The 1918 armistice and the civilian experience of war

The Armistice signed on 11 November 1918 signalled the end of fighting on the Western Front. It also signalled the relief of a terrible experience for women, men and children twenty thousand kilometres away. Australian civilians – especially those with loved ones at the front – had carried an enormous burden of anxiety and fear through the war, and they often struggled to find the resilience to cope. In the midst of so much emphasis on soldiers’ sacrifices, civilians found one moment in which to draw attention to their own difficult experiences. The declaration of the armistice briefly permitted widespread and genuine expressions of relief from the torment and pain that had so defined the war for civilians. This chapter recovers the potency and urgency with which that experience surged into public at the moment the fighting stopped. In the streets, and indeed in the nation’s parliaments, Australians demonstrated their relief. At the same time, they drew attention to an experience of war deeply imprinted on individuals, but which has been difficult to see in commemoration of the war in the following century.