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.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.
