Tag: 1914

Silent Night, 1914

 Guest Post by Jesse

Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard Germans troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man’s land dwindled out.

The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.

After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.

British Imperial War Museum, The Real Story of the Christmas Truce


 

The Christmas Truce of 1914

Guest Post by Edward Moran

 

For a day life got the upper hand,
In that dreadful no man’s land,
When a band of brothers became a brother’s band,
Each extending friendship’s hand.

For a day they were unwilling,
To continue with the bloodshed and killing,
The day was for good cheer and singing,
And all that life’s prime should be bringing.

For a day there was no battle cry,
And the dark and foreboding sky,
Was filled with songs ascending high,
From young men in a world awry.

For a day they proclaimed to the Earth,
There can be renewal and rebirth,
There can be peace on Earth and good will,
People can refuse to fight and kill,
Hearts can glow with exhilaration,
A man is more important than a nation,
No man’s land can bloom like then,
It can really be Christmas again,
The Prince of Peace can have His way,
Like He did for a day.