The Christmas Day Truce
A temporary festive reprieve on the front line
On Christmas Eve 1914, British troops were holed up their trenches when they overheard the Germans singing ‘Silent Night’ and other carols. They responded with their own festive songs, sparking a sing-off between the two sides. The next day, 25 December, some of the soldiers made their way into no-man’s-land to exchange gifts and take photos with the enemy. Whether the famous football match between the Germans and the British took place has been debated but there were certainly ‘kick-abouts’ between the two sides. It was a brief period of peace for those far away from home at a time when family was supposed to come together.
Although a heartwarming story, the same could not be said for the entire Western Front. Battles were still fought on Christmas Day and those who did manage to venture into noman’s-land safely were faced with the grim task of recovering the dead and retrieving the wounded. It was also not the only truce to have occurred along the Western Front in 1914.
Despite expectations
that the war would be over by Christmas, it was soon clear that this was not to be. The initial enthusiasm of the troops had worn off as they became exhausted with the toil of war. By November 1914, there were small, informal truces along the Front in which soldiers from both sides agreed to quiet periods with no gunfire and a chance to recover the bodies of those who had fallen.
When reports reached the high command of the British Army of these little ‘truces’, they were angry. The troops were fraternising with the enemy and putting the task at hand in jeopardy. In 1915, an order was issued that anyone found initiating any such truces would be punished and they never happened again.
“It was a brief period of peace for those far away from home”