At eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the bugles blew "All Quiet" on the Western Front. That armistice was signed in the forest just west of Compiegne in a railroad car. The marker in the foreground was the car where the document was signed, in the car occupied by Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch. The markers in the background show where the German coach was parked.
The car was returned to SNCF but was then withdrwn to the presidential train and then displayed in Paris until 1927. It was then returned to the same spot in the forest which was made into a commemorative clearing. It included a memorial to the German defeat, showing a sword thrust through the German imperial eagle.
Then, on 22 June 1940, Adolf Hitler and his staff pulled into the glade and demanded that the French sign their armistice in the same car, and Der Fuhrer insisted on sitting in Foch's chair. The glade was then destroyed and the car removed to display in Berlin - where it was destroyed by the SS in early 1945. The Glade was restored by German PW's, and on 11 November 1950, car #2439, renumbered and refurbished to be correct in every detail, had its number changed to 2419D. Recovered fragments of the original are on display in the museum, where photography is prohibited.......
The statue of Foch, however, is original. Hitler ordered that it be preserved to watch over an empty field.