It was December 1914. The rain had finally
relented after days. The ground was mired in trenches flooded with water. There
was continuous sniping, machine-gun fire and artillery shelling which had left
a deathly trail of casualties behind.
“It
was a Christmas card Christmas eve. There was white beautiful moonlight, frost
on the ground – almost white everywhere. And round about – I should think – 7
or 8 in the evening we heard this singing and a lot of commotion and we saw
some lights.”
“They
finished their carol – we applauded them then we thought we must retaliate in
some way so we replied with ‘The First Noel’.”
“So we
went on…. Well, I thought this was rather an extraordinary thing really – to
think of the two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”
Yes, this did happen. An unofficial
‘Christmas truce’ did happen in the middle of The First World War in December
1914. The first war of its kind was also marked by the last truce of its kind.
‘The Christmas Day Truce of 1914,’ a lithograph by Arthur C. Michael published on Jan. 9, 1915, shows British and German soldiers out of the trenches of World War I, arm in arm and exchanging headgear. ARTHUR C. MICHAEL/THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS PICTURE LIBRARY, LONDON, UK/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
Declaration of the war
A hundred and one years ago, the world was
unexpectedly plunged into the First World War. Europe was in the throes of great
economic prosperity with a young German nation leading the way. In his very
popular book at the time - The Great
Illusion, Norman Angell had argued that war between industrial countries
was futile and that economic interdependence between industrial countries meant
that a war would be economically harmful to all countries involved. This was
seen as a big deterrent to any possible threat of war. And yet, spurred by a
complicated system of secret ententes and alliances, the allied countries –
United Kingdom, France and Russia had gone to war against the Central powers of
Germany and Austria-Hungary in July 1914 over the tragic assassination of
Prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Princess Sophie of Austria-Hungary.
It was the first global confrontation of
alliances that went beyond nations, and even continents, to involve the whole
world through direct or indirect interests. The war had begun in the summer of
1914 and people were certain that the “troops will be home when the leaves
fall”. Instead, what followed were four years of mass slaughter in deep, muddy
trenches with barbed wires, battle tanks, explosives, aerial bombing, and
chemical warfare that led to an entire generation of missing men.
Upon the declaration of war in July, a
regimented and extra-ordinarily disciplined German advance had routed through
Belgium despite stiff resistance and arrived at the gates of Paris only to be
checked by the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) at the last instant. After
five months of industrial scale slaughter, the war came to a standstill on the
western front in November 1914 with opposing armies staring at each other from
across hastily built trenches that flanked the no-man’s land.
Life in the trenches
Life in trenches was no fun at any time of
the year with the continuous dread of gunfire and shelling, flooding due to
rains, and the poor hygienic conditions that arose from living in them amidst
the wounded and the dead; but December was especially bad with its wet, frigid
conditions. Early in December 1914, Pope Benedict XV had proposed an official
“truce of god” that would cease fighting over the Christmas period but the very
idea of a truce was rejected by the powers that be on both sides.
Life in the trenches, Image from Chris Baker’s book: The Truce – the day the war stopped (http://www.1914-1918.net/truce.htm)
However, in order to maintain morale of the
troops, throughout the month of December, 460,000 parcels and 2.5 million
letters were sent to British soldiers in France. King George V in UK sent a
card to every soldier and his daughter, Princess Mary, lent her name to a fund
that sent a box of gifts (filled with chocolates, butterscotch, cigarettes,
tobacco, her picture and a facsimile of George V’s greeting to the troops - ‘May God protect you and bring you safe home’)
to all serving soldiers. The Germans at their end, sent tabletop Christmas
trees (Tannenbaums), tobacco/cigars and festive wreaths for the soldiers to
celebrate. Clear skies and a brief reprieve from the rain further lifted the
spirits on both sides as a cold frost settled in, setting the stage for a white
Christmas. It was in this context that the unprecedented ‘Christmas truce’
happened.
The truce
Many differing oral accounts, diary entries
and letters suggest that the truce emerged spontaneously on the battlefields of
the Western Front; and yet, despite these many accounts to this day no one
knows exactly where it began or how it spread through the trenches. In all,
about 100,000 people are believed to have participated in the spontaneous
Christmas Truce of 1914.
On Christmas eve, candles and trees went up
along parts of the German frontline. It is believed that they also delivered a
chocolate cake to the British line accompanied by a note that proposed a
ceasefire so that the Germans could have a concert. British officers at the
frontline accepted the proposal and offered some tobacco as their present to
the Germans. The goodwill soon spread along the 27-mile front line as carols
echoed one after the other alternating between the German and British camps.
Encouraged by the events of the night before,
on Christmas morning, German soldiers are believed to have emerged from their
camps, calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. Frank Richards, a British
soldier who experienced the “Christmas Truce” says, “On Christmas morning we stuck up a board with ‘A merry Christmas’ on
it. The enemy has stuck up a similar one….. Two of our men then threw their
equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two
of the Germans done the same and commenced to walk up the riverbank, our two
men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the
trench. Buffalo Bill [the Company Commander] rushed into the trench and
endeavored to prevent it, but he was too late: the whole of the Company were
now out, and so were the Germans. He had to accept the situation, so soon he
and the other company officers climbed out too. We and the Germans met in the
middle of no-man's-land. Their officers was also now out. Our officers
exchanged greetings with them.”
What began as general bonhomie and exchange
of greetings led to the exchange of cigarettes, chocolates, cognac, rum, food,
buttons and other wartime supplies. There are also reports of many small-scale
football kick-abouts and other communal activities like pig-roasts. While the
soldiers exchanged gifts and took photos spontaneously, it was also an
opportunity for them to leave the squalid trenches and to tend to the wounded
and dead in the No man’s land. The troops from both sides could also finally
bury their dead comrades whose bodies had lain for weeks on end. In many
places, the truce extended well into boxing day (the day after Christmas) and
each side seemed to wait for the other to initiate firing. In fact, Murdoch M.
Wood, a British soldier is reported to have said: “I then came to the
conclusion that I have held firmly ever since, that if we had been left to
ourselves there would never have been another shot fired.” It was however only
a truce and hostilities eventually returned; in some places sooner than in
others.
The truce was widespread but not universal as
the firing is reported to have continued in many sectors like at Yser where
bloody battles took place over Christmas. In fact, the French troops are
reported to be puzzled and peeved by these reports of the British troops
hobnobbing with their German enemies. Not surprisingly, young Adolf Hitler,
then a Corporal of the 16th Bavarians, shared a similar opinion
himself and said: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no
German sense of honor?”
The
anger from the top
As
reports of the truce reached the generals, the High Command was angry as it
feared a mutiny due to fraternization with the enemy. Many commanders believed
that this proximity and fraternization between the troops posed “the greatest
danger” to the morale of soldiers and told divisional commanders to explicitly
prohibit any “friendly intercourse with the enemy”. General
Smith-Dorrien issued an instruction to commanders of all Divisions: "It is during this period that the
greatest danger to the morale of troops exists. Experience of this and of every
other war proves undoubtedly that troops in trenches in close proximity to the
enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do so, into a "live and let
live" theory of life...officers and men sink into a military lethargy from
which it is difficult to arouse them when the moment for great sacrifices again
arises...the attitude of our troops can be readily understood and to a certain
extent commands sympathy...such an attitude is however most dangerous for it
discourages initiative in commanders and destroys the offensive spirit in all
ranks...the Corps Commander therefore directs Divisional Commanders to impress
on subordinate commanders the absolute necessity of encouraging offensive
spirit... friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices, however
tempting and amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited". Strict
orders were thus issued to end any such interactions between the troops along
with harsh punishment for any man who refused to fight. And these policies
ensured that such a widespread cessation of hostilities was never again seen in
the war.
General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien – commander of British 2nd Army
Corps Expeditionary Force – issued strict warnings to his senior officers about
preventing fraternization with enemy soldiers.
‘Live
and let live’
The
Christmas truce, however, was not unique as the massive violence of the war had
indeed engendered an ethos of “live and
let live” between warring troops. Infantries in close proximity would
engage in friendly banter and barter of goods. In some areas, there was also an
implicit agreement to not shoot at men while retrieving their dead/injured,
while exercising or during meal times. Wagon trains delivering food behind
enemy lines were easy targets for artillery but destroying the enemy’s food
would elicit the same reaction from them; thus food wagons were mostly left
unharmed. The same process made latrines safe zones. Such truces emerged
repeatedly during the war and the ‘army top brass’ in the rear would intervene
by rotating troops, threatening courts-martial and ordering savage raids that
required hand-to-hand combat. There have also been other instances of
occasional ceasefires between troops in the war but the Christmas truce of 1914
is unique for its sheer size, scale and spontaneity.
Even
today, more than a century after the truce, it is remembered as a testament to
the power of humanity and of the individual soldier on the frontlines. Its
legend has been memorialized through books, movies and advertisements. To mark
the centenary last year, Prince William unveiled a memorial with a metal frame
representing a soccer ball with two hands clasped inside. The truce provided an
unforgettable memory for many such as the British soldier who confessed in a
letter the following day, “I wouldn’t have missed the experience of yesterday
for the most gorgeous Christmas dinner in England.”
In
the middle of an unexpectedly long and disastrous conflict, the truce
symbolizes our desire for peace and our ability to effect change from the
grassroots, no matter how fleeting. Instead of an organized, top-down
ceasefire, the truce of 1914 was a spontaneous series of armistices that
originated from the men in the trenches. Soldiers on the battlefront reclaimed
the peace that was denied to them by their governments and generals as a matter
of policy. As Alfred Anderson
from the Fifth Battallion, the Black Watch later told: “It was a short peace in
a terrible war.” But sometimes that is all that you need – a cessation of
hostilities to see the enemy and his human side. It may not give you everything
you want but it leaves a lasting impression for sure.
Sources:
