Ring bells for Armistice

By William T. Clew
The Catholic Free Press

    At 11 a.m., Nov. 11, 1918, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice went into effect and the Great War, the World War, the “War to End All Wars” came to an end on the Western Front in Europe.
    Just 21 years later, in 1939 when German troops invaded Poland, those names lost their meaning. That war became known as World War I. A bigger, more deadly war, World War II had begun. Armistice Day observances disappeared  for the most part.
    Now, 100 years after that day in 1918 when the Armistice went into effect, an international organization called Veterans for Peace is asking that it be observed again.
    The Massachusetts Veterans’ Service department has sent out a request that churches and public buildings with bells ring them at 11 a.m., Nov. 11 “to recognize the World War I centennial of the Armistice on this Veterans Day.”
    The diocesan Communications Ministry has forwarded the request to parishes, noting that ringing the bells would be voluntary and that the 11 a.m. time may conflict with Mass schedules.
    For many years Nov. 11 was celebrated in many countries. At 11 a.m. on that day church bells and bells on schools and workplaces rang.
    On that day, when the bells rang, people stopped what they were doing.  Traffic halted and people got out of their cars. Men who wore hats - and most did because that was the style then - removed them. Except for the bells, there was silence.
    People perhaps remembered the nearly 20 million people, soldiers and civilians, in the world who died in that war, and the 116,000 Americans who were among them.
    One of those Americans was a Catholic priest, Lt. William Davitt. Father Davitt  was born in Holyoke and grew up in Chicopee. He attended the College of the Holy Cross and was captain of the football team. He then studied for the priesthood and, after ordination, he served at St. John Parish in Worcester. When the war began he volunteered to be a chaplain. After training he was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to the 125th Infantry, 32nd Division of the Army.
    According to the Holy Cross College Service Record: War of 1917, “During the advance of his Division along the Vesle River he learned that a party of Americans was cut off in a ravine. Calling for volunteers, Chaplain Davitt led them through a hail of machine gun bullets and rescued those cut off without the loss of a man.”
    The French Army citation signed by Marshall Petain, awarding Chaplain Davitt the Criox de Guerre with palm, states, “in advance from the Ourcq to the Vesle from July 31 to Aug. 6, 1918, he performed his duties constantly under violent fire and regardless of danger. By word and example he encouraged the men of his regiment in continuing the attack.’”
    He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for this action.
    On Nov. 11, 1918, Chaplain Davitt was killed by a German artillery shell. Some accounts say it was 15 minutes before 11 a.m. when the Armistice went into effect. Others say it was about an hour and half before the firing stopped. According to the information collected by his college, “He had been transferred to 3rd Corps, but on Nov. 10, 1918 he was sent back to his own Division. About an hour and half before the armistice became effective on Nov. 11, 1918, Chaplain Davitt carried a large American flag to present to the commanding officer and had just stepped from the latter’s room when a piece of shell bursting in the roof of a barn near by struck and killed him.”
    He is believed to have been the last American officer killed in the war.
    Father John Madden, pastor of St. John Parish, said the bell at St. John will ring at 11 a.m. Sunday, because it is programed to ring on the hour.
    Observance of Armistice Day was informal at first, but in June 1926, Congress adopted a resolution requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue a proclamation calling for the observance of Nov. 11 “with appropriate ceremonies.”
    In 1938 Congress made Nov. 11 a legal holiday, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'"
    In 1938, just 21 years after that 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 when the Armistice took effect, German troops invaded Poland. The Great War, the World War, the War to End all Wars, became known as World War I. World War II, the deadliest war in history, had begun.
    Over the years, fewer and fewer Armistice Day observances took place, and in 1953, Congress passed and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed, a law designating Nov. 11 Veterans Day.