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Christmas Truce, 1914 By Bill Heidner, Museum Curator |
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The First World
War: The War to End All Wars |
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By Bill Heidner, Museum Curator They were the enemy, the Hun, the Boche, and senior Army Commanders encouraged an attitude
of hatred towards them, but for a relatively brief period of time during Christmas
of 1914, impromptu tree-lighting ceremonies and the singing of Christmas
Carols ushered in a Christmas truce.
In some instances this truce lasted well into January. The Christmas Truce of 1914 was un-official
and those same senior Commanders who had preferred a hateful attitude towards
the enemy were not at all pleased.
Officially, the situation along the Western Front was thought to be so
bad that when the Pope proposed a Christmas Truce it was deemed to be
impossible to carry out, and therefore rejected. But to the common soldiers occupying their
muddy trenches, in some cases only 60 yards apart from their enemies, it went
from the realm of impossible to improbable and finally to a wondrous
historical footnote to a war that would create 8.5 million dead among the combatants. (The total death toll for World War I,
including civilian deaths, was well over 20,000,000.) It began in many areas with impromptu tree
lighting ceremonies held by the Germans.
The British in particular had been told to be wary of a possible
attack, and at first the appearance of small lights above the parapets of the
German trenches were taken as signs of impending combat action. In many cases the soldiers fired at the
twinkling lights and were surprised that they received no return fire. Often what they received in return were
renditions of Silent Night or O’ Tannenbaum being
sung by the German soldiers in their front line trenches. Although the words were unknown, the melodies
were familiar, as was the tradition of the decorated and lighted tree. While there are many legends regarding the
tradition of the Christmas tree, almost all of them point towards Little by little soldiers from both sides of
the deadly trenches exposed themselves and came forth into the deadly no-mans
land to exchange Christmas greetings and goods. Each side had received Christmas boxes from
their governments and loved ones, which were shared between the sides. In one exchange a heated discussion arose
over the virtues of the British cigarettes made of fine tobacco from Virginia
(USA) versus the German preferred Turkish tobacco. Onlookers from both sides laughed as they
smoked each others offerings. What began on Christmas Eve blossomed to a
wide-spread truce by Christmas day.
Each side took advantage of the peace to recover and bury dead
comrades who had been left in the deadly no-mans-land. In one sector a keg of beer was traded for
plum pudding, and one British soldier remarked in a letter to his family that
he knew who had gotten the best exchange on that deal. In some areas, impromptu soccer matches
occurred. The scores vary depending on who is telling the story, although in
the more organized of these matches it is reported by both sides to have been
a German victory. For the most part, the truce would end on
Christmas day. In one case the Company
Commanders had agreed on an appropriate signal. On the British side they unfurled a sign
that said Merry Christmas. The Germans
unfurled a bed sheet that said thanks.
The British Commander fired three shots in the air. The two Commanders saluted each other and
then bowed. When they had each
descended back into the trenches, the German Commander fired his pistol
twice. The war was “officially” back
on. In most sectors the immediacy of
death to anyone exposed above the trench lines was back in full effect. In some other areas the truce would have more
lasting effects. One British soldier wrote home that he wished every day
could be like that Christmas day. Some sectors reported a complete lack of
the back and forth sniping that had occurred previously. The memories of the event would have even
farther reaching effects on the participants. The few survivors of the war
who witnessed this remarkable occurrence all remembered the sad irony of the
night and day when Peace on Earth - Goodwill Towards Man poured forth from
the deadly landscape of
“the war to end all wars.”
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