On American Pastimes Two Armies Wage Peace on Christmas Eve.

Wars have been fought for stupid reasons, and World War I epitomizes war at its most stupid. The conflict was preceded by four decades of diplomatic disagreements and minor clashes between individual European nations over colonialism and territorial disputes. At the heart of the decades of conflict were the Balkans, and Austria-Hungary’s competition with Serbia and Russia for territory and political power. In 1914, an Austrian archduke was assassinated by a Serb, and Eastern Europe was in a crisis that should have remained an Eastern European problem. But it didn’t: All of Europe and the U.S. were eventually pulled into the conflict because of a complex of treaties and alliances that were supposed to maintain the peace, but ultimately required that each nation takes sides. A regional conflict became "The Great War."

Sometimes the common people recognize the stupidity and futile nature of a war that their leaders have brought them into. Occasionally people stand up and protest their nation’s involvement. Usually though most will begrudgingly due their duty, sacrifice themselves, their own humanity, and the humanity of their enemies on behalf of their nation’s interests.

But once in a while warriors will rise above their duty and allegiance. It happened throughout "The Great War" - the so-called “War to End all Wars"  as men, motivated by the common bonds of faith and their belief in the message of the Christmas story disobeyed their superiors, and put down their weapons.

John McCutcheon's song "Christmas in the Trenches" is a fictionalized account of an actual historic event that took place on Christmas Eve, 1914.   

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.

In France, 1914, the horrors of World War I trench warfare were interrupted when a spontaneous Christmas truce broke out. A German soldier made the first move. He wanted to have a concert for Christmas, and so on Christmas Eve two infantrymen delivered a chocolate cake to the British line accompanied by a note that proposed a temporary cease-fire. The British soldiers accepted the proposal and sent back some tobacco as their present to the Germans. The good will soon spread along the 27-mile length of the line.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell

We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men

The enlisted men were soon shouting across the “no-man’s land” to their enemy counterparts, and the shouting soon turned to singing. Many officers objected and attempted to prevent their men from joining in, but soon enemy soldiers were making their way out of the trenches and shaking hands with one another in the middle of the barb-wire strewn battle field. They talked, shared drinks and food, and joined in impromptu soccer matches.

Frank Richards, a British soldier recalled that after the enlisted men met up in the battlefield, the officers on both sides eventually followed them out:

“We mucked in all day with one another. They were Saxons and some of them could speak English. By the look of them their trenches were in as bad a state as our own. One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn't the only one that was fed up with it. We did not allow them in our trench and they did not allow us in theirs…….The officers came to an understanding that the unofficial truce would end at midnight. At dusk we went back to our respective trenches…….Just before midnight we all made it up not to commence firing before they did.”

The high command on both sides had immediately issued orders to stop the fraternizing. Some officers obeyed, many didn’t. In some areas the truce ended on Christmas Day, in others the following day, and along some sections of the line it lasted into January as officers on both sides refrained from being the first to order that shots be fired.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

The army commanders were not the only people chagrined by the behavior of the soldiers. When the insecure French heard about the Christmas truce they were angered, and not without reason. It was their land that was being occupied by the Germans, and their confiscated beer and wine that was being shared by the two non-Catholic armies. The Protestant Brits and Germans had found more common ground: Along with their shared religious beliefs trumping nationality and political allegiance, they all agreed that the wine was excellent, but the beer horrible. Their humanity had overcome their politics.

"Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we are all the same

From: John McCutcheon's 1984 Album "Winter Solstice."

Sources: Eyewitness accounts of the truce appear in Frank Richards’ Old Soldiers Never Die (1933); John Keegan’s The First World War (1999); Peter Simkin’s World War I, the Western Front (1991).

The photo above is of German and Russian soldiers during a Christmas truce during WWI. Following the initial Christmas cease fire, the British Army prevented its soldiers from taking part in future truces. The Germans and Russians however continued to wage peace on Christmas Eve until the final surrender.  As one writer noted: "The Christmas Truce of 1914 on the Western and Eastern Fronts may well represent the last time that the face of humanity would be seen in what was rapidly becoming the ultimate nightmare of the industrial revolution. The concept of total war would soon replace any outdated notion of chivalry."