The Compiegne Forest is a large forest in northern France. This forest has been used as a hunting ground for centuries by French kings. The forest is most famous because of its involvement with World War I, the location of the Armistice on 11 November 1918 was signed. This Armistice signing is the agreement that ended the fighting between the Central Forces and the Allies, which makes the forest the "end location" of the war.
This forest is connected to They because of the fact that this is the place where World War I officially ended, with the Armistice of 1918. This is the ending of the war that Siegfried Sassoon was talking about in the poem. The forest is supposed to represent the ending of the war while the poem is supposed to represent the lives lost and the psychological strain that the war put on the remaining survivors of the war. So, even though the war technically ended after the Armistice, the war was still going on in the minds of the soldiers.
Sassoon, Siegfried. “They.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/siegfried-sassoon
Wikipedia contributors. "Forest of Compiègne." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 May. 2026.
“World War I.” New World Encyclopedia, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/World_War_I