100 years ago: my grandfather and the armistice

100 years ago my grandfather was part
of the 13th Battery Canadian Field
Artillery while it was in action in
World War I. After the war the
unit published a diary listing all
of those that had been part of it,
and a day-by-day account of
what they did. Some days they
fired guns; some days they marched
from one place to another; and
other days they stayed in one place
and were wet and muddy.

Here are two entries in this diary
from a century ago:

1918 6th November: Fired Barrage. The last firing
this battery did during the war.

1918 11th November: Lieut.-Col. Ross, D.S.O.,
announced to Muster Parade that an Armistice was
signed.

This anniversary is still remembered every
year as Veteran’s day. How did the naive
hope that this would be the war to end
all wars turn into the reality of the
even more catastrophic war that was to
come later? We must never forget history.

……………..
–Douglas Downing
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