Armistice Day

"Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not."
—Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Breakfast of Champions

Operation AXIOM: The 106th Anniversary of the Armistice of Compiègne
One hundred six years ago to the day, 11 November 1918, "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The "War to End All Wars" was over. Tens of millions were dead. Empires lay in ruins. Revolution was in the air. The world that had existed before the summer of 1914 was shattered utterly, torn asunder by unfathomable bloodshed.

The world had never seen madness as red as the World War; pray to the Almighty that we shall not see madness so red in our own lifetime. A century later, only the ignorant &/or the foolish would say we do not live in a world yet scarred by 1914-1918, haunted by the ghost of a war most of us prefer to pretend never happened. Western civilization barely survived the suicide attempt of 1914-1918, & might yet succumb to the wound. It all ended—in triumph, in defeat, in exhaustion, in jubilation—on 11 November 1918, one hundred six years ago today.

"The Fourth of August"
by Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Now in they splendour go before us,
Spirit of England, ardent-eyed!
Enkindle this dear earth that bore us,
In the hour of peril purified.

The cares we hugged drop out of vision,
Our hearts with deeper thoughts dilate.
We step from days of sour division
Into the grandeur of our fate.

For us the glorious dead have striven;
They battled that we might be free.
We to that living cause are given,
We arm for men that are to be.

Among the nations nobliest chartered,
England recalls her heritage.
With her is that which is not bartered,
Which force can neither quell nor cage.

For her immortal stars are burning,
With her, the hope that's never done,
The seed that's in the Spring's returning,
The very flower that seeks the sun.

We fight the fraud that feeds desire on
Lies, in a lust to enslave or kill,
The barren creed of blood and iron,
Vampire of Europe's wasted will.

Endure, O Earth! and thou, awaken,
Purged by this dreadful winnowing-fan,
O wronged, untameable, unshaken
Soul of divinely suffering man!

"To England: To Strike Quickly"
by Maurice Hewlett (1861-1923)

FIGHT, since thou must; strike quick and fierce,
So when this tyrant for too long
Hath shook the blood out of his ears
He may have learned the price of wrong.

Let him learn this, that the due of grief
Of his own vice he cannot ban
By outrage of a highway thief;
Let him remember the Corsican,

Whom England only durst not dread
By sea or shore, but faced alone,
Nor stayed for pity of her dead
Until the despot's day was done.

Strike, England, quickly, make an end
Of him who seeks a deal with thee.
If he would bargain for thy friend,
What would he trade for Liberty?

The Wayback Machine Tour of Armistice Day: Lest We Forget
Armistice Day '23

Armistice Day '22 + Armistice Day '21 + Armistice Day '20 + Armistice Day '18

Armistice Day '17 + Armistice Day '16 + Armistice Day '15 + Armistice Day '14

Armistice Day '13 + Armistice Day '12 + Armistice Day '11 + Armistice Day '10

Armistice Day '09 + Armistice Day '08 + Armistice Day '07 + Armistice Day '06

Armistice Day '05 + Armistice Day '04 + Armistice Day '03 + Armistice Day '02

The Explorers' Club № DCLVI: 11 November 1918—The Armistice
The Explorers' Club № DCCXVI: 11 November 1919—The First Armistice Day
The Explorers' Club № DCCLXXXIII: 11 November 1920—The Second Armistice Day
The Explorers' Club № DCCCLVII: 11 November 1921—The Third Armistice Day

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Armistice Day
Rob Carriker, "He Is There!" from Over There! Songs from America's Wars (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Lest we forget.