World War I Quiz - The Concluding Weeks (Answers)
Concluding Weeks looks at the end of the War.
The First World War began on 28th July 1914 and lasted for 4 years, 3 months and 2 weeks. During that time almost 10 million servicemen and nearly 6 million civilians were killed and over 21 million were wounded. Almost 2% of the world's population died as a direct result of this truly horrific conflict. How did this terrible war finally come to an end and what went on in those last few weeks before the armistice brought the bloodshed to a halt?
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The armistice required that Bulgaria cease all military action and remove its forces from other countries. A second treaty, that of Neuilly-sur-Seine, was negotiated in 1919 requiring Bulgaria to give up some of its land to Romania, Greece and the newly created nation of Yugoslavia. They also had to pay £100 million in reparations and limit the size of their army to 20,000 men
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The Western Front was giving way to the Allies who were now being reinforced by Americans. The stress was too much for Ludendorff and his staff called for a psychiatrist to see him
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The Germans thought that they would get better terms from the Americans rather than the French or British. As it was, many Germans thought that the armistice offered by the Americans was a humiliation and this was one of the factors which led to the rise of German Nationalism in the 1920s and the popularity of Hitler's Nazi party
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A total of 12 Test cricketers died whilst serving in the First World War. Four Englishmen, one Australian and seven South Africans. One of these, Reggie Schwarz, played cricket for South Africa and rugby union for England. He survived the war but died from the Spanish 'flu epidemic seven days after the armistice
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The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30th October 1918 and the fighting stopped at 12 noon the next day. Later on, the once mighty Ottoman Empire was split up by the Allies and many new nations came into being
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There had been three previous attempts to assassinate Tisza; one by an opposition politician, one by a soldier and one by an anti-war protester. Tisza had survived all of these but, alas for him, not the fourth attempt
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29 demonstrators were also badly injured. The crowd fired back at the military and the commander, Sublieutenant Steinhäuser, was badly beaten. The Kiel Mutiny was the spark which ignited the German Revolution and within a week the Kaiser had left the country and Germany was declared a republic
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He was also awarded the Military Cross for his part in the actions which took place one month earlier. Owen is buried in Ors, France and is commemorated, along with 15 other war poets, on a plaque in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The plaque is inscribed with the introduction to his works, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."
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The meeting took place in Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch's private train near the French city of Compiegne. The armistice was agreed at 5AM and came into effect six hours later, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That time and date has since been commemorated by a two minute silence on armistice day
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Price was part of a force tasked with taking the village of Havre. Whilst pursuing a German gunner in the town of Ville-sur-Haine, Price was shot through the heart by a sniper. He died at 10:58AM, two minutes before the beginning of the ceasefire which brought the First World War to an end
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