Armistice and Six Days Grace

We was supposed to rest six days to give them six days the German Army back six days. This was at the Armistice, you see. The Armistice was signed and we was lucky enough that we didn't have to go over the next morning. So we had a rest, we had six days. We rested there. There was a kind of another city there, like big as Mons and we went in there and rested for six days then we started and we kept going and when we got to Germany behind them we was only two days behind them. We beat them out four days. Outside of that, we could have got a lot of guns and things that they had picked up.

Mr. McLeod describes the six day withdrawal grace period granted to the German army after the Armistice. As the Allies advance to occupy Germany, they almost catch the Germans.

Russell McLeod

Russell McLeod was born on October 9, 1899 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. His father was a fisherman, and prior to his enlistment, they fished together. Mr. McLeod joined the 219th Battalion in 1916 and trained at Camp Aldershot, Nova Scotia. He was sent overseas that fall, and joined the 25th Battalion in France. He served during Canada's 'Last Hundred Days', seeing action at the Hindenburg Line, Cambrai and Mons. After the armistice, he served as a member of the Occupation Army in Germany.