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NOTE ON NEXT TRANSCRIPTION

You’ll notice that this transcription does not exactly match up to the audio. This is taken from William L Shirer’s book This is Berlin which has some of the broadcast prior to the beginning of the audio file and also is not a perfect transcription within itself. I felt that this was a better one to use for two reasons though. First it takes me about 10 minutes to transcribe a minute of airtime, mostly due to audio garbling, digital noise and finding some of the places and people mentioned to ensure the spelling is correct. This audio is 25 minutes so it would take me over 6 hours to transcribe. Second, by taking the account from Shirer’s book, I think we also see some nuance of how Shirer, himself, recalls the events with I feel adds to the overall experience.

CBS – William Shirer – Coverage of the Surrender of France

(begin transcription)

Hello America. Hello NBC. Hello CBS. William C. Kirker and William L. Shirer calling NBC and CBS in New York. Calling NBC and CBS from Compiègne, France.

This is William L. Shirer of CBS and with me is William C. Kirker of NBC who will be speaking to you in a moment in this joint broadcast to CBS and NBC. We’ve got our microphone at the edge of a little clearing in the Forest of Compiègne, four miles to the north of the town of Compiègne and about forty-five miles north of Paris, where the armistice in 1918 was signed. They’re signing another armistice in the same old railroad coach now. Hello CBS. Hello NBC. We hope you are getting us, but since we have no feedback, we can’t tell. Anyway, we’ll keep modulating for another minute and a half, and then start with our broadcast from Compiègne, France, where they’re signing the armistice.

Hello America. Hello NBC. Hello CBS. This is William L. Shirer of CBS, and William C. Kirker of NBC is also here. We’re broadcasting to you from a little clearing in the Forest of Compiègne, four miles to the north of the town of Compiègne, itself some forty-five miles north of Paris.

(audio file syncs here)

Here a few feet from where we’re standing, in the very same old wagon-lit railroad coach where the Armistice was signed on that chilly morning at 5 a.m. on November 11, 1918, negotiations for another armistice, the one to end the present war between France and Germany, began at 3:30 p.m., German summer time this afternoon.

What a turning back of the clock, what a reversing of history we’ve been watching here in the beautiful Compiègne forest this afternoon! What a contrast to that drama of twenty-two years ago! Yes, even the weather, for we’ve had one of those lovely, warm June days which you get in this part of France close to Paris at this time of year.

The railroad coach – it was Marshal Foch’s private car – stands a few feet away from us here, at exactly the same spot where it stood on that gray morning twenty-two years ago.

Only – and what an “only” it is, too – Adolf Hitler sat in the seat occupied that day by Marshal Foch – Hitler who, at that time, was only an unknown corporal in the German army.

And in the quaint old wartime wagon-lit car, another armistice is being drawn up as I speak to you. An armistice, designed, like the other that was signed on this spot, to bring armed hostilities to a halt between the ancient enemies, Germany and France.

Only everything - everything that we’ve been seeing here this afternoon in Compiègne Forest – has been so reversed. The last time, the representatives of France sat in that car dictating the terms of the Armistice. This afternoon, we peered through the windows of the car and saw Adolf Hitler laying down the terms. Thus does history reverse itself, but seldom has it done so as today, on the very same spot.

The German leader, in the preamble of the conditions which were read to the French delegates by Colonel General Keitel, chief of the German Supreme Command, told the French that he had not chosen this spot at Compiègne out of revenge, but merely to right an old wrong.

The armistice negotiations here on the same spot where the last armistice was signed in 1918 – her in Compiègne Forest – began at 3:15 p.m. our time. A warm June sun beat down on the great elm and pine trees, and cast pleasant shadows on the wooded avenues, as Herr Hitler, with the German plenipotentiaries at his side, appeared. He alighted from his car in front of the French monument to Alsace-Lorraine which stands at the end of an avenue about 200 yards from the clearing here in front of us where the Armistice car stands.

That famous Alsace-Lorraine statue was covered with German war flags so that you could not see its sculptured work nor read its inscription. But I had seen it many times in the post war years. Doubtless many of you have seen it – the large sword representing the sword of the Allies and its point sticking into a large, limp eagle, representing the old Empire of the Kaiser. And the inscription underneath in French saying; TO THE HEROIC SOLDIERS OF FRANCE…DEFENDERS OF THE COUNTRY AND OF RIGHT…GLORIOUS LIBERATOR OF ALSACE-LORRAINE.

Through our glasses, we saw the Führer stop, glance at the statue, observe the Reich war flags with their big Swastikas in the center. Then, he strode slowly toward us, toward the little clearing where the famous Armistice car stood. I thought he looked very solemn, his face was grave, but there was a certain spring in his step as he walked for the first time towards the spot where Germany’s fate was sealed on the November day of 1918 – a fate which, by reason of his own deeds, was now being radically changed.

And now – if I may sort of go over my notes I made from the moment to moment during the next half hour – now Hitler reaches the little opening in the Compiègne woods where the armistice was signed, and where another is about to be drawn up. He pauses and looks slowly around. The opening is in the form of a circle about 200 yards in diameter, and laid out like a park. Cypress trees line it in all round – and behind them the great elms and oaks of the forest. This has been one of France’s national shrines for twenty-two year.

Hitler pauses, and gazes slowly around. In a group just behind him are the other German plenipotentiaries – Field Marshal Göring, grasping his field marshal’s baton in one hand. He wears the blue uniform of the air force. All the Germans are in uniform, Hitler in a double-breasted gray uniform, with the Iron Cross hanging from his left breast pocket. Next to Göring are the two German army chiefs – Colonel General Keitel, Chief of the Supreme Command, and Colonel General von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the German army. Both are just approaching sixty, but look younger, especially General Keitel, who has a dapper appearance with appearance with his cap slightly cocked on one side.

Then, there is Erich Raeder, Grand Admiral of the German Fleet, in his blue naval uniform and the invariable up-turned stiff collar, which German naval officers usually wear. There are two non military men in Hitler’s suite – his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, in the field gray uniform of the Foreign Office. And Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, in the gray party uniform.

The time is now – I see by my notes – 3:18 p.m. in the Forest of Compiègne. Hitler’s personal flag is run up on a small standard in the center of the circular opening in the woods.

Also in the center is a great granite block which stands some three feet above the ground. Hitler, followed by the others, walks slowly over to it steps up, and reads the inscription engraved in great high letters on that block. Many of you will remember the words of that inscription. The Führer slowly reads them. The inscription says: HERE ON THE ELEVENTH OF NOVERMBER, 1918, SUCCUMBED THE CRIMINAL PRIDE OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE…VANQUISHED BY THE FREE PEOPLE WHICH IT TRIED TO ENSLAVE.

Hitler reads it and Göring reads it. They all read it, standing there in the June sun and the silence. We look for the expression on Hitler’s face. But it does not change. Finally, he leads his party over to another granite stone, a smaller one some fifty yards to one side. Here it was that the railroad car in which the German plenipotentiaries stayed during the 1918 Armistice negotiations, stood – from November 8th to 11th. Hitler looks down and reads the inscription which merely says: “The German Plenipotentiaries.” The stone itself, I notice, is set between a pair of rusty old railroad tracks, the ones that were there twenty-two years ago.

It is now 3:23 p.m., and the German leaders stride over to the armistice car. This car of course was not standing on this spot yesterday. It was standing seventy-five yards down the rusty track in the shelter of a tiny museum, built to house it by an American citizen, Mr. Arthur Henry Fleming of Pasadena, California. Yesterday, it was removed from the museum by German army engineers, and rolled back those seventy-five yards to the spot where it stood on the morning of November 11, 1918.

The Germans stand outside the car chatting in the sunlight. This goes on for two minutes. Then Hitler steps up into the car, followed by Göring and the others. We watch them entering the drawing room in Marshal Foch’s car. We can see nicely through the car windows. Hitler enters first, and takes the place occupied by Marshal Foch the morning the first armistice was signed. At his sides are Göring and General Keitel. To his right and left at the ends of the table are General von Brauchitsch and Herr Hess at one end. At the other end, Grand Admiral Raeder and Herr von Ribbentrop.

The opposite side of the table is still empty. At it stand four vacant chairs. The French have not yet appeared. But we do not wait long. Exactly at 3:30 p.m., they alight from a car. They have flown up from Bordeaux to a nearby landing field, and then driven here by car. They glance at the Alsace-Lorraine memorial, now draped with Swastikas, but it’s a swift glance. Then they walk down the avenue, flanked by three German army officers. We see them now as they come into the sunlight of the clearing – General Huntziger, wearing a bleached khaki uniform, Air-General Bergeret, and Vice-Admiral Le Luc, both in their respective dark blue uniforms. And then almost buried in the uniforms, the one single civilian of the day. M. Noël, French Ambassador to Poland when the present war broke out. The French plenipotentiaries pass the guard of honor drawn up at the entrance to the clearing. The guard snaps to attention for the French, but does not present arms.

The Frenchmen keep their eyes straight ahead. It is a grave hour in the life of France, and their faces, their bearing, show what a burden they feel on their shoulders. Their faces are solemn, drawn, but they are the picture of tragic dignity.

They walk stiffly to the car where they’re met by two German officers. Lieutenant-General Tippelskirch, quarter-master-general, and Colonel Thomas, chief of the Führer’s headquarters. The Germans salute. The French salute. The atmosphere is what Europeans call “correct”. But you get the picture when I say that we see no handshake. Not on occasions like this.

The historic moment is now approaching. It is 3:32 p.m. by my watch. The Frenchmen enter Marshal Foch’s Pullman car standing there a few feet from us in Compiègne Forest.

Now we get our picture through the dusty windows of that historic old wagon-lit car. Hitler and the other German leaders rise to their feet as the French enter the drawing room. Hitler gives the Nazi salute, the arm raised. The German officers give the military salute. The French do the same. I cannot see M. Noël to see whether he salutes or how.

Hitler, so far as we can see through the windows just in front of us here does not say anything. He nods to General Keitel at his side. We see General Keitel adjusting his papers. Then, he starts to read. He is reading the preamble of the German armistice terms. The French sit there, with marble-like faces and listen intently. Hitler and Göring glance at the green table top.

This part of this historic act lasts but a few moments. At 3:42 p.m. – that is twelve minutes after the French arrive – we see Hitler stand up, salute stiffly with hand upraised. Then he strides out of the drawing room followed by Göring, General von Brauchitsch, Grand Admiral Raeder, Herr Hess and Herr von Ribbentrop. The French remain at the green topped table in the old Pullman car. General Keitel remains with them. He is going to read them the detailed conditions of the armistice. Hitler, Göring, and the others do not wait for this. They walk down the avenue back towards the Alsace-Lorraine monument. As they pass the guard of honor, the German band strikes up the two national anthems, Deutschland Uber Alles and Horst Wessel song.

The negotiations go on. They keep talking. They’ll undoubtedly take some time. But that’s all for the moment. And William C. Kirker and William L. Shirer return you now to America.

(end transcript)

The rest of the audio is William C. Kirker which is also briefed by him in the other audio file posted but only now there is more detail.