The Christmas truce is a term used to describe several brief unofficial cessations of hostilities that occurred on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day between German and British or French troops in World War I, particularly that between British and German troops stationed along the Western Front during Christmas 1914 and, to a lesser extent, in 1915. In 1915 there was a similar Christmas truce between German and French troops, and during Easter 1916 a truce also existed on the Eastern Front.
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Christmas peace initiatives
The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria", signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached.[1][2] Pope Benedict XV, on 7 December 1914, had begged for an official truce between the warring governments.[3] He asked "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang."[4] This attempt was, though, officially rebuffed.[5]
British-German truce
Though there was no official truce, about 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting.[6] The first truce began on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium.
The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The English responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across the 'No Man's Land' where small gifts, were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. The fraternisation was not, however, without its risks with some soldiers being shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night but, in some areas, it continued until New Year's Day.[5]
General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, was irate when he heard what was happening and issued strict orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops.[6] In the following years of the war, artillery bombardments were ordered on Christmas Eve to try to ensure that there were no further lulls in the combat. Troops were also rotated through various sectors of the front to prevent them from becoming overly familiar with the enemy. However, situations of deliberate dampening of hostilities also occurred. For example, artillery was fired at precise points, at precise times, to avoid enemy casualties by both sides.[7]
On Christmas Day 1915, after some shouting between both trenches, the Royal Welch Fusiliers got out of their icy trench and greeted the Germans. Bertie Felstead, a Corporal in the Fusiliers, recalled that the Germans probably were already out of their trench before the British got out. He claimed that nothing was planned and that what happened was entirely spontaneous.[8] A football was produced from somewhere – though none could recall from where. "It was not a game as such – more of a kick-around and a free-for-all. There could have been 50 on each side for all I know. I played because I really liked football. I don’t know how long it lasted, probably half-an-hour, and no-one was keeping score."[8] On 21 November 2005, the last remaining Allied veteran of the truce, Alfred Anderson, died in Newtyle, Scotland at the age of 109.[9] It was previously believed that Bertie Felstead, who died on 22 July 2001 aged 106, was the last survivor of the truce, until Anderson was later identified as still living and had taken part in the truce.[10]
French-German truce
In December 1915, “When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines ..... something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over.” From an account by Richard Schirrmann, who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein, one of the mountains of the Vosges, and separated from the French troops by a narrow no-man’s-land, described by him as “strewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms.” Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether “thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other.” He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.[11]
Christmas truce letter
Singer Chris de Burgh paid £14,400, on 7 November 2006, at Bonhams auction house for an original 10 page letter from an unknown British soldier. The letter records events and incidents with the German forces at Christmas 1914. It is headed "British Expeditionary Force, Friday December 25th 1914." and starts "My Dear Mater, This will be the most memorable Christmas I've ever spent or likely to spend." The letter goes on to say "The Germans commenced by placing lights all along the edge of their trenches and coming over to us - wishing us a Happy Christmas etc ... Some of our chaps went over to their lines." It ends "Kind regards to all the neighbours. With much love from Boy."[12][13][14]
Christmas truce memorial
A Christmas truce memorial was unveiled in Frelinghien, France, on 11 November 2008. Also on that day, at the spot where, on Christmas Day 1914, their regimental ancestors came out from their trenches to play football, men from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh (The Royal Welch Fusiliers) played a football match with the German Panzergrenadier Battalion 371. The Germans won, 2-1.[15]
Legacy
The stories of this event have been told and retold in several media. British folk singer Mike Harding related the story in his song "Christmas 1914", as did American folk singer John McCutcheon in his "Christmas in the Trenches" and American country music singer Garth Brooks in his "Belleau Wood". In 1967, The Royal Guardsmen had a #1 hit with "Snoopy's Christmas", which relates a similar story through the struggle of Snoopy and The Red Baron. In 1999, the so-called "Khaki Chums" (officially: The Association for Military Remembrance) visited a region of Flanders and recreated the Christmas truce. They lived as World War I British soldiers had lived, with no modern conveniences. It also provided the inspiration for "All Together Now", a 1990 song by The Farm which has become a football anthem, often re-released at times of national tournaments. The group Celtic Thunder included a version of the song entitled "Christmas 1915" in their "Act Two" album. Collin Raye included the song "It Could Happen Again" about the events on his 1996 Christmas album, "The Gift".
Paul McCartney's video from the title song of the album Pipes of Peace shows a meeting between two officers, one British and one German (both played by McCartney), exchanging pictures of their respective families. When the truce breaks, and they rush back to their own foxholes, they realize they still have each other's pictures.
The Truce is dramatized in the 2005 French film Joyeux Noël (nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film" category at the 78th Academy Awards). The Christmas Truce was also briefly portrayed in Richard Attenborough's 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War.
A number of books have been written on the Christmas Truce, including Stanley Weintraub's Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, which chronicles the event itself from first hand accounts. Harry Turtledove included the Christmas truce in his alternate history of World War I where the war also takes place in North America.
Similar events are depicted in William Wharton's autobiographical novel of World War II, A Midnight Clear (ISBN 1-55704-257-8, filmed in 1992) and the truce was referred to in an episode of the science fiction TV drama, Space: Above and Beyond.
In the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the protagonists discuss events of the past that led them to their current situation, including the Christmas Truce. Captain Blackadder was apparently still sore over being ruled offside during a football game with the Germans. He also cynically muses that "Both sides advanced further during one Christmas piss-up than they did in the next two-and-a half years of war."
The song '1914' by A Rotterdam November is based on this event[16]
In the movie The Magic Flute, by Kenneth Branagh, the Christmas Truce is shown during the first Quintet in which the soldiers exchange gifts and play football.
In the Christmas episode entitled "River of Stars" from the Fox series Space: Above and Beyond, Joel Delafuente's character narrates the 1914 Christmas truce. He juxtaposes the event against the fact that over the next three years the war became the costliest in human history. He further elaborates that less than 20 years later, the same armies would become engaged in the greatest loss of human life ever seen. [17]
References
- ^ Oldfield, Sybil. International Woman Suffrage: November 1914 – September 1916. Taylor & Francis, 2003. ISBN 0415257387. Volume 2 of International Woman Suffrage: Jus Suffragii, 1913–1920, Sybil Oldfield, ISBN 0415257360 p. 46.
- ^ Patterson, David S. The search for negotiated peace: women's activism and citizen diplomacy in World War I. Routledge, 2008. ISBN 0415961424 p. 52
- ^ "Demystifying the Christmas Truce", Thomas Löwer, The Heritage of the Great War, retrieved 27 December 2009.
- ^ "Miracles brighten Christmas", Harrison Daily Times, 24 December 2009.
- ^ a b "Remembering a Victory For Human Kindness - WWI's Puzzling, Poignant Christmas Truce", David Brown, The Washington Post, 25 December 2004.
- ^ a b "The Truce of Christmas, 1914", Thomas Vinciguerra, The New York Times, 25 December 2005.
- ^ Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
- ^ a b "Christmas 1915 World War One", History Learning Site, retrieved 22 December 2009.
- ^ Scotsman.
- ^ "Bertie Felstead - Last survivor of a famous first world war Christmas truce", Diana Condell, The Guardian, 3 August 2001.
- ^ Richard Schirrmann: The first youth hosteller: A biographical sketch by Graham Heath (1962, International Youth Hostel Association, Copenhagen, in English).
- ^ "Carols, pudding and football: a letter from the trenches on Christmas day in 1914", Maev Kennedy, The Guardian, 8 November 2006.
- ^ "WWI truce letter sold for £14,000", BBC News, 8 November 2006.
- ^ "Bonhams auction", christmastruce.co.uk, retrieved 28 December 2009.
- ^ "Soldiers take part in commemorative football match", Ministry of Defence, 14 November 2008.
- ^ A Rotterdam November - 1914 lyrics - lyricsmania
- ^ "River of Stars". Space: Above and Beyond. December 17, 1995. No. 12, season 1.
Further reading
- Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton; Christmas Truce: The Western Front, 1914 (1984), ISBN 978-0330390651
- Marc Ferro, Malcolm Brown, Rémy Cazals, Olaf Mueller: Meetings in No Man's Land: Christmas 1914 and Fraternization in the Great War (2007, Constable, London) ISBN 978-1-84529-513-4 (Translation of Frères des Trancheés, Edition Perrin, France, 2005)
- Michael Jürgs: Der kleine Frieden im Großen Krieg: Westfront 1914: als Deutsche, Franzosen und Briten gemeinsam Weihnachten feierten. Goldmann, München 2005, ISBN 3-442-15303-4
- Stanley Weintraub; Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (2001), ISBN 978-0452283671
External links
- Listen online – The Story of the Unofficial Christmas Truce of WW I - The American Storyteller Radio Journal
- Christmas Truce 1914
- Hellfire Corner — the Christmas Truce
- Letters to The Times from participants in 1914 truce
- First-hand account of Bruce Bairnsfather, Chap.8 of Bullets & Billets
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