Armistice Day 1944 (11-11-44)

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The Pittsburgh Press (November 11, 1944)

Millions cheer Churchill in Paris armistice parade

Prime Minister and Eden fly to capital for conferences with de Gaulle, aides

Paris, France (UP) –
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in Paris for the first time in five years, received one of the most tumultuous welcomes of his career today when at least one million persons cheered his participation in Armistice Day celebrations.

Mr. Churchill and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden flew to Paris yesterday, but rigid security regulations held up the announcement of their arrival until today.

The British Prime Minister stood with Gen. Charles de Gaulle this morning during the Armistice Day wreathing of the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then they walked slowly down half a mile of the thronged, beflagged Champs-Élysées to the saluting stand for the big parade.

‘Vive Churchill’

Despite the best efforts of Allied military and civilian police, part of the crowd broke away out of control. A solid mass of humanity surged around Mr. Churchull and Gen. de Gaulle, cheering wildly and shouting “Vive Churchill” and Vive de Gaulle.

Beaming and flourishing his cigar, Mr. Churchill repeatedly waved the cap of the RAF air commodore’s uniform he wore. Gen. de Gaulle’s usually stern face relaxed and he too saluted the crowd with clockwork regularity.

Mr. Eden joined Mr. Churchill and Gen. de Gaulle at the reviewing stand. Together they stood for more than an hour, surrounded by cabinet members and foreign diplomats and taking the salute during a parade of some 8,000 U.S., British and French troops.

First since liberation

It was the first Allied military parade in Paris since the liberation, and it had all the atmosphere of a victory celebration.

Parisians were packed 10 deep along the Champs-Élysées and hanging from every window, balcony and rooftop. They roared a tremendous ovation to a detachment of U.S. infantry, military police and sailors headed by an American Army band.

Like cheers greeted units of British Guards regiments, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the Canadian Army. Every bid unit of the French Army was represented in the parade, some wearing American and British uniforms.

Put wreaths on tomb

Shortly before 11:00 a.m., Mr. Churchill and Gen. de Gaulle arrived at the Arc de Triomphe. Stepping out of autos, they walked slowly to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and placed wreaths on it.

On the stroke of 11, a single cannon shot sounded over the city, signalizing the time for a minute of silence. Then the big parade began.

The armistice celebration was more or less incidental to the visit of Messrs. Churchill and Eden, who flew here in a Dakota transport plane for conferences with Gen. de Gaulle and other French officials.

Shake hands

When the big transport plane came down at a field outside Paris, Mr. Churchill stepped out, hastened forward to greet Gen. de Gaulle, seized his hand impetuously and cried in French: “My dear General, this is indeed a pleasure.”

The party included Mrs. Churchill, Mary Churchill (the Prime Minister’s daughter), Sir Alexander Cadogan (Permanent Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs), and Nicholas Langford (Mr. Eden’s private secretary).

Mrs. Eden was already in Paris. She came on ahead to assist the welcoming committee.

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Roosevelt honors Unknown Soldier

Wreath placed by military aide

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt stood today before the Tomb of America’s Unknown Soldier of the last war to give silent expression to the nation’s Armistice Day remembrance of its fallen dead.

A brisk wind snapped the Stars and Stripes as the President, standing at the side of this car, watched Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson, his military aide, lay a wreath of chrysanthemums on the tomb.

It was the nation’s 26th observance of the end of the first war in Europe.

In the brief ceremony, the Commander-in-Chief took the lead in observing the third wartime Armistice Day as an array of military and naval honor guards stood at attention.

A military band played the National Anthem and the gathering, including several hundred spectators watching from the Arlington National Ceremony amphitheater and grounds nearby, joined in the minute of silence at 11:00 a.m. which recalled the end of the last war at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal rode with Mr. Roosevelt in his open phaeton from the White House. The President dispensed with his usual waves of recognition to bystanders en route to the solemn ceremony.

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Editorial: Armistice Day

For the third time, we are celebrating Armistice Day in the midst of a war which has so altered the occasion’s spirit and significance that there is some reason to doubt that Nov. 11 will have a permanent place among our national holidays.

For 20 years we observed Nov. 11 as the anniversary of that historic occasion when the “war to end war” was itself brought to an end. But for the past five years, such an observance would have been a mockery of the facts. Rather, it has become a rebuke to the world of statesmen who, confronted repeatedly by threats to the brave slogan of “war to end war,” did not raise their hands to stay those threats.

But the altered circumstances have not lessened the honor paid to the men who died believing that slogan. Since the beginning of history, men have honored soldiers who died in battle for a cause they thought just. But for the soldiers of 1917-18, the cause had a nobility and grandeur that surpassed all others.

Today, some may look back to the slogans of “war to end war” and a world “safe for democracy" with the same cynicism that many statesmen must have felt about them at the time. But many, perhaps most, of the American doughboys believed them. If they had to die in battle, it was in the belief that no son or grandson of theirs, or any man anywhere, would have to do it again. And the same belief sustained and solaced the families of these doughboys.

Now another generation of American soldiers is fighting and dying. Maybe the thoughts of this generation are less idealistic. But the peace for which these soldiers fight may well have a better hope of permanence for that very reason.

For the world at last seems to have realized how unworthy some guardians of the peace were of the sacrifice of even one Allied soldier’s life. And when peace comes this time, it seems certain that the American people, at least, will demand a greater voice in outlining the task of keeping that peace permanent, and will assume a more careful watch of those to whom the task is entrusted.

Thus, at last, we may keep faith with the men who died in World War I and those who must die in the second to defeat the war makers and bring an end to war. When we can say that a sound, workable, wholehearted organization for world peace is established and successful we can also say that we have honored these men as fully as we can.

That day, perhaps, will not be marked on a calendar. But until it comes the obligation to speed it should be this country’s concern on Nov. 11 and every other day of the year.