The 1914 Christmas Truce of WWI
By: Jemuel Datiles
Tags: World War I, Christmas, Peace, War, Christmas Truce

This fraternization — peaceful and at times friendly interactions between opposing forces — was a sight all over the Western and Eastern Fronts that went well into the late night. As Christmas morning rolled in, many of the soldiers still had the Christmas spirit in them, and the fraternizations continued. Many held Christmas mass together with their chaplains. Others talked about their loved ones back home, sharing photos of their girlfriends, wives, and children. Some British were stunned that the “barbaric brutes” that they were supposed to eradicate from the face of the earth speaks close to perfect English.

“How is your English better than my German?” a Brit soldier asks a German soldier, as he offers his Princess Mary gift tin.

“I lived with my wife and three children in London before the war. I ran a barbershop there before being called by the Fatherland.” replied the German, as he offers a cigarette back.

French soldiers were stunned to learn that the German in front of them lived in their neighbourhood in Paris and ran a butcher shop that they frequently passed by.

“We’re all descended from the Saxons after all.”

Captain Robert Miles, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, who was attached to the Royal Irish Rifles recalled in an edited letter that was published in the Daily Mail and the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News in January 1915, following his death in action on 30 December 1914

“Friday (Christmas Day). We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front. The funny thing is it only seems to exist in this part of the battle line — on our right and left we can all hear them firing away as cheerfully as ever. The thing started last night — a bitter cold night, with white frost — soon after dusk when the Germans started shouting ‘Merry Christmas, Englishmen’ to us. Of course our fellows shouted back and presently large numbers of both sides had left their trenches, unarmed, and met in the debatable, shot-riddled, no man’s land between the lines. Here the agreement — all on their own — came to be made that we should not fire at each other until after midnight tonight. The men were all fraternizing in the middle (we naturally did not allow them too close to our line) and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night.” (Sourced from Wikipedia)

As they continue to converse, they start to learn that they are tired of the war. Some didn’t even want it in the first place.

Slowly, their perceived notions of each other started to break apart.

Their enemies have families. Children. Wives. Hobbies. Love for music and great food.

Slowly, they started to realize…their “enemy” is not the monster that they were told was merciless…but a simple human being, who only yearns to live a quiet and peaceful life.

Soldiers burying their dead during the Christmas Truce of 1914. Photo: The Imperial War Museum

As the fraternization in No Man’s Land went on, many soldiers saw the bodies of their dead comrades frozen and rotting in the mud. So each side agreed to take the time to collect their dead and give them a proper, dignified burial. Some helped their enemies carry their dead over to their side, and vice versa. Many chaplains held funerals for both their own, and their enemies — paying respects for the heroic fallen while praying for the end of the senseless war.

British soldiers meeting enemy troops during the Christmas 1914 truce. Photo: The Times / Colourized by: Mario Unger

In some parts of the fronts, football matches even started between opposing armies, as recalled through the accounts of many who participated in the truce. Although not photographically documented, many veterans would later recall it happening. Many soldiers also wrote back to their loved ones recalling the games. Some claims state that the Germans won 3–2 in one match, while another match saw the Scots beat the Germans 4–1.

They improvised the game of football however they can. They used shovels to mark the net posts, and shovels for other indications for the field of play. Some did not have footballs in hand, so they used cans or bully beef tins as substitutes instead. Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxon Infantry Regiment recalled that the English “brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvellously wonderful, yet how strange it was.” (Sourced from Wikipedia)