It is 24 hours after the armistice.
Millions of men, relieved that the Great War is now over, but strangely uneasy …
Jumpy at the slightest sound. Still ducking for cover at the slightest sudden noise.
Uneasy that the constant thunder of distant artillery is now gone.
Still mindful of not sticking your head above the parapet.
Some never recover, others have nightmares all their lives. Some will never speak of it.
Some carrying the scars of battle on their bodies, faces, or lungs.
Nervous laughter, jokes, a sense that while it is all over, time is still the great enemy, hours spend wondering how soon they would go home.
It will take days before new orders come from HQ to break the war-time routine, until then men are being rotated into the trenches again out of habit, they protest at the idea of going back into the trenches.
Somewhere in a hospital a soldier dies of an injury, another is run over by a truck, a burying detail falls prey to lingering poison gas at the bottom of a trench …
Many soldiers are ill in hospital, fighting a personal battle against influenza.
There is still fighting on distant fronts, the news of the armistice will take days and weeks to reach them.
"Something's not quite right !" Some soldier exclaims. "We kept out the Allies for years, we were on the Marne only a few weeks ago ! How could we suddenly have lost when we were pushing them back into Paris ?"
Millions of prayers, families at home, thankful their child, sibling, lover, best friend will return from the war.
Millions mourn the ones that would never return.
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
