It's the evening of December 24th, 1914 and you're literally up to your knees in muck. You are a British soldier in the support trenches of the Western Front. As a stretcher bearer, you’ve seen the worst of war, but you’re eager for a lull in the action and optimistic that the new year will surely bring peace. Despite the miserable and cold conditions, morale is high. The men just received care packages from home and even some gift packages “care of the state,” complete with goodies and a note from George V “May God protect you and bring you safe home.”
After finishing your Christmas Eve dinner of canned meat and a rock-hard biscuit, you’ve sought out solitude so you can think about your loved ones back home. In the dim light of the evening’s gloaming, you hunch over your coffee as if you could receive warmth from the tiny wisp of steam rising from the tin—a stark contrast to your memories of the warmer Christmases of your youth. In a futile attempt to keep warm, your legs involuntarily march in place—an odd dance seemingly performed by each and every man up and down the trenches.
Faintly at first, you hear the familiar baritone strains of “Silent Night” on the wind and know that some of the men must be making merry as best they can under the circumstances. “Alles schläft; einsam wacht...”
Then with dawning comprehension you realize that you’re hearing the Germans singing in their trenches, some 80 yards across No-Man's Land. Not just your curiosity has been piqued, as a few of your cohorts emerge from their dugouts to see what’s going on. You risk a journey to the front line trench, sloshing through the connecting communications trench and greet the other three bearers of your company who are already standing on the fire-step, craning their necks to peer over the parapet. Your colleagues point out the miniature, glowing Christmas trees completely lit up with candles mounted on the top of the German trenches. There are dozens of them, spaced several yards apart. The German caroling grows louder and now there is shouting coming from the enemy trenches that you can’t make out, followed by a spontaneous sing-along as the Tommies all up down your lines have joined in the singing, creating a bizarre cacophony as the English voices collide with the German lyrics drifting across No-Man’s Land. The man next to you scoffs and shouts. “We’d rather die than sing German!” The answer comes back across No-Man's-Land in English but with a thick accent, “it would kill us if you did!” Everyone laughs.
Too dumbfounded to join in the singing yourself, you watch as the unthinkable unfolds. Three shadowy figures are clambering over the top of the enemy trenches and start moving toward your lines through the pockmarked lunarscape of No-Man’s-Land. As the three enemy silhouettes, backlit against their tannenbaums move closer, you discern that they are unarmed but not empty handed.
British soldiers start slogging over the tops of their own trenches as well. Gathering every bit of courage you might not have had on any other night, you too head over the top to shake hands with, joke around with, and exchange gifts with the men who have been trying to kill you for weeks.
The Christmas Truce of 1914 between the British and German forces is a very well-documented and often romanticized phenomenon that occurred during the first Christmas of World War I all along the Western Front. Starting on Christmas Eve of 1914, it's estimated that some 100,000 British and German soldiers put down their rifles and peacefully met in No-Man's-Land, often exchanging gifts and food.
In the months leading up to the Christmas Truce, the German offensive was halted by British and French troops at the outskirts of Paris in the famous Battle of the Marne and the Germans were subsequently pushed back northeast, causing them to dig in and built very well-constructed fortifications. As each side tried to outflank the other and exploit the less defined front lines to the north, the “Race to the Sea” began. With neither side able to break through, the result was a long line of opposing trenches all the way from the North Sea to the Swiss border. The stage was set for four years of bitter trench warfare.
The first Christmas Truce began on Christmas Eve near Ypres, Belgium, much like the imagined account above, with the Germans decorating their trenches and caroling. Eventually, the singing and yelling of greetings escalated to the point that tensions were low enough for the enemies to meet in No-Man's-Land to shake hands and exchange gifts. This phenomenon occurred all up and down the lines independently and spontaneously. In some areas there was nothing more than a brief ceasefire to retrieve their fallen comrades, in other areas the unofficial truce went on until New Years Day.
A famous account has the Germans bringing a chocolate cake to the British lines and the British presenting a gift of tobacco. Accounts in another area tells of two barrels of French beer from a nearby occupied brewery being presented to the British along with the German officer’s assurance that it would not make the British men drunk. The next morning, the Germans yelled over from their trenches, asking how they liked the beer, to which the British replied that it was weak, but they were grateful, nonetheless. Many accounts tell of the exchange of gifts, usually buttons, hats, tobacco, alcohol, chocolate and other things they had on hand. With all the Christmas care packages that both sides received from home or from the state, they had more goodies on hand than usual. One of the most famous stories is about an impromptu game of soccer between Tommy and Fritz played out in a desolate stretch of No-Man’s-Land.
The upper echelons of command on both sides had a very poor view of the proceedings. Accounts tell of how officers on both sides tried in vain to stop the men from leaving the trenches, but eventually had to accept the situation. Others tell of how the stuffy British officers caved in and joined the festivities when they saw the German officers out in the open.
The Christmas Truce of 1914 is not the only instance in which informal ceasefires were arranged. In some places, the opposing trenches were no more than 30 yards apart, well within the range for the soldiers to yell greetings (or insults) at each other and there were cases when special arrangements had been struck up between the sides to retrieve fallen comrades and conduct burials. There have even been cases of opposing nighttime patrols meeting in the dark and exchanging a few words or a cigarette before continuing on their respective ways. However, there has never been anything as large and widespread as the unofficial truces of the Christmas of 1914 before or since.
Many factors have been attributed to the possibility of the Christmas Truce. Both sides were very optimistic about their chances for victory when the Spring offensive started up again. Morale was high too because both sides had been receiving letters of thanks and care packages from home and from the state. They had no idea of the brutal quagmire that was in store for them in the coming years. The most horrible, grueling and inhumane tortures like poison gas were yet to be seen. It's been speculated that these factors contributed to why no more large scale Christmas Truces occurred throughout the rest of the war, despite some attempts. (Not to mention strict prohibitions from the high command on both sides against future fraternizations.) No doubt, the biggest factor was that as the horrors of war mounted with each passing year, each side saw their opponents as less and less human.
Still, the reason that the Christmas Truce of 1914 captures the hearts and imagination of so many is that it illustrates that we are still human. These stories show how men were overwhelmed with the spirit of goodwill and brotherhood enough to risk their lives, walking into a brutal killing field to shake hands with someone just like them whose only difference is being born in a different country. It shows us that we can separate ourselves from the politics and ideologies that seem to divide so much of mankind today. It shows us the sheer power of the Christmas Spirit and how it can make us better people, (even if most of us may not abide by it 365 days a year!) Most of all, it shows us that even in the midst of a horrible hellscape, that there just may be hope for mankind after all if we’re willing to clamber out of our trenches.
beautifully written, Scott