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Wreaths of poppies are the symbol of the end of World War I, for some of the countries involved in the conflict. A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day".
Many Americans mistakenly believe that Veterans Day is the day America sets aside to honor American military personnel who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained from combat. That's not quite true. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor America's war dead.
Only the dead were left to be remembered, and the backdrop of the service was a huge stone ossuary, containing the remains of hundreds of thousands of men from both sides who died in the fighting. But its hillside has come to symbolise World War I's awful savagery, says our correspondent. During the fighting, more than 60m shells fell on the land, transforming it into a pitted piece of hell on earth.
In the United States, an annual Veterans Day ceremony will be held at Arlington cemetery near Washington at 1100am, to honour those who have died in service to the US.
World War I was the world's first industrialised war.
It toppled four European empires, led to the creation of the Soviet Union and marked the end of Europe's long global hegemony.
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