Flags appeared like magic over the shell-torn buildings of Verdun,
French and American colors flying side by side.
In every village, even those from which the Germans had been driven, there were flags and decorations which were brought up to the front by the soldiers. In the villages back of the line there were impromptu celebrations and the civilians in holiday spirit saluted the Americans, shouting "the war is finished."
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. The Porte signed without hesitation an agreement comprising twenty-five severe requirements.