The Glade of the Armistice
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- veteransday_oli_20240919_lrg.jpg (1356x904, JPEG)
Metadata
- Sensor(s):
- Landsat 8 - OLI
- Data Date: September 19, 2024
- Visualization Date: November 7, 2024
Signs of history abound beneath the oak, beech, black cherry, and other hardwoods that blanket the Forest of Compiègne (Forêt de Compiègne) in northern France. Aerial lidar surveys have mapped hidden remnants of villas, kilns, mines, roads, and hundreds of other features of archaeological interest that date to Roman and Medieval times. More recently, the forest played a prominent role in World War I.
In November 1918, after the war had raged for four years, an increasingly exhausted and diminished German army was on the verge of collapse after being pushed back during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, German representatives crossed into Allied-held territory, traveled to the Forest of Compiègne, and signed an armistice with Allied military commanders that proved to be a crucial step in ending the war.
The meetings took place deep in the forest near the village of Rethondes in the personal railway car of Ferdinand Foch, the marshal of France and commander of Allied forces. That area, the Glade of the Armistice (Clairière de l’Armistice), is now the site of a French war memorial and museum in a clearing on the left bank of the Aisne. In the satellite image above, the clearing is visible near the confluence of the Aisne and Oise rivers near Compiégne. The image was acquired by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on September 19, 2024.
American forces played a key role in several World War I battles in this region in 1918. The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains cemeteries and memorials honoring U.S. troops that fought at Belleau Wood, Bellicourt, Cantigny, Chatau-Thierry, Montsec, and Sommepy.
In 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11 as Armistice Day to honor World War I veterans. In 1938, an act of the U.S. Congress made Armistice Day a legal holiday. In 1954, after the conclusion of World War II and the Korean War, Congress amended the act and renamed the holiday Veterans Day to honor all military veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
References
- American Battle Monuments Commission Teaching and Mapping the Geography of the Meuse Argonne Offensive. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- Armistice Carriage Museum Association (2018) The Armistice of 1918. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- Buridant, J., et al. (2022) A Historical Ecology of the Compiégne Forest (N France). Historical Ecology, 177—193.
- GovInfo (2020, November 6) Veterans Day. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- Military.com Veterans Day History. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2018, November 11) Scars of the Somme. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- The National WWI Museum and Memorial The Origins of Veterans Day. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- Pritzker Military Museum & Library Key Battles of World War I. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- U.S. Army Center of Military History (2018) Into the Fight. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (2024) History of Veterans Day. Accessed November 7, 2024.
- War-Documentary (2021) Armistice in Compiegne: June 1940. Accessed November 7, 2024.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.
This image record originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.