For one thing, the Christmas truce was not observed universally across the Western Front. According to the Imperial War Museum, the nature of trench warfare in 1914 was that each sector was quite distinct; if one sector of trenches was observing a truce, or vice versa, neighboring sectors may not have had a clue.
So although a truce was indeed observed in many sectors along the front in Belgium and France on Christmas Day 1914, this wasn’t true across the entire front line. Some soldiers — understandably — felt no desire to socialize with the enemy. In a few places, soldiers were ordered to fire on their unarmed counterparts.
But in other sectors, the young men who had days before been firing upon each other found that their enemy was surprisingly relatable. According to one account, the men on both sides of the trenches began singing carols on Christmas Eve — their hoarse voices, singing in their respective native tongues, carrying over the pockmarked ground. Then, according to the witness, a German soldier shouted across the 30-yard expanse: “Tomorrow, you no shoot, we no shoot.”
The next morning, after crossing into no man’s land, the young soldiers began exchanging chocolate, alcohol, and cigarettes. A soccer ball was produced, which led to a hearty, informal “kickabout.” After hours of socializing and enjoying each other’s company — and also burying and paying respects to their dead — the men from both sides returned to their trenches, unharmed.
The Christmas truce didn’t come out of nowhere. The pope at the time, Benedict XV, had often decried the aggression and bloodshed of the war and had most recently called for peace in a letter a few weeks before Christmas 1914. (He also reportedly asked, in explicit terms, for a Christmas truce, though the primary source for this request proved difficult to find.) Though ignored by the leaders of the armies — and perhaps unknown to many of the soldiers — by divine providence, the truce for which Benedict pleaded ultimately came to pass.
Credit: Source link
