On Sunday 11th November, Remembrance Day services are held in villages, towns and cities across the Commonwealth of Nations (an association of states, nearly of which are former members of the British Empire). Including a two-minute silence held at 11 a.m. precisely, the services commemorate the contribution of Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women involved in both World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45), as well as later conflicts. Remembrance Day falls on the anniversary of the Armistice, 11th November 1918, the day on which fighting in World War I came to an end. What led to the end of hostilities? Why does the two-minute silence begin at 11 a.m.? And why do we wear red poppies to mark the event?

World War I

World War I began with a German advance into northern France in August 1914. This was halted by British and French troops at the Battle of the Marne in September. By the end of the year, fighting along the Western Front had turned into stalemate, with neither side able to make headway.

Weapons such as machine guns, grenades and long-range artillery (field guns and mortars) proved devastatingly effective. As a defence against them, soldiers on both sides dug deep ditches in the ground, which expanded into a system of trenches that stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland.

In March 1918, the Germans launched a major attack against the Allies on the Western Front. It was initially successful, but the Allies—British, British Dominion, French and Belgian armies, now reinforced by US troops—rallied and launched what was known as the Hundred Days Offensive. Following the Battle of Amiens on 8th August, they opened up a gap in the German lines. During August and September, the Allies built on their success with further advances, forcing the Germans to retreat.

​​​​​​​With more than 100,000 German prisoners taken and its allies dropping out of the war, the German High Command realised that the war was lost. On 28th September, General Erich Ludendorff asked for a ceasefire: the Armistice.

The Armistice of 11th November 1918 ended fighting on land, sea and air between the Allies and Germany. Signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne, northern France, at 5 a.m., it came into force at 11 a.m., Paris time ("the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"). It marked a victory for the Allies and a defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender.

​​​​​​​During the six hours between the signing of the Armistice and its taking effect, opposing armies on the Western Front began to withdraw from their positions, but fighting continued in some places to the very end. The last soldier, American Henry Gunther, died at 10.59 a.m.

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in the Commonwealth of Nations since the end of World War I. It is observed on the nearest Sunday to 11th November to recall the Armistice, the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918.

​​​​​​​The memorial day began as Armistice Day, which continues to be marked in many countries on 11th November itself. Armistice Day was first observed by King George V, hosting a "Banquet in Honour of the President of the French Republic". The date is a national holiday in France. Armistice Day is not celebrated in Germany, but a German national day of mourning, Volkstrauertag, has been observed on the Sunday closest to 16th November since 1952.

Poppies

The red poppy has become the emblem of Remembrance Day. Poppies were a common sight on the Western Front, where the flowers flourished in the soil churned up by the fighting. Their bright red colour symbolized the blood spilled in the war. The poppy inspired Canadian doctor John McCrae to write his poem In Flanders Fields while serving in Ypres in 1915.

​​​​​​​On reading McCrae's poem in 1918, Moina Michael, an American professor, decided to campaign for wearing a poppy on the anniversary of the Armistice. First adopted by the American Legion to commemorate US soldiers killed in the war, the custom quickly spread to Britain. Poppies were worn for the first time at the 1921 ceremony.