want to do this; for the next month (October 1918) they kept on negotiating trying to get better terms. Meanwhile, the German Navy saw that the war was ending, and the admirals in charge decided they didn’t want to go out without one last glorious battle. They ordered their ships to set sail and go and bombard London. The sailors, though, said “
