Silk purse films
Production: ‘The Coach that made History'
Script - Final
9th April 2013
Scene 1
In November 1918, in a railway carriage at Compiegne, a French general humiliated the German High Command as they sued for peace. It was an insult that was to fester in the mind of a young German soldier, laying blinded at the time, in an army hospital 700 miles away.
Twenty two years later, that German soldier was to take his revenge... in the same railway carriage, at the self-same spot, in the dark forest of Compiegne...."
00.00.38.08 - Title Sequence
Main title
00.00.50.07 - Scene 2
It is November the 8th 1918... four years and two months into the bloodiest conflict the world has ever witnessed.
The special train conveying the Supreme Allied Commander, Marshal Foch, and his staff is heading for Compiegne.
Nine days ago General Ludendorff informed the Kaiser that the German military situation was hopeless.
American President Woodrow Wilson has offered peace... based of a 14 point agenda... and Ludendorff has recommended acceptance of these terms.
The representatives of the German government have been summoned to meet the Allied commander at a secret location in the forest of Compiegne. The place is called Réthondes.
The British and French have agreed to negotiate with Germany, but they have rejected the Fourteen Points proposed by President Wilson.
However, the German delegation is unaware of the Franco-British rejection and believes Wilson's 14 Points will determine the agenda for the negotiations.
Headed by Matthias Erzberger, a government minister, the four-man German delegation leaves Spa, in Belgium, and begins a gruelling 10 hour journey across the Western Front under a flag of truce. It will eventually take them to the secret location in the forest near Réthondes.
Meanwhile, Marshal Foch's train arrives at Compiegne Station, en route to the forest clearing. The third coach in the nine-car consist is dining car No 2419D... and it's in this coach that the negotiations will take place.
00.03.04.13 - Scene 3:
9th November 1918 - Réthondes
On the morning of the 9th November the German delegates are escorted to the wooden dining car and are confronted by Marshal Foch, General Weygand and British Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss. The reception is frosty.
Foch's opening question is "Qu'est ce que vous desirez, messieurs?"... what do you want, gentlemen?
For the next two hours the Germans listen while the conditions are read out. There is to be no negotiation, only dictated terms.
The British Admiral is as cold as Marshal Foch.
Only General Weygand shows any politeness.
Meanwhile in Berlin, Chancellor Max von Baden announces the abdication of the Kaiser.
At 5am William II crosses the border into Holland and exile... he will never return to his beloved Germany. In the months to come the British will demand his extradition to stand trial on a charge of war crimes... the Dutch government will refuse to hand him over.
Later in the day Prince Max resigns as Chancellor and is replaced by Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat. Germany is now a republic!
As the day draws to its close, Foch and Weygand make their way to the nearby village of Réthondes. Here, in the little church, the two men will pray and reflect on the momentous event that will take place in the morning.
00.05.13.17 - 11th November 1918
At 5.20am on the morning of the 11th of November the armistice document is signed by Foch and British Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss for the Allies... and for Germany by Matthias Erzberger and three delegates representing the Foreign Office, the Army and the Navy.
The Germans have lodged a protest against the treaty... but in the end they are forced to sign.
Six hours later, at 11 o‘clock, all hostilities cease. The so-called ‘war to end all wars' is finally over... for the time being anyway!
00.06.03.02 - Scene 4
CIWL Dining Car No. 2419D
The wooden dining car in which the armistice had been signed, belonged to the International Sleeping Car Company and was built in 1913.
Now that the war was over, they returned it to normal passenger service.
However, before long it was requisitioned once again... to form part of the French presidential train.
Then in April 1921 it was taken to Paris and put on display in the courtyard of the Invalides... that great monument to French military prowess and glory.
The Armistice Car, as it had become known, was to remain at the Invalides for the next six years until, in April 1927, it was returned to Réthondes and placed as the centerpiece of the new Forest Clearing memorial - dedicated to the 1918 Armistice and the defeat of Imperial Germany.
The restoration of the coach and its display at the memorial was largely funded by a donation of 100,000 Francs made by Arthur Henry Fleming... a wealthy industrialist from Pasadena, California.
The opening ceremony was attended by both Foch and Weygand.
The Armistice Car was housed in a special building, while the actual clearing was turned into a great circular monument overlooked by a large statue of Marshal Foch.
At the end of the approach avenue stood the Alsace Memorial... the figure of an Imperial German eagle slain by a French sword.
There was to be no ambiguity in the message... Germany had been utterly defeated!
00.08.14.06 - Scene - 5
Twelve and a half years of uneasy peace would follow. At first Germany would struggle to recover, but in January 1933 a new and aggressive regime came to power.
The young German soldier laying blinded in that hospital in November 1918 was now the leader and supreme warlord of a resurgent German Reich... and Adolf Hitler was a man driven by hatred and desire for revenge.
He would soon plunge all of Europe into yet another bloody conflict.
00.09.36.21
On the 3rd September 1939, Germany invaded Poland... Britain and France declared war on Germany.
In the West, however, nothing much happened. The British would call this period ‘The Phoney War.'
This uneasy period ends on the 10th May 1940. Hitler launches his Blitzkrieg... an overwhelming invasion of France, spearheaded by armoured divisions. Just four weeks later the German Army enters Paris and the French government requests an Armistice.
The swastika is raised above the palace of Versailles... where the German Empire was proclaimed in January 1871 and where Germany's fate was sealed in the Treaty of 1919.
A few days later German Army engineers are busy at the old Armistice Clearing.
The wooden dining car is removed from the small museum building, which involves knocking down the end wall, and is placed exactly where it had been on November 11th 1918.
All now await the arrival of Adolf Hitler.
00.11.46.13
William Shirer's live radio commentary...
| "The Armistice negotiations here on the same spot where the last armistice was signed in 1918 here in Compiegne forest began at 3.15 p.m. our time. A warm June sun beat down on the great elm and pine trees and cast pleasant shadows on the wooded avenues as Herr Hitler, with the German plenipotentiaries at his side, appeared Hitler's personal standard is run up on a small post in the centre of the circular opening in the wood. Then he strolls slowly towards us... toward the little clearing where the famous Armistice Car stood. I thought he looked very solemn... his face was grave, but there was a certain spring in his step as he walked for the first time towards the spot where Germany's fate was sealed on that November day in 1918. A fate which, by reason of his own doings, is now being radically changed here on this spot. Now Hitler reaches the little opening in the Compiegne woods where the armistice was signed... and where another is about to be drawn up. Hitler pauses and gazes slowly round. In a group just behind him are the other German plenipotentiaries. Also in the centre is the great granite block which stands some three feet above the ground.
The Germans stand outside the car chatting in the sunlight... this goes on for two minutes. Then Hitler steps up into the car, followed by Goering and the others. We watch them entering the drawing in Marshal Foch's car. We can see nicely through the car windows. Hitler enters first and takes the place occupied by Marshal Foch the morning the French armistice was signed. Exactly at three thirty p.m. the French alight from a car. They have flown up from Bordeaux to a near-by landing field... and then driven here. Then they walk down the avenue flanked by three German army officers. We see them now as they come into the sunlight of the clearing. General Huntzinger wearing a khaki uniform... Air General Bergeret and Vice Admiral Le Luc both in their respective dark blue uniforms... and then, almost buried in the uniforms, the one single civilian of the day... Mr. Noel, French Ambassador to Poland when the present war broke out there. William Kirker live radio commentary: Hitler Himself was the first one to rise as soon as the French plenipotentiaries entered the dining car... and all those present wore uniforms except M. Noel who was attired in smart civilian clothes. He himself was quite a contrast to the glittering uniforms which surrounded him. However, undeterredly, he took his place almost facing Herr Hitler who was sitting at the opposite side of that long green table with his back toward the statue of General Foch. Well, it was 21 years and 8 months ago that Compiegne was the scene of the signing of an armistice... and today we are right here on the very same spot. From what I get, Colonel General von Keitel was the only one who did any talking whatsoever during the whole time. As a matter of fact, he is the only German official of Hitler's entourage who remained in the car after Hitler himself left. Bill Shirer has already told you how Hitler steps out of the car to retrace his steps past the guard of honour. Just that moment the band played the national anthem ‘Deutschland Uber Alles' which on this occasion too was followed up by the second national anthem... the old party song... the old ‘Horst Wessel Song.' The commanding officer of the guard of honour stepped up to Hitler and said, quote: "My Fuhrer, the German Srmy greets you' unquote. As Hitler left to return to his own car which was waiting near the Alsace-Lorraine Monument now draped with the German war flag, the French delegates continues to stand until he actually got into his car.
|
At ten to seven that June evening the French delegates return to the coach... they will sign the Armistice... they have no option.
Soon after they are seen leaving old restaurant car in sullen and downcast mood. The once proud French nation is now at the mercy of Nazi Germany... a national catastrophe!
Later... Field Marshal Keitel hands Adolf Hitler the armistice document for his countersignature and, shortly after, the Fuehrer can be seen jubilant among some of his Nazi Party hacks.
However, for Europe and the civilised world this is the tipping point into a new dark age. Before the nightmare is over, millions will have perished.
00.17.51.11 - Scene 7
In the weeks that follow, the historic Armistice Car is removed from the Forest Clearing and makes the long journey to Berlin... where it is put on public display in the Lustgarten.
The exhibition of the old wooden dining car in the centre of Berlin is seen as avenging the 1918 humiliation of the old Imperial Germany.
Meanwhile, back in France, German Army engineers are busy destroying the Armistice memorial site in its entirety... leaving only the great statue of Marshal Foch to oversee the ruin.
A year later, on the 4th of June 1941, William II, the last Emperor of Germany, dies at Doorn House, his home in the Netherlands. German soldiers now stand guard at the entrance... though what the former Kaiser might have thought about this we can only guess.
00.19.36.11 - Scene 8
On the night of the 22nd/23rd of November 1943 the Royal Air Force sent 764 bombers to Berlin. The resulting destruction was cataclysmic.
According to eyewitness accounts published in newspapers in neutral Switzerland and Sweden, the old wooden Armistice Car was completely destroyed.
There is, however, an alternative account. Some say that the damaged Armistice Car was removed from Berlin in the closing weeks of the war and taken to Crawinkel in Thuringia. Here, in the railway yard, it was finally destroyed by German troops as American tanks approached the village.
00.20.32.04 - Scene 9
Whatever the truth, one could be forgiven for thinking that the destruction of the Armistice Car would finally draw a line under the whole sad business, but that would be failing to take account of the wounded pride of the French nation.
The Armistice Clearing had been liberated by Allied troops on the 1st September 1944 and eight months later Germany surrendered. No armistice this time... just unconditional surrender.
Its towns and cities lay in ruins and now the people had to face up to the enormous guilt of the evil to which they had been willing accomplices.
Within five years a resurgent France had restored the Armistice site to its former glory. However, they needed a substitute for the destroyed Armistice Car... which had been the very centrepiece of the memorial.
Fortunately the International Sleeping Car Company had, at their workshop in Slikens near Ostende, an identical coach from the same 1913 build batch... number 2439D.
Refurbished and renumbered 2419D, the new Armistice Car took its place at Réthondes in a new museum building. The site was re-dedicated on the 11th November 1950. The humiliation of France had been avenged!
Within a few years France and Germany would enter into a customs union... the European Common Market, that would eventually lead to the European Union... friends and partners in peace at last!
Fade to sequence of delegates of the 1918 and 1940 Armistices.
Roll credits.