Xmas is said to be a period of joy to the world, family reunion and goodwill to all men. But how do these feelings come to being? Is there something in the air? Is it due to our upbringing? Or maybe it’s a personal tendency for the good?
What is there at Xmas time that makes people behave so differently? Say things we never heard them say before? Or simply be open to come to a temporary halt of whatever devious activity just because of Xmas? These are the questions I wish to address in order to unveil what the Xmas truce during the First World War (1914-1918) was all about.
The First World War was said to be the war to end all wars; however, it came to be known as one of the bloodiest of human history, a prominent example of entrenchment or trench warfare. This consisted of elaborated constructed trenches and dugout systems, where soldiers from both parties found shelter against their enemies’ artillery and protected their position, which were surrounded by barbed wire. Trenches were similar to ditches or moats around a castle and were supposed to work as a type of hindrance for attackers. In between the two trench lines, there was the “no man’s land”, an unoccupied area or an area under dispute.
Chatêau Wood, Ypres, Belgium, 1917.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chateau_Wood_Ypres_1917.jpg)
Death in the trenches during the IWW was a daily routine, either due to shellfire or a sniper’s bullet, because of burial after shell-bursts or simply lack of living conditions. There are numerous cases of rat infestation, lice that brought about the trench fever (causing severe pain and high fever), frogs, slugs and nits that crowded the sides of the trenches and also trench foot, a condition that started as a fungal infection owing to wet and cold feet and very often ended in amputation. Badly built trenches, which were not by all means an exception, were like mud holes and, after heavy rain, soldiers would get soaked to the bones and often would be sucked into as if in moving sand.
Thus this is the overall and highly summarised portrait of soldiers’ lives in the trenches during the IWW and one may ask how they managed to have the strength and goodwill to go forth with their truce. Apart from the infamous Xmas truce, every area of each opposing line would have an unofficial truce while breakfast was served and eaten.
“every morning about breakfast time one of the soldiers sticks a board in the air. As soon as this board goes up all firing ceases, and men from either side draw their water and rations. All through the breakfast hour, and so long as this board is up, silence reigns supreme” (Andrew Todd cit. Brown & Seaton 1994)
However, this truce would not last long, because invariably a senior officer would hear of it and forbid it, as shown by the Corps Commander’s words:
“Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices (e.g. 'we won't fire if you don't' etc.) and the exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited.” (Brown & Seaton 1994)
On approaching Christmas 1914, a group of British suffragettes issued the Open Christmas Letter, pleading for a ceasefire during this period. On Dece ber 7, 1914, Pope
Family sent presents, high commands offered tobacco and booze to lighten up soldiers’ morale, towns, villages and cities, and numerous support associations on both sides also flooded the front with gifts of food, warm clothes and letters of thanks. It all seemed to converge to one purpose: ceasefire and truce between the two fronts.
(http://stlouiscatholic.blogspot.pt/2011/12/christmas-truce-of-world-war-i.html)
On Christmas Eve, even the weather help set the atmosphere: the rain stopped and Xmas was to become a frosty one, according to tradition. The Germans at Western Front started putting up their miniature Xmas trees – the Tannenbaum – and decorating them, and began singing carols, wishing “A happy Christmas to you Englishmen!” Christmas carols were then exchanged – “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”, “O Tannenbaum” or “Home Sweet Home” – and eventually soldiers from both sides wanted the others to join them. They then decided to meet in “no man’s land”, shaking hands, exchanging presents and souvenirs, wishing each other Merry Xmas and talking as if old acquaintances. Nevertheless, there was always an understanding as to when the truce would finish: it mostly lasted a day or two, but there were cases of a whole week.
“Out of the darkness we could hear laughter and see lighted matches, a German lighting a Scotchman's cigarette and vice versa, exchanging cigarettes and souvenirs. Where they couldn't talk the language they were making themselves understood by signs, and everyone seemed to be getting on nicely.” (Fergurson cit. Brown & Seaton 1994)
Another reason for Xmas truce was because it offered the opportunity to find their comrades’ bodies and bury them, some of whom had already died months before. This was another chance to conduct joint services to honour their dead. No man’s land became something of a playground and simultaneously a sanctuary.
An extreme example of this fraternisation was the soccer game played in the middle of “no man's land” between the Bedfordshire Regiment and the Germans, which according to letters and other accounts of the time the British lost 3-2 to the Germans. Another was in Wulverghem (just north of Ploegsteert, Belgim), of which no score was kept.
Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxons recorded in his diary:
“The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”
British and German troops meeting in “no man’s land” for a game of football
during the unofficial truce on Xmas Day 1914.
(http://wartard.blogspot.pt/2010/12/all-quiet-on-christmas-front.html)
All of this happened to the dismay and opposition of senior offices. Allied Forces forbade any other truce. Some dismiss this occurrence as a “blip”, a temporary lull inducedto have been repeated again, but new accounts of a Xmas Truce in Vimy Ridge in 1917 came to light.
To conclude, I will quote Bernard Joseph Brookes’ words, a soldier who stated that “the Germs wanted to continue a partial truce until the New Year, for (…) they were heartily sick of the war”. Who wouldn’t be in their rightful mind? And one wonders what they had gone through to be so weary of the war after only six months, considering what they would have to endure until 1918.
P.S. The OperationPlum Puddings (http://www.christmastruce.co.uk/) is a good resource for letters and songs from the 1914 Xmas Truce.
Cláudia Martins
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