Hitler humiliates the French

21st June 1940: The site of the 1918 Armistice treaty - and the same railway carriage - is used for the Nazis to impose their new peace terms

Hitler arrives at the Compiegne site at around 3 pm on 21st June 1940.

Hitler passes the Wehrmacht ‘Guard of Honour’

On 11th November 1918 the First World War came to an end in a railway carriage in a clearing in the woods some fifty miles north of Paris. The site at Compiegne had been chosen because the two railway spurs, previously used to load ammunition, allowed the trains containing the two delegations, French and German, to halt in the woods within walking distance of each other.

Foch's personal headquarters railway carriage, which became known as "The Compiègne Wagon" in 1918

The French carriage, the personal headquarters of Marshal Foch, the head of the French delegation, was used for the signing of the 1918 Armistice. After the war, the railway carriage was preserved in a purpose-built museum, and the whole site was transformed into a memorial.

It was here that Hitler decided to hold the 1940 Armistice talks. There was very little to talk about; the Germans were going to dictate the terms to the French. But the symbolism of the event meant much to Hitler and the Nazi regime. The humiliating peace terms of the First World War was one of the main grievances upon which Nazism had been built. Hitler was determined that the peace he now imposed would extinguish that humiliation.

The walls of the museum where the railway carriage had been housed were torn down before the meeting - to bring the carriage out.

The carriage was then dragged to the exact spot where it had been located in 1918.

There was one independent witness. The ever resourceful American journalist, William L. Shirer¹ had managed to get a ringside seat: