In a small, ornate railroad car deep in the Forest of Compiègne, a fragile peace was forged. German and Allied leaders gathered around a wooden table, surrounded by the trappings of war, and signed an armistice, effectively ending the brutal and devastating reign of World War I. The hastily scrawled agreement, penned on a typewriter and witnessed by a handful of weary officials, went into effect at 11 am, marking a tenuous ceasefire that would hold, if only just, until the Treaty of Versailles could be negotiated.