"
Northeast of Verdun, just before 11 o'clock, American artillery-men in
loading a six-inch howitzer, wrote "good-luck" on a ninety-pound shell
and "let 'er go." The shot was aimed at the crossroad at Ornas, just
ahead of the American lines.
While the bells of the ancient Verdun Cathedral were ringing the news of
peace the fortress city was illuminated and a military procession headed
by the drum corps of the Twenty-sixth American division swung along the
crowded streets accompanied by a French detachment of buglers
representing the famed defenders of Verdun.
Only a half hour before the Germans had thrown large shells within the
city walls, apparently as a reminder that Verdun was still within the
range of their guns to the hills to the northeast.
Monday afternoon and night virtually was the first time that Verdun had
not been shelled in many hours almost since the war began.
CHAPTER LIII
THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER
The end of the war came with almost the dramatic suddenness of its
beginning. Bulgaria, hemmed in by armies through which no relief could
penetrate, asked for terms. The reply came in two words, "Unconditional
Surrender."
Turkey, witnessing the rout of her army in Palestine by the great
strategist, General Allenby, and a British army, asked for an armistice.
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