There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free.

Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app.

As a member of NoisorPlus at Noyser.com or in Apple Podcasts,

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com.

It's the morning of November 11, 1918. The First World Wars raging along the Western Front in northeast France.

Soldiers on both sides, exhausted by four years of unrelenting war,

take shelter in artillery craters as enemy bullets

whistle overhead. The air is filled with smoke and shrapnel and the groans of dying men.

For several days, two battalions had been locked in a bloody stalemate over control over a strategic

liverbank, feet from the German line. And after a night of heavy rain, the ground has turned to a freezing sludge.

Each day brings more casualties and more suffering.

That's what this war has become, a slow and torturous fight to the death in hellish conditions.

But the lieutenant in command of the Allied Regiment has heard

rumors of an impending ceasefire. The Germans may be on the verge of surrender, but without confirmation

he cannot call off his men, so with a heavy heart he orders another wave over the top. Meanwhile,

back behind the reserve lines, a young British private is scampering through

the trenches towards the front. Clutched in his right hand is a message from high command.

He struggles through him up, trying desperately to get to the front. He must deliver this message,

saying the armistice has been signed. The war is over, vaulting the

outstretched limbs of his injured compatriots, the private holds onto his helmet as he runs,

bursting with excitement at the news. He knows that many more men will die before he can relay

the message to his lieutenant every second counts because many lives are at stake.

...