Ninety two years ago tonight, Christmas Eve 1914, along the British section of the Western Front a remarkable thing happend. Men who had been shooting at one another across a "no-mans land" sometimes only thirty yards wide, quit shooting. Carols were sung and good cheer was yelled from the German side to the British and back again. Men who had been trying to kill one another the day previous, emerged from their trenches and met in good cheer and comraderie.
How did such a wonderous thing happen in such a terrible war? Follow me for a Christmas story......
While not unprecedented, the Christmas truce of 1914 was remarkable in that it has become something of a legend. John McCutcheon memorialized it in a haunting ballad. Is it because modern warfare has taken on such a horrendous quality that to imagine good will between belligerents is not only unimaginable but downright unpatriotic in the caluclus of "us versus them"? Or is it because it happened at Christmas in the first truly mechanized war that has the lasting reputation of killing so many of the nations of Europe's young men? Who can say the stuff of which legends are made. But legends have a power to transcend time and culture and it is this time of year I like to remember what transpired in 1914.
The truce began tentativly on Christmas Eve as reported by Lieutenant Bruce Bairnsfather...
A voice in the darkness shouted in English, with a strong German accent, "Come over here!" A ripple of mirth swept along our trench, followed by a rude outburst of mouth organs and laughter. Presently, in a lull, one of our sergeants repeated the request, "Come over here!"
"You come half-way - I come half-way," floated out of the darkness.
"Come on, then!" shouted the sergeant. "I'm coming along the hedge!"
After much suspicious shouting and jocular derision from both sides, our sergeant went along the hedge which ran at right-angles to the two lines of trenches.
Presently, the sergeant returned. He had with him a few German cigars and cigarettes which he had exchanged for a couple of Machonochie's and a tin of Capstan, which he had taken with him.
And from a Capt. P. Mortimer...
The enemy came out of their trenches yesterday (being Christmas Day) simultaneously with our fellows - who met the Germans on neutral ground between the two trenches and exchanged the compliments of the season - presents, smokes and drinks - some of our fellows going into the German lines and some of the Germans strolling into ours - the whole affair was particularly friendly and not a shot was fired in our Brigade throughout the day. The enemy apparently initiated the move by shouting across to our fellows and then popping their heads out of their trenches and finally getting out of them altogether.
Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the German army wrote in his diary...
Möckel from my company, who had lived in England for many years, called to the British in English, and soon a lively conversation developed between us...
Afterwards, we placed even more candles than before on our kilometre-long trench, as well as Christmas trees. It was the purest illumination - the British expressed their joy through whistles and clapping. Like most people, I spent the whole night awake. It was a wonderful, if somewhat cold, night.
Many reports have it that the Germans initiated the truce but it was so widespread that it may have taken on a life of its own, rippling down the trenches along the front...
The informal ceasefire stretched all across the 500-mile western front where more than a million men were encamped, from the Belgian coast as far as the Swiss border. The truce was especially warm along a 30-mile line around the Belgian town of Ypres, Jürgs notes.
Alas, there were still 47 months of fighting left in the "war to end all wars" and the day after Christmas the war resumed. Unfortunately the sentiment expressed in a conversation reported by a Lieutenant Drummand didn't have lasting effect...
The German climbed out of his trench and came over towards us. My friend and I walked out towards him. We met, and very gravely saluted each other. He was joined by more Germans, and some of the Dublin Fusiliers from our own trenches came out to join us. No German officer came out, it was only the ordinary soldiers. We talked, mainly in French, because my German was not very good, and none of the Germans could speak English well, but we managed to get together all right. One of them said, "We don't want to kill you, and you don't want to kill us. So why shoot?"
So why shoot? Peace be with you.