Famous Christmas war truce in own words of the men who took part
The Christmas Truce of 1914 remains a moment of enduring fascination more than a century after the day the First World War guns fell silent.
A fascinating new book pieces together the stories of the men who took part and reveals what actually happened in their own words.
Along the British Sector of the Western Front thousands of British soldiers took part in the series of spontaneous ceasefires of Christmas 1914.
Within days the first reports started landing through letterboxes and appearing in newspapers back home revealing the astonishing laying down of arms between enemies over the festive season.
Editors latched on to accounts of football games between foes but the fraternisation went far beyond a chance for impromptu kickabouts as men swapped souvenirs, shared food and drink, exchanged addresses, sang and joked together.
Pte Reginald Cornish, Queen’s Westminster Rifles, records: “About 5pm our thoughts turned back to home and Christmas Eve, and we started singing a few carols. This seemed to cheer the Germans up, as they started singing back, and shouting to us ‘A Merry Christmas!’
“Not a shot was fired by them or by us all night, and it seemed as if the war had almost finished.
“On Christmas Day we had a short service in the trench, and after that we started going out halfway to meet the Germans. In less than half an hour we were busily talking to them, and found they were quite longing for the war to cease.
“They asked us not to fire all day, and they would not fire. In the meantime, we exchanged cigarettes and tobacco and I also managed to get several buttons and cap badges. Two Germans with whom I happened to get into conversation were quite decent class fellows, and a cut above the others. They were brothers in the 107th Saxons, and as reservists were called up in September.
“One had a ticket for London with him and told us he was just going to London for a holiday when he was called up. On leaving them, they handed us cigars, and said they were personally very sorry indeed to have to fight against us.”
Cornish was not the only man from the Queen’s Westminsters to meet a German soldier with an interest in London life.
L/Cpl Fred Whelbourn, Queen’s Westminster Rifles, recalls: “One fellow who, previous to the outbreak of war, worked in The City and lived at Highgate, was very anxious to know how Tottenham and Woolwich were getting on at football, and wished us very much to play them a game of football between the trenches.
“It would have been grand, as the ground was hard and covered with snow, but needless to say it did not come off.”
Football was a popular topic between the foes. As an officer with one of the Highland regiment notes: “One great big sergeant expressed great regret at the war having spoilt his football. He toured Britain last year with the Leipzig team and beat Glasgow Celtic by 1-0.”
While most of the conversations were friendly, there was the odd flashpoint as Pte William Cook, of the Hampshire Regiment recalls.
“They have been buoyed up with hope from their officers that everything was going well with them, and one told me that the Russian army was a ‘walkover’.
“I did my best to enlighten him as to the true state of affairs, and I thought it was going to end up with a scrap between him and me over it, but one of his mates got on to him for arguing with me, and we passed it off by exchanging chocolates and cigarettes with each other.”
Indeed, up and down the frontline the men exchanged sweets, tobacco, food and drink.
Pte Cunningham, 5th
Bn, Scottish Rifles, states: “On our left was a brewery occupied, by the Germans, and to our surprise we saw a German come out of it and hold up his hands; behind him came two others rolling a barrel of beer.
“Three of us went out and shook hands with them, and wished them a Merry Christmas, and rolled the barrel to our own trenches amid cheers of both British and Germans.”
Pte Charles Jefferson, 5th City of London Bn, London Rifle Brigade recalls: “One of them brought us over a bottle of wine and a box of cigars; he was as drunk as possibly could be.
“In the morning we made arrangements with them to bury some dead cows, which
London Rifle Brigade soldier Pte Malcolm Howard Grigg, left of the German with Pickelhaube, and an unidentified LRB soldier fraternise with German soldiers from the 104th and 106th Saxon Regiments on Christmas Day 1914
had been lying between the trenches for weeks; it was very funny to see English and Germans working together side-by-side. One of the Germans was a porter from Victoria Station, and another had played football for a Nottingham team.”
More sombre burial services featured prominently among the moments shared between British and German soldiers in No Man’s Land.
In the previous week, a handful of offensives had left dead strewn across the battlefield.
Sgt Harry Twidale, of 2nd Bn, Border Regiment notes: “I was in a charge last week, and it was terrible. We lost over 100 killed and wounded. One of those who joined with me got shot through the eye and the other one was wounded and missing.”
The ceasefire on Christmas Day provided a much
needed chance to safely recover the bodies from the battlefield as L/Cpl James Weatherhead, 6th Bn, Gordon Highlanders reports.
He says: “There were a lot of German and British dead so they buried theirs and we ours. Our chaplain read the service, and it was the most solemn sight I have ever seen. After that, we all had a talk together and we exchanged tobacco and other articles.
“There are some fine looking fellows among them, but very young. They wish the war was finished. One of them was a barber, and he gave one of the Gordons a shave.
“There was no firing that day, but they are firing now. I can tell you it was a Christmas I will never forget.”
It was a sentiment shared by the enemy.
Rifleman George Eade,
D Coy, 3rd Bn, Rifle Brigade, records: “I was talking to a German Bombardier yesterday afternoon. He had lived in London some time and could speak good English.
“His parting words were: ‘Today we have peace. Tomorrow you fight for your country; I fight for mine — good luck —a nd back he went’. I shouldn’t be surprised if he was one of the gunners shelling this morning. Such is war.”
Christmas Truce by the Men Who Took Part by Mike Hill contains hundreds of first-hand accounts from soldiers who took part in the Christmas truce of 1914.
It is available for preorder from Fonthill Media www.fonthill.media/ products/christmas-truceby-the-men-who-took-partletters-from-the-1914-ceasefire-on-the-western-front and all major book retailers.
Soldiers from 2nd Bn, Gordon Highlanders mixing with German soldiers in No Man’s Land on Christmas Day 1914 (photo: The Stansfeld Family Archive)