Armistice Day

remembrances told by B. B. KNAPP
1993

Seventy five years ago the Armistice was signed marking the end of the First World War.  By golly, I can remember that day.  I was a wireless operator with the 65th Artillery Battalion in north eastern France.  Wireless communications played a big part in ordering and controlling artillery fire. We also received communications from the higher command, some of which was sent out from the communications system on top of the Eifel Tower in Paris.

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On the 11th of November (1918) I was on the wireless and was the first to hear that the Armistice was signed. I got to spread the good news!  By golly, joy broke out! Soldiers started shooting their rifles in celebration. Pretty soon some heavier equipment joined in. Then I got another message.  We were ordered to stop the firing. Horse meat had been a part of the army diet.  After eating all the cows and half the horses in France, the army had finished their job.  They moved us to Brest to the staging area for going home.  We boarded a ship and landed in New York.  From there a train took me back to the west coast for discharge.

I had picked up some of the mustard gas which the Germans used.  It made me decide to keep in the great out of doors after discharge. Maybe that’s why I’ve been keeping good health and have a birthday with 97 candles on it. That’s like blowing out a fireplace.

-the end-