John Lichfield on the strange meeting in the forest of Compiègne that culminated in the signing of the Armistice

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke describes to his wife the rising tide of popular unrest in Munich

Wilfred Owen’s death, like his poems, captured the pity of war. John Walsh charts his journey from innocence to iconic status

When the US expeditionary force launched its first independent action, the results were devastating

John Lichfield describes the unexpectedly spectacular Allied breakthrough that launched a 100-day push to victory

The military top brass plotted the war far from the horrors of the front. Jonathan Brown on the day George V came to stay

Chateau-Thierry, July 1918: Robert C Hoffman, a lieutenant with the US 28th Division, describes the grisly aftermath of the bloody battle for Hill 204

An explosion at Britain’s biggest munitions plant killed 134 workers, but news of the disaster was suppressed

Images from varied collections brought together for the first time

I had just announced to my father, as we sat over tea in the dining room, that I must do up Edward’s papers and take them to the post office before it closed for the weekend, when there came a sudden loud clattering at the front-door knocker that always meant a telegram. For a moment I thought that my legs would not carry me, but they behaved quite normally as I got up and went to the door.

Sixteen-year-old Piete Kuhr describes in her diary a chilling visit to the Flying Corps barracks in Posen

A shock artillery attack on the French capital marked the start of an offensive that nearly broke the Allies