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Armistice Day: myth and reality
TONY COLLINS reveals the true story of the end of WWI – a story of rebellions, mutinies and strikes by soldiers and others determined to end the horrific slaughter, a story buried under official rituals and ceremonies
UPRISING: German sailors demonstrating at the port town of Wilhelmshaven, November 10 1918

ARMISTICE DAY is promoted as a celebration of national unity, “the day the guns fell silent,” and when the wounds of first world war began to heal.

But the reality is that November 11 1918 marked the start of a new phase of war: the escalation of the class war.

The night before the German high command formally surrendered, Britain’s war cabinet met in Downing Street. The minutes of that meeting reveal that the armistice was not the government’s most important issue.

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