This Day in Military History — Nov 11: The Armistice Ends the Great War, Swordfish Strike Taranto

Host 1: Welcome to This Day in Military History, on this day, November 11th, we're diving into a single date in our sources that really rewrote the rules of the modern world. You usually hear about it as Armistice Day or Veterans Day, but there is so much more beneath the surface.

Host 2: There really is. It's a day of just profound contrasts. You know, you have the rules of political warfare changing in 1918, naval tactics totally shifting in 1940, and well, a complete rewriting of how nations actually process mass grief.

Host 1: Right. So let's start with 1918. It's November 11th and at 5 AM in a railway carriage in the Compiègne Forest, the German delegation signs the armistice with Allied Commander Marshal Foch.

Host 2: But the ceasefire doesn't actually take effect until 11 AM.

Host 1: which means there's a six hour delay, six hours of men still fighting and dying for ground they knew they were about to give back.

Host 2: Exactly. And the human cost of those six hours was staggering. Commanders on both sides, they just kept ordering attacks.

Host 1: Wow.

Host 2: Yeah. US Army Sergeant Henry Gunther is widely considered the last man killed in the First World War. He charged a German roadblock block and died at 10 59 AM.

Host 1: But 1059?

Host 2: Literally one minute before the guns fell silent.

Host 1: Just one minute that is that's a devastating detail to internalize. And the terms of this ceasefire were brutal too. Germany essentially had to hand over their ability to wage war, right? Like surrenderinging 5,000 artillery pieces and 1700 aircraft

Host 2: huge stockpiles yeah

Host 1: but the thing that stood out to me is that the Allies kept their naval blockade of Germany firmly in place. It's like hitting pause on a street fight but keeping your opponent in a chokehold.

Host 2: That chokehold analogy is perfect. The Allies wanted absolute leverage to ensure Germany actually signed a final peace treaty later they couldn't risk the German army regrouping.

Host 2: regrouping

Host 1: makes sense

Host 2: but if you look at who actually signed this armistice it reveals something even more dangerous for the future Marshal Foch signed for the victorious Allies but the Germans sent a civilian politician Matthias Erzberger.

Host 1: See that's exactly what I didn't understand. If you're a proud militaristic empire surrenderinging your weapons why wouldn't your top generals be the ones at the table sending a civilian seems really deliberate

Host 2: oh it was entirely deliberate the German high command knew the war was lost but they well they didn't want their fingerprints on the surrender

Host 1: so they shifted the blame

Host 2: exactly by forcing a civilian government to sign it the military commanders washed their hands of it the nationalists immediately exploited this

Host 1: right to spread that false stab in the back myth

Host 2: yes the totally fabricated claim that the German army was never defeated on the battlefield but betrayed by politicians at home

Host 3: Wow so the very document that ended the First World War essentially planted the psychological seeds for the second

Host 2: precisely which connects perfectly to what happens exactly 22 years later because on November 11th 1940 the rules of warfare changed all over again

Host 1: Right. The raid on Toronto. The British carrier HMS illustrious launched a night raid on the Italian fleet anchored there.

Host 2: They had to leave their other carrier HMS Eagle behind because of fuel system damage actually.

Host 1: Right. So they go in with just 21 fairy Swordfish biplanes. Now I have to push back on this. I looked up these planes they were incredibly slow and totally obsolete.

Host 2: They really were.

Host 1: So how on earth do a couple dozen outdated biplanes survive intense anti-aircraft fire from a modern battleship fleet? It just doesn't make sense.

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Host 2: It sounds impossible but their obsolescence was actually their greatest advantage. The Swordfish were covered in fabric, not metal armor.

Host 1: Wait, fabric?

Host 2: Yeah, fabric. So when the Italian ships fired these heavy armor piercing shells at them, the shells just passed right through the fabric without detonating.

Host 1: You're kidding. They were literally too flimsyimsy to trigger the explosives in the big guns.

Host 2: Exactly that. Plus they flew incredibly low, just feet above the water, which meant the heavy anti-aircraft guns on the battleships couldn't depress low enough to actually aim at them.

Host 1: That's brilliant.

Host 2: Right. So launching in two waves in the dark they dropped flares and torpedoes and just utterly crippled the fleet. Have Italy's battleship strength overnight.

Host 1: And I read Admiral Cunningham noted these 20 aircraft inflicted more damage than the massive battle of Jutland

Host 2: and the ripple effects were global up until that point navies thought fleets were safe in shallow harbors because airdrop torpedoes would just hit the mud

Host 1: but Taranto proved it could work

Host 2: exactly and Japanese naval officers studied this raid meticulously

Host 1: which obviously paves the way paved the way for Pearl Harbor it's wild how November 11th keeps shifting the paradigm of warfare but the sources also focus heavily on the human cost shifting from tactics to how we remember the fallen

Host 2: yes the sheer scale of destruction in the First World War meant millions of soldiers were simply missing nations had to invent a completely new way to grieve

Host 1: right which takes us back a bit to November 11, 1920.

Host 2: Britain buried its unknown warrior in Westminster Abbey they wanted one unidentified body to represent all the missing

Host 1: and King George V actually dropped French earth onto the UK coffin right

Host 2: he did yes

Host 1: that specific detail is so poignant it physically connects this anonymous soldier to the soil where he and his comrades actually fell and then the US followed too

Host 2: they did on November 11th 1921 an unknown American soldier was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with President Harding giving the address

Host 1: it's such a powerful tradition it really formalizes November 11th's dual legacy incredible tactical innovation but also this solemn remembrance

Host 2: absolutely

Host 1: and it leaves you with something really interesting to mull over next time you see a tomb of an unknown soldier consider how modern DNA and forensic technology has changed things the World War One era concept of an unknown soldier might never happen again in future conflicts we might never have to bury a soldier without a name again thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow