La Capelle
Faced with disaster, the German government dispatched a civilian peace delegation under Matthias Erzberger. On 7 November, French soldiers on the front line near La Capelle witnessed the approach of several German cars bearing white flags. The delegation was escorted through the devastated French landscape via Guise and onto Homblières from where they were placed on a train. The train was routed through Tergnier to a gun siding by Rethondes in the forest of Compiègne and the personal train carriage of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of the Allied armies.