New Zealand Post issued a special miniature sheet to commemorate the
90th anniversary of the cessation of World War I hostilities on the
Western Front. This miniature sheet features stamps from the
2008 The ANZAC Series:
Stories of Nationhood issue.
The armistice treaty between the
Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiegne Forest
on the 11th of November 1918, and marked the end of the First World
War on the Western Front. Principal signatories were Marshal Ferdinand
Foch, the Allied Commander-in-chief, and Matthias Erzberger,
Germany's representative. The Armistice was agreed at 5am to come
into effect at 11am - the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of
the eleventh month".
While this official date to mark the
end of the war reflects the cease fire on the Western Front,
hostilities continued in other regions, especially across the former
Russian Empire and in parts of the old Ottoman Empire.