"I glanced at my watch. One minute to 11:00, thirty seconds, fifteen. And then it was 11:00 A.M., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. I was the only audience for the greatest show ever presented."
Don't waste this fighting spirit, Pershing warned, "An armistice would lead the Allied Armies to believe this the end of fighting and it would be difficult if not impossible to resume hostilities with our present advantage in morale in the event of failure to secure at a peace conference what we have fought for."
Four American airmen recieved the Medal of Honor for deeds in WWI: Rickenbacker,Luke, Goettler and Bleckley. Fall of 1918 was a busy time for American soldiers and the journalists covering them. The main events leading to all four of these medals happened within about a two-week period over the end of September and the beginning of October,
You could shoot quite a bunch of holes in a WWI balloon and the gas could leak out of all of them for a very long time before it made any real difference. It would be rather a disappointment.
Although the effect of the flu was supposed to be a state secret for the same reason that nations talk about troop readiness only in positive terms, seeing so many sick and dying would erode anyone's feistiness. It is notable that the Armistice came so soon after the peak of flu deaths.
