The Christmas Truce.
Here’s a picture of German and British soldiers fraternizing in “no man’s land” on that day:
What really happened? What’s myth, what’s truth? Does anyone care? I kind of don’t. From this article:
The meeting of enemies as friends in no-man’s land was experienced by hundreds, if not thousands, of men on the Western Front during Christmas 1914. Today, 90 years after it occurred, the event is seen as a shining episode of sanity from among the bloody chapters of World War One a spontaneous effort by the lower ranks to create a peace that could have blossomed were it not for the interference of generals and politicians.
The reality of the Christmas Truce, however, is a slightly less romantic and a more down to earth story. It was an organic affair that in some spots hardly registered a mention and in others left a profound impact upon those who took part.
Many accounts were rushed, confused or contradictory. Others, written long after the event, are weighed down by hindsight. These difficulties aside, the true story is still striking precisely because of its rag-tagged nature: it is more ‘human’ and therefore all the more potent.
Men on both sides wrote in their journals about the truce – they wrote letters home – their first-hand accounts:
Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxons recorded in his diary: ‘The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvellously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.’
The Truce lasted all day; in places it ended that night, but on other sections of the line it held over Boxing Day and in some areas, a few days more. In fact, there parts on the front where the absence of aggressive behaviour was conspicuous well into 1915.
Captain J C Dunn, the Medical Officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whose unit had fraternised and received two barrels of beer from the Saxon troops opposite, recorded how hostilities re-started on his section of the front.
Dunn wrote: ‘At 8.30 I fired three shots in the air and put up a flag with “Merry Christmas” on it, and I climbed on the parapet. He [the Germans] put up a sheet with “Thank you” on it, and the German Captain appeared on the parapet. We both bowed and saluted and got down into our respective trenches, and he fired two shots in the air, and the War was on again.’
Hey, Paul McCartney’s back!
There was a great PBS show about this. Almost as heartwarming as Linus on the Charlie Brown’s Christmas special.
This story makes me cry. When are we going to figure it out? When?
Ken – I don’t get your comment. Is it … they look like Sgt. Pepper in the photo? What?
Just watched something about this on the History Channel. Was a great story. Sad that we don’t hear more about things like this.
Merry Christmas, Red. :-)
Look at the second guy from the left in front, red. If that ain’t the spittin’ image of Paul in the Pepper years, nothin’ is.
Oh. Yeah, I guess so.
Damn – I appear to have missed all of the various SPECIALS about the truce!!
The last survivor just died last month.
The truce is depicted very memorably in the book A Very Long Engagement – a fanTAStic read. Can’t vouch for the movie.
Wow – Bingley. He was 109. Man oh man.
Imagine the life he had, what he saw in WW1, WW2…my gosh.
Here’s another outstanding book about the Truce:
Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub.
There’s another picture of that guy in this book, I can’t find it online, but as soon as I saw it I thought “McCartney”.
Ken – cool – a whole book about it? I love Weintraub – thanks for the recommendation!
Too co-oncidental! For our family Christmas dinner, my sister Anne provides us with assignments; it might be a reading, or explaining a tradition. This year, mine was to tell the story behind The Carol of Trenches. Most of the sources I found, indicated that the truce began with German soldiers stopping their shooting, and putting up tiny trees or branches with candles on them, on the top of the trenches. It rather stunned the English and French soldiers. And as the German soldiers began singing as well, it resulted in kind of a competition for the Allied forces to sing back. One result was that the superior officers realized the dangers of keeping no man’s land only a few metres wide – in future it would be much larger, lest any of these soldiers realize they were shooting at actual people.
dave –
what a marvelous family tradition you have – I love it! I love the coincidence too – thank you so much for the story!