War is brutal and unrelenting as its runs it course. It does not care who or what gets in its way. It is a living thing, and destroys all that is in its path. Old men send young men to fight over a line on a map or a perceived insult to someone, some country's, or some religion's honor. George Santayana, in
Soliloquies in England, stated that "only the dead have seen the end of war." Death is the only thing that will bring peace to a soldier on the battlefield, regardless of which side the young, and they are always young, troopers are on.
WWI was mankind's first modern war. Machine guns, airplanes, poison gas, tanks, and the venerable infantry man with his single shot rifle were brought to bear on both sides of the conflict. In 1914 it was thought that the war would be over by Christmas—but as Christmas drew near and men from both sides were chewed up in the meat grinder of the battlefield it was becoming apparent that the war was going to go until Christmas and beyond.
On Dec. 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV, just a few months into his papacy, made a plea to the warring nations for a Christmas truce, he simply asked "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." Officially, both sides ignored his request.
The battle of Givenchy started on December 18, 1914. It ended on December 22, 1914. A battle that in the end saw no ground given and no ground taken. A battle that caused 4,000 British casualties to 2,000 German casualties.
The first battle of Champagne began December 20, 1914, and would not end until mid-March of 1915. By the time it was all said and done French and German casualties neared 180,000 (approximately 90,000 casualties for each side). French troops gained at most three kilometers. There were 180,000 casualties over four months for a just little under two miles of dirt.
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Trench warfare was far different than wars of the past where troops lined up and marched toward each other in formation. Both sides were well dug in and were difficult to displace. The machine gun had created what was called "no man's land" in between the opposing forces' trenches. While tear gas had been used in limited amounts, poison gas had not yet been used upon the battlefield. At this point of the war the machine gun was the most efficient killing machine. Both sides had enough of this modern weapon and they made no man's land a veritable killing zone.
The Christmas Truce 1914 : German soldiers of the 134th Saxon Regiment photographed with men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in no man's land on the Western Front.
Soldiers will look for anything possible to relieve the boredom between missions and the stress that comes with knowing that you could die at any time in the most brutal manner imaginable. They passed the time by singing a song, making a soccer ball out of bits and pieces of fabric and twine in the trenches, even taunting the enemy by yelling insults across no man's land. Even though they were enemies, they still communicated with each other.
On December 24, 1914, war-weary soldiers on both sides of the lines were singing Christmas carols. At first it was amongst their fellow countrymen. As the night went on soldiers would sing along to their enemies' carols. What a sound that must have been—to hear the first verse of "Silent Night" in English and the second verse in German. The guns of war had fallen silent, albeit for a short time.
On December 25, 1914, troops emerged from their trenches, unarmed, across no man's land to exchange gifts and to break bread with their enemies. The break in the fighting allowed both sides to recover and bury their dead that were left in no man's land. Soccer games were played between German and British troops—playing a game, as young men should be doing instead of killing each other for a few extra feet of dirt.
The Christmas Truce lasted through December 26, 1914, and then the young men who the day before were trading souvenirs and playing soccer were back to the ugly business of killing each other. There was little tolerance for unofficial truces over holidays after 1914. In December 1915 there were explicit orders by the allied commanders. Troops were ordered to attack the enemy and communicating with the enemy was prevented by artillery barrages along the front line during the day. There were sporadic unofficial truces along the lines, but nothing of the nature of the 1914 truce.
The men doing the fighting one hundred years ago held no personal ill-will toward the men on the other side of no man's land. The soldiers of both sides were young and tired of fighting. Had it been up to them they would have decided the war based on the results of a soccer game or two. But the old men in charge could not bear to hear the guns of war fall silent. The war went on for another four years. The Great War would eventually take sixteen million lives (both military and civilian)—but for a few days in 1914 peace broke out in the middle of a war.