Audio of guns finally falling silent signaling the end of World War I is astounding

Beginning in 1914, when European nations first waged war against each other, people living there forgot what stillness felt like. With battlefields thudding with artillery shells, the war continued for four years, and so did the noise, until 11 am on November 11, 1918, when the guns on the Western Front suddenly fell silent. The war had ended. In November 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the Imperial War Museum released an audio recording of these final moments, and people across social media were emthralled by the eerie tape. The recording has been doing rounds on social media, and most recently, it was shared by Fascinating (@fasc1nate) on X, where more than 170,000 people viewed it in just a day or two.

The recording begins with a relentless barrage of gunshots and explosions, reminiscent of a stormy sky. But about thirty seconds in, the guns abruptly fall silent, leaving a haunting stillness that resonates in the listener's ears. Shortly after, the sound of a bird chirping emerges—an everyday noise civilians may have forgotten during the war. According to The Smithsonian, the museum recreated the moment the Armistice took effect using seismic data collected during the war.

Since magnetic tape technology was not available at the time of the war, some special units employed a technique called “sound ranging” to estimate the distance from where enemy gunfire was coming from. They buried barrels of oil into the ground at small intervals and then used a piece of photographic film to visually record noise intensity. By combining the oil barrels and photographic film, they created a device that functioned similarly to a microphone.

To reconstruct the recording, the museum partnered with the sound designer company “Coda to Coda.” The company revealed that the film strip has six lines, one for each microphone. The team researched and analyzed details like type of weapons, intensity of blasts, and distance of the blasts to recreate the sound.

“This document from IWM's collections gives us a great insight into how intense and chaotic the barrage of gunfire must have been for those fighting on the western front,” Coda to Coda director and principal composer Will Worsley said. “We hope that our audio interpretation of sound ranging techniques...enables visitors to project themselves into that moment in history and gain an understanding of what the end of the First World War may have sounded like.”

On X, commenting about the sound recording, @lyndonjones said, “incredibly poignant.” @piratejoie shared a heartbreak symbol writing a profound comment that reads, “A most profound silence. Could have happened 4 years before.” @ggh2488 said, “Millions gone for nothing.” In actuality, the number of people who lost their lives in this war is more than a whopping 16 million, according to HISTORY. Yet, when the guns fell silent, those alive, who were used to sleeping under the guns, the silence triggered a cesspool of emotions – relief mixed with the grief of loss.