The Christmas Miracle of World War 1
A miraculous act of humanity - war replaced with a party…
Hope Springs Eternal…
The year was 1914 and the World was at war, or at least it was working its way towards it. Europe had been a bundle of fraying nerves for quite a while and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June of that year proved to be the catalyst for an eruption.
The fighting had begun in the summer and by the winter of that year the tragic and tedious nature of war had begun to set in. On Christmas Day 1914 more than 100,000 German and British troops were faced off in opposing trenches on the Western Front. They had been hunkered down for days on end. Casualties were high. Conditions miserable. There was no end in sight. And then something amazing happened…
As night gave way to dawn on December 25th the British soldiers noticed that the German trenches and surrounding trees had been decorated with Christmas candles. Soon, the singing of carols could be heard and then Christmas greetings began to be shouted out between the two sides. The booming sounds of artillery was silenced. Not long after, soldiers from both trenches began to slowly, tentatively, climb out from behind the muddy walls and walk towards each other. Greetings were exchanged, hands shaken, and even impromptu gifts of food, tobacco, uniform buttons, and hats were exchanged between the Germans and British. For that day and night, enemy combatants placed humanity above their differences and joyfully celebrated something greater their commonality.
From Wikipedia…
Bruce Bairnsfather, who fought throughout the war, wrote:
I wouldn’t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything…. I spotted a German officer, some sort of lieutenant I should think, and being a bit of a collector, I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons…. I brought out my wire clippers and, with a few deft snips, removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket. I then gave him two of mine in exchange…. The last I saw was one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck.[19][20]
Henry Williamson, a nineteen-year-old private in the London Rifle Brigade, wrote to his mother on Boxing Day:
Dear Mother, I am writing from the trenches. It is 11 o'clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a ‘dug-out’ (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench, but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. Oh dear, no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day, & as I write. Marvellous, isn’t it?[21]
Another soldier, Captain Sir Edward Hulse, described a sing along that ended with a rendition of ‘Auld lang syne’ “which we all, English, Scots, Irish, Prussians, Württenbergers, etc, joined in.” He called it “absolutely astounding” adding “if I had seen it on a cinematograph film I should have sworn that it was faked!”
Sadly, without the holiday to provide cover for their extraordinary actions, boundaries and nationalities reappeared and soldiers returned to their respective trenches with guns blazing and artillery shells passing mid-air. And yet, there’s no denying that moment and what it represents. For 24-hours on that battlefield the animus and intolerance that had led governments to attack each other was set aside in favor of an innate connection between fellow human beings. I think, at our core, we’re all like that…we’ve just forgotten thanks in part to governments, leaders, and loud mouths who benefit from dissension, disagreement, and chaos. Just something to think about…
And Finally…
Thank you all for taking your precious time to read this newsletter and an extra measure of gratitude for the few that offer suggestions, comments, and even encouragement from time to time. Neva and I wish each of you the happiest of holidays and the brightest of New Years.