In his Despatches Sir Douglas Haig sums up the situation on the morning of the 11th November 1918 thus:
In the fighting since November 1st, our troops had broken the enemy's resistance beyond hope of recovery, and had forced on him a disorderly retreat along the whole front of the British Armies. Thereafter the enemy was capable neither of accepting nor refusing battle.... The strategic plan of the Allies had been realised with a completeness rarely seen in war. When the Armistice was signed by the enemy his defensive powers had already been definitely destroyed. A continuance of hostilities could only have meant disaster to the German Armies and the armed invasion of Germany.
A remarkable incident related by Lieut. Mosely occurred at Sars-la-Bruyère the day following the Armistice.
The Mess Corporal proceeded to Mons to see if any green vegetables could be procured. Returning from his mission through the streets of Mons he saw a soldier untidily dressed and without puttees, but wearing on his jacket the red circles which were the distinguishing mark of the 1/4th Londons. Said the Corporal, "What are you doing here?" "Looking for my Battalion," replied the man. The Corporal demanded to know why the man had wandered so far from billets and what he meant by being so untidily turned out. To his surprise the soldier informed him that he had come from Germany. A few more words and the Corporal realised that this was one of our own men who had walked out of a German prison when the Armistice was declared. Whipping up the wanderer into the Mess cart, he brought him home, washed him and gave him a big meal. The poor fellow was almost hysterical at being amongst his own once more. He was a man of B Company who had been captured on the 28th March 1918, at Oppy. "We gave him a strong dose of rum," writes Mosely, "and wrapped him in warm blankets. By the next morning he had quite recovered, and was asking for his pay!"
Thus ended the four years' war service of the 1/4th Londons, who at the end of the campaign were within two miles of Malplaquet, where Marlborough's great victory had been won two hundred years earlier. It had the proud distinction of having finished its active service within five miles of Mons, where the first British shot had been fired in August 1914. Of the 1016 officers and men who had left England on the 4th September 1914, only about 30 other ranks remained with the Battalion which had done such glorious service on so many hard-fought fields.
As a tribute to the many unrewarded acts of heroism of which there have been so many examples during the War, a letter, relating to the circumstances attending the death of No. 280872 Pte. S. Greenfield of D Company on the 23rd August 1918, is preserved among the Battalion records. This letter was sent by the Medical Officer, 178th Brigade, R.F.A., who found Greenfield's body, to his relatives, from whom it was received by the Commanding Officer. The following is an extract from this letter, which is dated 24th August 1918:
... On searching the battlefield (Boyelles) I discovered the body of your son Private S. Greenfield, No. 280872. He had died fighting, killed outright by a machine-gun. I found him lying on a German machine-gun which I have no doubt he intended to capture. As no more dead were there and no other signs of a fight about the machine-gun nest, I expect he rushed the machine-gunners himself. I may remark the machine-gunners are dead also.
One of the survivors of the original Battalion was Flossie, a small, brown Pomeranian dog. Flossie had served on the railway line in August 1914, had accompanied the Battalion to Malta and been successfully smuggled into France in January 1915. Throughout the War she had journeyed everywhere with the Battalion, and finally came home with the Cadre in 1919. Her principal claim to distinction appears to be that she succeeded in bringing a litter of puppies into a noisy and muddy world in most of the leading towns and villages of Flanders. Throughout she maintained a calm demeanour, and when her maternal cares necessitated transport she rode with her young family in a basket perched on one of the cookers.
On the 15th November a party of the Battalion, under Capt. H. N. Williams, M.C., took part in the triumphal march through Mons, where the troops were received with a tumultuous welcome.