By the autumn of 1918, eight million men had lost their lives in World War I.

One by one Germany’s allies were being defeated — Bulgaria in September, Turkey in October and Austria-Hungary in early November.

On October 29, refusing to mount what would inevitably have been a suicidal attack on the Royal Navy, sailors of the German Grand Fleet mutinied and their revolution quickly spread to the army and to German cities.

In Berlin, crowds broke into Kaiser Wilhelm’s apartments and stole his clothes.

‘The German people are a bunch of pigs!’ the monarch responded angrily. He had no choice but to abdicate and flee to Belgium.

Fighting on: Corporal J.E. Brigs and Private P.J. Martinemiko man an Allied anti-Aircraft gun in Raucourt, France, just four days before the signing of Armstice

On the evening of November 7, with their army facing defeat on the battlefield, a German government delegation made its way through the French front lines with a white towel flying from their car.

They were taken to the Compiègne Forest north of Paris, to the private train of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies, to begin negotiations for an armistice — an agreement to stop fighting so that a peace treaty could be agreed.

Meanwhile the killing continued.

Sunday, November 10, 1918

3am: Kaiser Wilhelm’s chauffeur is busy scratching off the painted imperial crown from the side of the vehicle, to make it as anonymous as possible.

The Kaiser’s aides have decided that neutral Holland will be the best place for him to seek asylum, and that to avoid areas held by hostile revolutionary German soldiers the journey should be made by a combination of royal train and limousine.

Nearby on the royal train, the Kaiser is getting dressed. He is unsure about Holland as a sanctuary, only too aware of the brutal murder of his first cousin Tsar Nicholas in July.

‘What happens if they turn Bolshevik as well?’

It’s over: Allied Commander-In-Chief Marshal Ferdinand Foch, front row, second right, oversees The Armstice signing at a railway siding in the Compeigne Forest on November 11, 1918

5am: On Marshal Foch’s train in the Compiègne Forest, armistice negotiations are continuing into their second day.

Sentries stand guard among the trees. When, two days earlier, Foch had first seen the six-strong German delegation led by the head of the Catholic Centre Party, Matthias Erzberger, he thought they looked ‘tired out, like hunted animals’.

He had said bluntly to Erzberger, ‘What do you want? Do you wish for an armistice? If so, say so!’

Erzberger replied: ‘We ask for an armistice.’

A German delegate wept as the Allied terms were read out, but Foch was unmoved — he told them they had 72 hours to agree to the terms.

In Belgium, the Kaiser has finally been persuaded that he has no other option but to leave for Holland as soon as possible.

As the royal train pulls out of the station it has an armed officer next to the driver, ready to shoot anyone who tries to stop them. Twenty-five soldiers are standing guard in the carriage corridors.

5.10am: All along the 400-mile Western Front from Switzerland to the Belgian coast, rumours are spreading that an armistice is imminent.

Troops are starting to imagine a different future.

Captain Eric Bird of the British 2nd Division says to his colleagues: ‘Do you realise that we shall probably live to be old men?’

But first they must survive the next few hours, as Marshal Foch has ordered them to fight on.

Kaiser Wilhelm wearing his ceremonial uniform with his second wife Princess Hermine of Reuss

There is still plenty of danger for both sides and anxiety among the more experienced soldiers is increasing.

Georg Bücher, a German infantryman since 1914, said: ‘We ducked at the sound of every explosion, which we had never bothered to do before. The old hands fought for the deepest, safest dug-outs.’

5.30am: It isn’t safe for the royal train to pass through the Belgian city of Liege as it is still held by mutinous German soldiers, so the Kaiser must transfer to his limousine at a small station ten miles away.

The stationmaster leads the Kaiser and his entourage out of the station, but to the Kaiser’s fury, his chauffeur and the other official cars aren’t there — they are waiting at another station down the line. He stands fuming in the dark.

7am: The men of the American 321st Infantry Regiment are being taken by truck to Verdun, where one of the bloodiest battles of the war had been fought in 1916.

The Americans have recently arrived in Europe and it’s their first day on the front line.

They look at the devastated countryside in shock — nothing has been left standing and on the hills they can see the bones of the French dead, bleached white by the elements.

The Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visits HQ of his son the ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm who commands the the 5th Army Corps

The village of La Bascule on the outskirts of the Belgian town of Mons is in the middle of a battle zone.

For the past 24 hours, German guns in the village have been firing at the advancing Allied armies, which are now only a mile away.

Schoolboy Georges Licope has opened all the windows of his house fearing that if they are closed, the vibrations from the guns will shatter them.

His family’s home has been requisitioned by German artillery officers who are meeting there to decide what to do next.

After four years of occupation, Licope and his family are desperate to be liberated.

Kaiser Wilhelm lived the rest of his life in exile at Doorn after his abdication at the end of the Great War

7.30am: Kaiser Wilhelm has finally been reunited with his limousine and they have arrived at the Dutch border near Eijsden.

The German border guards, now revolutionaries, are suspicious of this impressive limousine with evidence of its scratched-off insignia.

The soldiers look inside but don’t recognise their former monarch or spot the rifles between the knees of his aides.

One of the Kaiser’s entourage tells the guards impatiently they are on ‘important business’, which they take to mean talks about The Armistice; eager for peace, they wave the convoy through.

Near the Belgian village of Sevry, Private Frank Dunk of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment knocks on a farmhouse door.

A woman answers and immediately puts her fingers to her lips, then points inside and whispers: ‘Boche!’

Dunk and his unit carefully walk in to the kitchen, guns ready, but the Germans flee by the back door and run across the orchard, leaving their breakfast on the table.

With the permission of the farmer’s wife, Dunk and the others settle down to finish up the welcome meal of bread, pork and coffee.

8am: In the Compiègne Forest, a French railway worker shows the morning newspapers to the leader of the German delegation, Matthias Erzberger.

He is shocked to see on the front pages that the Kaiser has abdicated — it’s the first he’s known about it.

8.30am: Although the Kaiser has successfully crossed the Dutch border by limousine, he is not yet safe.

He is now on a station platform just inside Holland waiting for the royal train to arrive. The train will be his base while the Dutch government decide if they will grant him asylum.

Kaiser Wilhelm drinking to the health of Doorn residents after they presented him with a summer house

As the Kaiser blows on his hands to keep warm, workers from a nearby factory shake their fists at him and shout: ‘Vive la France!’

Finally the train pulls into the station and the Kaiser climbs aboard. The blinds are immediately drawn in case the workers start throwing stones.

9am: At the German prison camp of Rastatt by the River Rhine, it is the morning roll call.

Second Lieutenant George Coles, whose RAF bomber had been shot down in September, takes his usual position on the parade ground.

Coles and the other Allied PoWs are exhausted and half-starved as food is scarce and the camp commandant runs a strict regime.

After a while, Coles notices in amazement that the commandant and his officers are, in fact, standing with the PoWs on parade, looking sheepish and dressed in civilian clothes.

During the night they had been arrested by their own men, who have joined the revolutionary cause, and were forced to surrender their weapons.

Coles and the other PoWs jeer at the commandant as he is led away to the cells.

Near the French-Belgian border, Captain Frank Hitchcock of the Leinster Regiment is leading his men through waterlogged lanes. Since the start of the month it has rained almost every day.

An officer gallops up to Hitchcock shouting: ‘The war is over! The Kaiser has abdicated!’ Hitchcock’s men are too weary to react.

10am: In La Bascule, Georges Licope runs from his house at the sound of aircraft engines.

RAF planes are flying over the village on a reconnaissance mission and they are so low that Licope can see the pilots.

Kaiser Wilhelm and Konig Eduard at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

The German soldiers who have taken over his family’s house run out with their rifles and start taking pot-shots at the planes.

An officer shouts at his men to stop — they are unlikely to hit them and are giving away their position to the British.

10.15am: Most of Berlin, by now, is in the hands of Left-wing revolutionaries. Many German army officers have ripped off their epaulettes and the pavements are littered with discarded Iron Crosses.

In the centre of the city an English priest, Reverend Henry Williams, is blocking the path to St George’s, the only Anglican church allowed to remain open in Germany because the Kaiser, Queen Victoria’s grandson, is its patron.

A gunfight has broken out nearby and Williams is worried that his congregation might get killed taking this route to the 11 o’clock service, so he is directing them another way.

In the past four years Williams has survived anti-British hostility and food shortages — now he is having to dodge bullets.

10.30am: The church in the village of Auboncourt in north-east France is full — but not with its usual Sunday congregation.

Marshal Ferdinand Foch was a French soldier and military theorist, and an Allied Generalissimo during the First World War

An infantry regiment of the German 7th Division has assembled here for news of the political situation back home, and the building is full of blue smoke from the soldiers’ pipes and cigarettes.

An officer reads out a statement saying that a revolution has taken place in Germany, an armistice will soon be signed and they must march home today ‘in good order’. The soldiers are stunned by the news.

In London, Sunday morning crowds are surrounding 400 captured German guns that line the Mall from Buckingham Palace to Admiralty Arch.

The news of the Kaiser’s abdication has created an air of excited anticipation that an armistice is imminent.

Yesterday the German weapons were dragged through the streets by tractors as part of the Lord Mayor’s Procession.

Children are climbing all over the guns and are trying to get them to work.

11.30am: Captain Frank Hitchcock and his men of the Leinster Regiment trudge into the village of Arc-Ainières.

The locals come out of their houses carrying bread and butter and fruit for the soldiers.

Not all Belgians have been able to be so generous: Hitchcock has seen villagers so hungry they were tearing flesh off a dead mule with knives and forks.

In Berlin the congregation of St George’s Church are in the middle of singing the hymn ‘Peace, Perfect Peace’ when there is suddenly a burst of gunfire outside. Reverend Williams smiles at the irony.

Midday: In La Bascule, despite the artillery barrage coming from the German guns, Georges Licope and his family are having lunch ‘almost as calmly as in peacetime’.

On the veranda outside, the German officers who have commandeered the house are looking at maps spread out on a table.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and his son ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany at the Chateau des Tilleuls

Suddenly there is an enormous explosion and the dining room windows shatter, sending shards of glass into the room, narrowly missing Georges’s father.

The Allied guns have found their target. The Licopes family run for the safety of their cellar.

The walls of the house shake as more shells land and two anxious German soldiers join the family underground; one is crying in shock: ‘Zwei kameraden kaputt!’

12.15pm: As the Leinsters enjoy their bread and fruit in the village square, a German shell explodes a few hundred yards away.

‘They do say the war is over,’ Private Flaherty says sarcastically to Captain Hitchcock.

2.30pm: Brussels is still occupied by German troops, but an extraordinary mass evacuation is taking place.

Thousands of unarmed German soldiers and sailors are leaving the city, carrying red flags and singing revolutionary songs.

Miss J. H. Gifford, an English teacher who remained at her finishing school when the Germans invaded, watches them pass.

‘What a dishevelled, ragged, hungry-looking mob they were.

‘One dared hardly lift an eye as they passed. Such a contrast to that magnificent, invincible-looking force of 1914!’

Across France and Belgium the retreating German forces are leaving a deadly trail: leaking gas cylinders are being left under floorboards in houses likely to be used by Allied soldiers as billets; delayed-action mines are buried under roads; booby-trapped helmets, pistols and wine bottles have been left on the battlefield.

5pm: In La Bascule, the German officers are finally moving out of the Licopes’ home. They call to the family: ‘Tomorrow your English friends will be here. We’ve been beaten by a coalition of the whole world!’

A few miles away the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, is writing to his mother Queen Mary.

Although the prince had joined the Grenadier Guards in 1914, as heir to the throne he had been forbidden to fight, but has visited the front line as often as he can.

Earlier the prince had watched the Canadians slowly advance into the town.

‘I wish they would hurry up and conclude The Armistice as I feel that it’s such a shame on our troops in the line who are getting killed...what rotten luck to be killed or wounded the last few days of the war!!’

6pm: On his train in the Compiègne Forest, Marshal Foch is losing patience with the German delegation who are still prevaricating over terms; they will have to reach agreement soon to meet tomorrow’s planned 11 o’clock deadline.

He sends an impatient message to their railway carriage, asking if they have heard from Berlin whether The Armistice terms have been accepted.

6.15pm: In Belgium, the American 89th Division is beginning an assault on the eastern bank of the River Meuse.

Some officers think it’s foolish to continue so close to peace, but many American generals have newly arrived in France and are keen to prove themselves in battle.

As one major-general put it: ‘Fighting was our concern and our only concern until we were ordered to stop.’

Kaiser Wilhelm II with Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and Erich von Ludendorf at German Headquarters

As rafts and pontoons carrying troops move across the Meuse they are hit by German shells.

Some men are swept away and drowned. Major-General John Lejeune, commanding the 2nd Division, wrote: ‘It was pitiful for men to go to their death on the evening of peace.’

7.30pm: The German delegation finally receives a wireless confirmation from Berlin that the new head of government, Friedrich Ebert, agrees to the conditions.

9.30pm: In London and major cities across the country, pubs are closing for the night.

Since August 1914 opening times have been restricted because of fears that wartime production might be harmed by drunkenness.

Other restrictions have included a reduction in the strength of alcohol and a ‘No Treat Order’ to stop people buying drinks for others.

In March 1916 a man was fined for buying his wife a glass of wine in a Southampton pub; she was fined for drinking it and the barmaid was fined for selling it.

At the outbreak of the war, the King set an example by saying no alcohol would be consumed in the royal household until fighting ceased.

11pm: The Allied delegation have gone to their sleeping quarters on Foch’s train, but remain fully awake and dressed, waiting to see if the Germans will finally sign.

11.45pm: Kaiser Wilhelm is still waiting on his train at Eijsden station when he receives the news that the Dutch government has agreed to grant him asylum.

They have persuaded a Dutch aristocrat, Count Godard Bentinck, to let the Kaiser stay for three days at his 17th-century castle in Utrecht.

The Kaiser looks up Count Bentinck in an aristocratic almanac and isn’t impressed with his pedigree.

Monday, Nov 11, 1918

Midnight: In the cellar of a house near Aulnoye, Private Frank Richards of the Royal Welch Fusiliers is getting ready for a game of pontoon with his unit.

Over the past few months they have had little opportunity to spend their army pay and this will be a perfect opportunity.

Richards knows that if he loses, he has some German field glasses and automatic pistols he can sell to give himself more funds.

In 1914 he had his picture taken with his arm around a German soldier during the Christmas truce. He reckons that only two of his comrades from that remarkable day are still alive.

2.15am: The German delegates leave their train and walk 200 yards through the rain and cold across duckboards to Marshal Foch’s carriage — a restaurant car adapted for face-to-face discussion.

The leader of the German delegation Matthias Erzberger wants to squeeze some last-minute concessions from the Allies.

5am: In the Belgian town of Mons where the British Expeditionary Force fought its first battle in August 1914, the mayor Victor Maistrau looks out of his bedroom window.

The Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm, former Emperor of Germany on Friday January 27 celebrated his 80th birthday in his exile home at Doorn house, Holland

He sees Allied soldiers in the gloom heading towards the German lines and a glint of a bayonet. ‘I knew this was liberation!’ he said later.

To the surprise of the German delegation, Foch agrees to some of the German demands.

Fewer planes, lorries and machine-guns will have to be surrendered and the Germans are given 31 days rather than 25 to evacuate the right bank of the Rhine.

So the German delegates agree to The Armistice terms.

5.19am: Some of the delegation are in tears as Matthias Erzberger picks up a pen to sign The Armistice document.

He grinds his teeth in anguish as he writes his name — he knows how unpopular this agreement will be in Germany.

Reproduction of the scene which ended the greatest war in history. Painting depicting the signature of the armistice in the railway carriage

It is decided that the world will be told the signing took place at 5am and that the cease-fire should start six hours later at 11am.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month has a ring to it that pleases the Allied negotiators.

Erzberger has a final warning: ‘The carrying out of this agreement may plunge the German people into anarchy and famine.’

He then ends with a note of defiance: ‘A nation of seventy million suffers, but does not die.’ In three years Matthias Erzberger will be assassinated for signing The Armistice.

After 1,560 bloody days, the Great War is officially over but there are fewer than six hours to communicate the news to the soldiers on the front.

Jonathan Mayo is the author of D-Day: Minute By Minute, (Short Books, £8.99).