Armistice Day - what it sounded like

[Matthew]

I ran across this today and think it's pretty cool.

Nov 11, 1918 at 11am. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month was the negotiated cease fire that marked the end of WW I.

Battlefield microphones recorded these sounds at the American front, right up to 11am.

Here's the story:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...uns-fell-silent-ending-world-war-i-180970772/

And here's the recording:

https://codatocoda.bandcamp.com/album/iwm-ww1-armistice-interpretation

 

[3393RP]

That's not a sound recording made in 1918. The battlefield recordings were seismic shocks captured on a strip of film. The sound recording was created in 2018 to illustrate what the actual sound might have been.

You need to read your link.

 

[Matthew]

That's not a sound recording made in 1918. The battlefield recordings were seismic shocks captured on a strip of film. The sound recording was created in 2018 to illustrate what the actual sound might have been.

You need to read your link.

I read it. A sound lab took the readings and, based on amplitudes and frequencies, recreated the sounds as best they could.

The thing that was most interesting to me was the intensity of the artillery, right up to the 11am deadline.

 

[cessna182b]

I read it. A sound lab took the readings and, based on amplitudes and frequencies, recreated the sounds as best they could.

The thing that was most interesting to me was the intensity of the artillery, right up to the 11am deadline.

I understand that everyone who had access to a weapon that could be fired did so at precisely 11 AM - so that they could claim to have fired the last shot of the war.

Dave

 

[Matthew]

I understand that everyone who had access to a weapon that could be fired did so at precisely 11 AM - so that they could claim to have fired the last shot of the war.

Dave

That would make sense.

 

[3393RP]

Troops were ordered to continue fighting and died the morning of the armistice. The savagery of the trenches consumed victims up to the very end.

 

[Matthew]

Troops were ordered to continue fighting and died the morning of the armistice. The savagery of the trenches consumed victims up to the very end.

https://www.armytimes.com/veterans/...10/nov-11-1918-wasted-lives-on-armistice-day/

3500 US casualties from the time the papers were signed at 5:10am and it took effect at 11am.

 

[Van Johnston]

This is how my grandfather described it in a letter to the girl he was courting via correspondence (who became my grandmother).

 

[Matthew]

Anyone visiting KC should consider stopping in at the National WW I Museum.

It was lit for the last week or so with digital poppies after dark. I think today is the last day for that.

It's a really nice museum, worth the visit.

https://www.theworldwar.org

Day and night pics (not mine)

 

[jspilot]

Thanks for sharing these resources you all! I’m a history teacher and just got done teaching WW1 as a unit. I’ll be sure to include these resources next year.

I love the letter! I certainly agree, those guys had a heck of a lot to be happy for!