Footsteps of WWII · Paris, Champagne & Alsace
Glade of the Armistice, Compiègne
Memorial · 22 Jun 1940
The story
On 11 November 1918 Germany signed the armistice ending the First World War in Marshal Foch's railway carriage, CIWL No. 2419D, in this glade in the Forest of Compiègne. In June 1940 Hitler chose the same place and the same carriage for France's surrender, arriving with Göring, Keitel and Ribbentrop; the armistice was signed on 22 June. The Germans took the carriage to Berlin as a trophy and destroyed the Alsace-Lorraine monument, leaving Foch's statue standing. In 1945 SS guards burned the carriage at Crawinkel in Thuringia as American troops approached.
What to look for
A long clearing with the rail tracks marking where the two trains stood, the statue of Foch and the Alsace-Lorraine monument of a German eagle pierced by a sword. The museum holds an identical carriage of the same series, renumbered 2419D in 1950, furnished as in 1918.
Plan your visit
The glade is open; the museum (Mémorial de l'Armistice) charges admission. Hours and prices for 2026 could not be confirmed; check the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris · 75 km
- Musée de la Libération de Paris – Leclerc – Jean Moulin · 78 km
- Mont-Valérien memorial, Suresnes · 80 km
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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