December 21, 2011 • 25 mins
During the first Christmas of World War I, British and German soldiers laid down their weapons and celebrated the holiday together. They sang carols, traded insignia and buried their dead. How did the truce start, and why didn't it happen again?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Debliney chalk Reboarding, and it's December,
so tis the season for a holiday podcast special. And
(00:22):
I always like to do some kind of episode to
mark the season, but I usually try to pick something
that's a little bit offbeat. A couple of years ago,
Katie and I went for a Saturnalia celebration, which was
really fun. Imagine frenzy clapping of hands, the King of
the Beans. Last year we were kind of off beat too,
aren't we. We did. We covered that scrooge like tale
(00:43):
of Oliver Cromwell, he who canceled Christmas, plus some some
New England Puritan action too in there. But this year
we've chosen something that is a bit more somber, a
bit more serious, but also in my opinion, more moving
to the spunt annius Christmas Eve truth that broke out
along the Western Front during World War One, and it
(01:05):
of course took place in the first months of a
year's long war, and it was never repeated after the
first winter, so you really can look at it as
an isolated event very early in the war. But as
Christmas nineteen fourteen approached, many men who had been sniping
and shelling each other just hours before, set aside their weapons,
(01:27):
sang carols together, decorated trees, and traded corned beef and
cigarettes for beer and schnops. It's kind of a remarkable story.
It sounds so unbelievable. In fact, many folks think it's
an urban legend. It even has a snoop's entry, if
that tells you something, the real mark of a possible
urban legend, right. Others think, yes, it's true, but way overblown.
(01:51):
That only a few soldiers and certainly no officers frattinized
on the front, but actually soldiers of all ranks stationed
in sectors ofss the front called local truces for as
little as a few hours or as long as two weeks.
So how did a truce like this come about in
the first place? How do you walk out into no
man's land between the trenches and propose a friendly exchange
(02:13):
of schnops or buttons? How? Indeed? So, first, a little
background on the early months of the war. World War
One started in July nineteen fourteen, and in the first
month the Germans raced through Belgium on their way to France,
and they were finally halted in September at the first
Battle of the Marner, I should say slowed down, and
this began a stalemate, the real digging in of heels,
(02:38):
the trench warfare, where victory meant moving your line up
just a few yards, you know, the way that we
imagine World War One. It's not a war where people
are zipping around across Europe really quickly. So four hundred
and seventy five miles of trenches were established from the
North Sea to Switzerland. That was the Western Front, and
enemy troops that the front lines were, of course often
(02:59):
very close to each other, I mean like physically just
a few yards away from each other. So such close
quarters created these natural limited truces in some of the
quieter spots where each side would tacitly agree not to
shoot down the opposing rations parties with sniper fire. Since
it was early in the war, some still also followed
the idea of fair play, like breaking for breakfast hour.
(03:22):
It seemed natural then that if you could break for breakfast,
maybe you could also break for Christmas. But that idea
was totally unlikely on a high level. Pope Benedict, the
fifteenths call for Christmas Truths was pretty much ignored by
political leaders across Europe. Some senior military even preemptively planned
against possible white flags flown on Christmas. On December twenty,
(03:44):
nineteen fourteen, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill,
messaged the Royal Navy that quote, any white flag hoisted
by a German ship is to be fired on as
a matter of principle. They were convinced that the Germans
would use the white flag as a trick, and I
didn't want any funny business. I would suspect that too,
so you would you would probably not be participating in
(04:07):
cynical I mean, it is war, maybe just cautious. So
for many soldiers to the idea of marking Christmas in
any way during war seemed inconceivable. Even in nineteen fourteen.
For instance, German officer Captain Rudolph Binding, who had just
come out of the First Battle of Epra, called the
Massacre of Innocence in Germany due to the huge number
(04:29):
of very young, very inexperienced soldiers who were killed there,
wrote to his father on December twenty of his thoughts
on Christmas at the front, he wrote, quote the simplicity
of Christmas, with the laughter of children, surprises, the joy
of giving little things. This is as it should be
when it appears alone. But when it enters the lists
with a war, it is out of place. Enemy death
(04:52):
and a Christmas tree. They cannot live so close together.
The guys are clearly thought otherwise. Though, while none of
the wartime rule or thought it proper to suspend fighting
on Christmas, they did think small gifts for the troops
were appropriate. King George the Fifth and Queen Mary had
cards and tins of extra rations and putting sent to
British troops, for example, and the Kaiser had cigars and
(05:14):
tiny Christmas trees shipped to the front lines, complete with
ready to light candles. I think I'd like a Christmas
tree better than a tinned pudding. Yeah, that doesn't send.
It hasn't tried one, so what do I know. But
it's these barter ready goods puddings or cigars whatever, and
the cheery trees, and the tendency of both British and
(05:35):
German people to sing that started the truth in most
sectors where it occurred so we'll give you a few
accounts of how it went down, because of course it
is scattered across this huge western front. But in one case,
a British century near Laventi, France spotted a group of
Saxon's on December twenty three, and they were up on
top of their trench parapet, but they didn't look very scary.
(05:57):
They were goofing off. One guy was juggling, and uh,
some of them were waving the Brits over in a
friendly way, not like a mocking way. Um. The British
officer in charge thought this was really sketchy, really potentially dangerous,
and Warren his troops just basically don't mess with that
because inviting them over they might be trying to see
(06:18):
what our trenches look like. Nobo could be a trick.
But the next day, on Christmas Eve, there was ultimately
this cautious exchange between the Germans and the Brits of
cigars and beer, and the German side for cigarettes and
corned beef on the British side, which was called bully beef.
It was kind of detested by the soldiers even at
(06:40):
this point, so they were probably willing to make that trade.
And then English newspapers, to which I think that's interesting
that the German soldiers would be coveting the English news.
At dusk of the Germans again climbed their parapets, but
this time it was too light Christmas trees, and at
eleven pm they started singing still Enough, which is of
course silent night Christmas Day, with the mud all covered
(07:02):
and hardened by deep freeze and a sky bright and blue.
Both sides came out again to exchange gifts and also
this is what I found surprising names and addresses, and
they promised to write or visit after the war them
apparently did I mean, It's years later, but they did
maintain those friendships in the relationship. And there was also
an impromptu soccer game which ended with a recorded Saxon
(07:25):
victory over the Lancashire few stillers. So there you go.
They were they were trying to enjoy themselves in the
middle of this. But across the front similar episodes played out.
For instance, rifleman Ernest Morley of the sixteenth Battalion, London
Regiment wrote how things started in his sector. He said, quote,
we had decided to give the Germans a Christmas present
(07:47):
of three carols and five rounds. Rapid accordingly, as soon
as night fell we started, and the strains of white
shepherds arose upon the air. We finished that and paused
preparatory to give the second item on the program. But
low we heard answering strains arising from their lines. One
of them shouted a Merry Christmas, English, we're not shooting tonight.
(08:08):
German Lieutenant Johannes Niemann wrote of the decoration, saying, quote,
our soldiers had hung little Christmas trees covered with candles
above the trenches, and British Sergeant A. Level wrote quote,
I shall remember to my dying day right along the
whole line where hung paper lanterns and illuminations of every description.
And I keep imagining the terrible image you have of
(08:32):
World War One trenches with trees that are just completely decimated,
villages decimated, mud and bodies everywhere, and little Christmas trees
and lanterns strung around it. It really um It paints
quite a picture if you try to imagine that. But
Private Albert Moren described hearing the Christmas Eve carols as
(08:52):
quote one of the highlights of my life. So you
can imagine that it did have this really huge effect
on these men who had just seeing carnage day after
day or boredom, experiencing boredom to have something so pleasant
and so out of the ordinary occur. And on Christmas
Day the truce continued in many of the places, with
more games and gift exchanges and singing and combined religious services,
(09:17):
and uh soldiers would swap gear, you know, like switch
hats or let me trade for your German coat for
my British coat or something, and take pictures together, kind
of like just dressing up in costumes almost. And there
was also, of course the very somber task of burying
the dead, some of whom had been lying out there
in No Man's Land, where, of course, as the name implies,
(09:40):
nobody could go collect them for weeks or even months. Yeah,
And it's interesting to note that while the French and
Belgians didn't really participate in the Christmas Truths in the
same way that some British did, they might have had
harder feelings against the Germans. Obviously, some did arrange a
temporary Christmas armistice solely for the purpose of burying the dead,
so they carry each other's men's to the Middle exchange
(10:02):
and shake hands, so something that was a lot more somber,
a lot more official. Just let's agree to take care
of this important task and not celebrate, right, no singing
of carols with that. Another truce oddity was the exchange
of insignia, buttons, scraps of cloth, and best of all,
pickle helves. The German dress helmet. So those are the
(10:23):
helmets with the little spikes on top, and I can
imagine why you might want one as a as a souvenir.
But there's one story from the London Rifle Brigade written
up in a History Today article by John Terrain that
tells of a German soldier who had traded away his
dress helmet, and the day after Christmas, he calls out
(10:43):
to speak to a British officer and they meet up
in No Man's Land and the German explained that he
had traded his helmet the day before, and he had
a grand inspection the next day, so he really kind
of needed to borrow it back. He apparently borrowed it,
must have used it for his inspection in a satisfactory manner,
and then did return it in exchange for a little
(11:05):
more bully beef because that was hot stuff in the
German trenches. Another famous incident has a British soldier recognizing
his German barber from London and getting a trim in
the middle of No Man's Land. And that's actually not
quite as unlikely as it may sound to some people.
Many Germans had worked in pre war England, so I
might have known each other. And there's another example of
(11:27):
a soldier in the British Hampshire Regiment who described the
area between the trenches as just a mass of gray
and khaki. And those are of course the two sides
uniforms and um. That helped me also imagine what this
looked like. I can imagine the Christmas Eve with the
light strung up in the Christmas trees and all of that,
but to imagine Christmas Day just all of these guys
(11:50):
kind of seeing each other for the first time. In
many cases because they had been fighting trench warfare, fighting
at night for so long, a lot of them had
never seen the enemy really and they probably and in
in some documented cases, didn't make realizations about each other that, uh,
you know, the Germans weren't barbarians, the British weren't these
(12:11):
stubborn clods or something, you know, these um stereotypes, Yeah,
stereotypes that they had about the opposing side, and that
had really been indoctrinated in them too. Still though, in
a lot of the British letters and diaries that describe
the Truth, you'll find the British distinguishing between the men
that they were fraternizing with. They were Saxons and Bavarians,
(12:35):
they were not Prussians. That seemed a very important distinguished
for them to make, and I thought it was it
was really strange that the German troops themselves even would
sometimes dissociate themselves from the Prussians. In one case, there
was a member of the Dublin feast Laers who was
killed during the Truth by a stray bullet, and that
(12:56):
sounds like the kind of thing that would shut down
a truth immediately. But the Sacs and troops sent over
an apology and it said, quote it must have been
one of those damned Prussians exclamation point, and followed up
the apology with two barrels of beer. That was just
so surprising to me that a truce could continue, and
(13:17):
that you would differentiate among your your ranks like that. Yeah,
And that the one bullet would immediately started fighting again,
that the guy's buddies would just kind of get over
it or something. But um, you can imagine how in
some cases incidents like that would definitely bring the truth
to an end. And the truces did only last hours
(13:37):
in certain sectors, with some troops refusing to participate at all,
and others that stretched as long as January tent While
the truces were usually arranged by bold or brave bands
of soldiers, with officers having nothing else to do but
go along with it after their men began pouring into
no man's land, sometimes the officers made the arrangements themselves.
(13:57):
Captain Robert Hamilton's of the first of the killion Royal
Warwickshire Regiment station near Saint yvan Belgium, met with the
German officer halfway through no man's land. They shook hands
and arranged a forty eight hour truce. In his journal
he talked about doubling midnight centuries just for good measure,
but also notes quote, I am told the general and
staff are furious but powerless to stop it. I think
(14:20):
you would have been on the midnight century. You're suspicious
that this whole thing. But of course high ranking officers
on both sides were totally aghast at what was happening.
They thought is simply postponing the conclusion of a war
that had already gone on longer than expected, and for instance,
the British general Sir Horace Smith Dorian threatened disciplinary action
(14:45):
against any officers who fraternized with the enemy, even though
there aren't records of punishments actually being dolled out. But
by the end of January um with the war escalating,
of course, the death penalty was announced for what would
be considered high reason. So it's not Christmas anymore, it
is um treason against your country. On the German side,
(15:06):
officers were threatened, uh, we're officers threatened soldiers with a
transfer to the Russian front, which does sound like it
would make you give up on your button collection pretty quickly.
Not that some truce participants didn't skirt authority for as
long as they could get away with it, though British
General Sir Henry Rawlinson wrote in his diary quote a
(15:28):
German shouted out to our men, quote, lookout, we have
a general coming, so we have to fire at you,
but will aim high you do the same for us.
I find that pretty pretty remarkable that again the trust
here is the trust and the willingness to just play war,
not just like we are openly and defiance of we're
(15:48):
having this truce, but we're going to just pretend like
we're fighting. We won't really try to hurt you. Uh.
There's another example of that from Lieutenant Michael Holroyd, who
was a British machine gun officer in the first Battalian
Hampshire Regiment, and he told his parents that around New
Year's when the truce was still going on, the Germans
threw up a red light and cried out, put your
(16:10):
heads down before shelling them. After it ended, a white
light came up and they yelled, all right, Hampshire's our
officers are gone now, so putting putting on a show
for the guys in charge. In contrary to popular belief,
the press also celebrated the truce. News reached England by
the New Year, and the Illustrated London News showed a
(16:31):
single Saxon soldier delivering a candlelit tree to the British.
It was captioned the Light of Peace and the trenches
on Christmas Eve, so what was going on here and
what did it mean? I mean, did the truce mean anything?
Coming as it did at the beginning of a very long,
very terrible war. I mean, we talked about the chemical
(16:51):
warfare pretty recently in an episode. We know how bad
it is, and there were many cases of Christmas armistice,
but it wasn't everywhere. We should emphasize that point. Some
soldiers on the front were shocked to hear of what happened,
because they spent their night fighting just like they normally did.
For instance, Captain jail Jack of the First Cameroonians recorded
(17:13):
shelling and sniping mixed with a little German caroling, which
the British did not respond to, and even the truce
that was didn't continue beyond nineteen fourteen. By nineteen sixteen,
Sergeant p Hair of the eleventh Royal Feusalaers wrote to
his mother, quote, there is very little here to remind
us of Christmas, just a handful of us remembering that
(17:34):
it is December. We are not dispirited, nor do we
feel downcast at the fact that we should be spending
such a great day like this. It's not a truce,
but just some sort of strange understanding between us and
the Jerry's on the other side, that Christmas Day should
be like this. Perhaps next Christmas the war will be over.
He was killed two months later. That's so sad, But
(17:55):
even in nineteen fourteen, it's unlikely that many of the
participants really thought that any kind of international peace would
come from the truth. Troops on both sides didn't want
to lose just for the sake of you know, just
because you were making friends with a guy on the
other side, getting his address, trading for his cool looking hat,
(18:18):
didn't mean that you wanted your country to give up
or something. Bruce Barn's father, who was a famous cartoonist
and a machine gun officer with the Captain Hamiltons who
we mentioned earlier, the guy who walked out to meet
his German counterpart. He saw it as quote, an interval
between the rounds in a friendly boxing match, and I
(18:38):
have to imagine that for a lot of guys, they
would be like that something to to get away, as
we mentioned earlier, from that day to day probably really
boring and sometimes really scary existence. Yeah, it's funny to
bring up that comparison to sports though, because that whole
exchange of gear. Thing did make me think a lot
of like international soccer matches that you watch when afterwards
(19:00):
they'll exchange jerseys and the whole playing fighting instead of fighting.
Your soccer perspective coming in here. Um, But clearly the
perception of war was something so sporting as a boxing
match would change later. Some historians would see it as
kind of a bridge between the pre war and the
post war world. Contributing to the PBS series on the
(19:20):
Great War, Paul Fusil describes it as the quote last
gesture of the nineteenth century idea that human beings are
getting better the longer the human race goes on. Nobody
could believe that after the First World War, and certainly
not after the second. And to go along with that
idea almost I mean, some people consider it the last
holdout of like a Victorian Christmas, and and that makes
(19:44):
sense or Dickens Christmas, I mean kind of the same thing.
But that makes sense if you think that the origin
of a Victorian Christmas, which is from Britain, is of
course German because of Prince Albert. As we've talked about
all that before too, so it makes sense that the
two countries in particular would have such similar Christmas traditions
(20:04):
and and um end up celebrating them in this early
stage of the war together. But I was really surprised.
I know we've had a lot of quotes in this
episode because there are so many letters and diaries written
by soldiers, but we do have a quote from our
old friend Arthur Conan Doyle, who is really the new
Queen Victoria up in every episode. I really like what
(20:28):
how he described the truth, though it's quite poignant. He
wrote it was quote one human episode amid all the
atrocities which have stained the memory of the war. UM
and clearly it has been really well remembered and celebrated
because it is so unique. It is this one human episode.
I mean, if it had ended the war or something,
(20:48):
it would clearly be in a whole different league of history.
But it's so unusual that a lot of people have
remembered it and have marked it in existence. Members of
the Association for Military Remembrance reenact the Truce at Apra
and in November two thousand five, the last known Christmas
(21:10):
Truce veteran died in Scotland at a wopping one hundred
and nine years old. His name was Alfred Anderson. He
was a Black Watch soldier and he was eighteen and
nineteen fourteen. Later in the war, he had served as
a batman to the brother of the late Queen Mother
and consequently had received a visit from Prince Charles and
numerous telegrams from the Queen. I feel like we should
(21:32):
explain batman really quickly too, because the batman UM. I
found out about this from watching Downton Abbey. UM. It's
like the personal assistant almost of high ranking officers. So
the job would be anything from like getting your messages,
making sure you had your supplies, to offering some kind
(21:53):
of personal protection. And it was a really prestigious position
to have. You might get to go to a better
place is and move up faster in the army. UM.
So that was I was also kind of surprised that
this fellow, Alfred Anderson UM, died in two thousand five.
I believe that the last World War One survivor died
just this year, so not too not too far apart,
(22:16):
not too far for the last Christmas Truth survivor. UM.
But one final comment here on Bruce Bearn's father, who
he mentioned earlier. I looked at some of his cartoons,
and I kind of thought they were a neat way
to take a different look at World War One, one
that is personal, one that's sometimes humorous instead of remote
(22:38):
and upsetting and mechanical. You know, it's it's clearly depicting
the soldiers not just as cannon fodder. There are people,
and they do funny things, and they have funny reaction.
They were funny interactions with people. But I also liked
Beren's father's reflection on the truth, and they certainly suggest
that he may have seen it as more than just
(22:59):
a lull in a friendly boxing match. As we mentioned earlier,
he wrote quote, there was a kind of invisible and
tangible feeling extending across the frozen swamp between the two lines,
which said, this is Christmas Eve for both of us,
something in common. Well, that was a great choice for
a Christmas episode, I think, Well, I'm glad that you
(23:19):
liked it, and I really enjoyed listening to it. It
made me break out my family. Carol's book kind of
put me in a in a Christmas move but a
reflective one too, And I know that there are a
lot of other Christmas themed episodes that people want to
hear I think people request sat Nick every single year
people do. We get a lot of requests for sat Nick,
(23:41):
So maybe that will be next year's episode. Maybe. But
in the meantime, if you have any more requests Christmas
related or not, please email us or a history podcast
at how Stuff works dot com. You can also hit
us up on Facebook or on Twitter at mist in History.
And of course have a very merry Christmas and a
happy Hanukah, Kwanza, Happy New Year, Best of festivals Saturnalia,
(24:04):
of course christ Tide. If you listen into our old
episodes you will know both of those references. Whatever holiday
you celebrate, I hope you have a happy and peaceful season.
You can also learn more about Christmas as well as
the Christmas Truths. We do have an article on that.
I found it unfortunately after I was done researching this episode,
(24:26):
because I'm rarely expecting we have uncovered history articles anymore.
We usually don't. We usually don't, but we do have
one for this It's called what was the Christmas Troops?
And we have How Christmas Works, which I always like
to recommend. You can check it out by searching for
Christmas on our home page at www. Dot how stuff
works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
(24:52):
video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
of tomorrow. The Houstufforks iPhone app has a ride. Download
it today on iTunes, e
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Debliney chalk Reboarding, and it's December,
so tis the season for a holiday podcast special. And
(00:22):
I always like to do some kind of episode to
mark the season, but I usually try to pick something
that's a little bit offbeat. A couple of years ago,
Katie and I went for a Saturnalia celebration, which was
really fun. Imagine frenzy clapping of hands, the King of
the Beans. Last year we were kind of off beat too,
aren't we. We did. We covered that scrooge like tale
(00:43):
of Oliver Cromwell, he who canceled Christmas, plus some some
New England Puritan action too in there. But this year
we've chosen something that is a bit more somber, a
bit more serious, but also in my opinion, more moving
to the spunt annius Christmas Eve truth that broke out
along the Western Front during World War One, and it
(01:05):
of course took place in the first months of a
year's long war, and it was never repeated after the
first winter, so you really can look at it as
an isolated event very early in the war. But as
Christmas nineteen fourteen approached, many men who had been sniping
and shelling each other just hours before, set aside their weapons,
(01:27):
sang carols together, decorated trees, and traded corned beef and
cigarettes for beer and schnops. It's kind of a remarkable story.
It sounds so unbelievable. In fact, many folks think it's
an urban legend. It even has a snoop's entry, if
that tells you something, the real mark of a possible
urban legend, right. Others think, yes, it's true, but way overblown.
(01:51):
That only a few soldiers and certainly no officers frattinized
on the front, but actually soldiers of all ranks stationed
in sectors ofss the front called local truces for as
little as a few hours or as long as two weeks.
So how did a truce like this come about in
the first place? How do you walk out into no
man's land between the trenches and propose a friendly exchange
(02:13):
of schnops or buttons? How? Indeed? So, first, a little
background on the early months of the war. World War
One started in July nineteen fourteen, and in the first
month the Germans raced through Belgium on their way to France,
and they were finally halted in September at the first
Battle of the Marner, I should say slowed down, and
this began a stalemate, the real digging in of heels,
(02:38):
the trench warfare, where victory meant moving your line up
just a few yards, you know, the way that we
imagine World War One. It's not a war where people
are zipping around across Europe really quickly. So four hundred
and seventy five miles of trenches were established from the
North Sea to Switzerland. That was the Western Front, and
enemy troops that the front lines were, of course often
(02:59):
very close to each other, I mean like physically just
a few yards away from each other. So such close
quarters created these natural limited truces in some of the
quieter spots where each side would tacitly agree not to
shoot down the opposing rations parties with sniper fire. Since
it was early in the war, some still also followed
the idea of fair play, like breaking for breakfast hour.
(03:22):
It seemed natural then that if you could break for breakfast,
maybe you could also break for Christmas. But that idea
was totally unlikely on a high level. Pope Benedict, the
fifteenths call for Christmas Truths was pretty much ignored by
political leaders across Europe. Some senior military even preemptively planned
against possible white flags flown on Christmas. On December twenty,
(03:44):
nineteen fourteen, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill,
messaged the Royal Navy that quote, any white flag hoisted
by a German ship is to be fired on as
a matter of principle. They were convinced that the Germans
would use the white flag as a trick, and I
didn't want any funny business. I would suspect that too,
so you would you would probably not be participating in
(04:07):
cynical I mean, it is war, maybe just cautious. So
for many soldiers to the idea of marking Christmas in
any way during war seemed inconceivable. Even in nineteen fourteen.
For instance, German officer Captain Rudolph Binding, who had just
come out of the First Battle of Epra, called the
Massacre of Innocence in Germany due to the huge number
(04:29):
of very young, very inexperienced soldiers who were killed there,
wrote to his father on December twenty of his thoughts
on Christmas at the front, he wrote, quote the simplicity
of Christmas, with the laughter of children, surprises, the joy
of giving little things. This is as it should be
when it appears alone. But when it enters the lists
with a war, it is out of place. Enemy death
(04:52):
and a Christmas tree. They cannot live so close together.
The guys are clearly thought otherwise. Though, while none of
the wartime rule or thought it proper to suspend fighting
on Christmas, they did think small gifts for the troops
were appropriate. King George the Fifth and Queen Mary had
cards and tins of extra rations and putting sent to
British troops, for example, and the Kaiser had cigars and
(05:14):
tiny Christmas trees shipped to the front lines, complete with
ready to light candles. I think I'd like a Christmas
tree better than a tinned pudding. Yeah, that doesn't send.
It hasn't tried one, so what do I know. But
it's these barter ready goods puddings or cigars whatever, and
the cheery trees, and the tendency of both British and
(05:35):
German people to sing that started the truth in most
sectors where it occurred so we'll give you a few
accounts of how it went down, because of course it
is scattered across this huge western front. But in one case,
a British century near Laventi, France spotted a group of
Saxon's on December twenty three, and they were up on
top of their trench parapet, but they didn't look very scary.
(05:57):
They were goofing off. One guy was juggling, and uh,
some of them were waving the Brits over in a
friendly way, not like a mocking way. Um. The British
officer in charge thought this was really sketchy, really potentially dangerous,
and Warren his troops just basically don't mess with that
because inviting them over they might be trying to see
(06:18):
what our trenches look like. Nobo could be a trick.
But the next day, on Christmas Eve, there was ultimately
this cautious exchange between the Germans and the Brits of
cigars and beer, and the German side for cigarettes and
corned beef on the British side, which was called bully beef.
It was kind of detested by the soldiers even at
(06:40):
this point, so they were probably willing to make that trade.
And then English newspapers, to which I think that's interesting
that the German soldiers would be coveting the English news.
At dusk of the Germans again climbed their parapets, but
this time it was too light Christmas trees, and at
eleven pm they started singing still Enough, which is of
course silent night Christmas Day, with the mud all covered
(07:02):
and hardened by deep freeze and a sky bright and blue.
Both sides came out again to exchange gifts and also
this is what I found surprising names and addresses, and
they promised to write or visit after the war them
apparently did I mean, It's years later, but they did
maintain those friendships in the relationship. And there was also
an impromptu soccer game which ended with a recorded Saxon
(07:25):
victory over the Lancashire few stillers. So there you go.
They were they were trying to enjoy themselves in the
middle of this. But across the front similar episodes played out.
For instance, rifleman Ernest Morley of the sixteenth Battalion, London
Regiment wrote how things started in his sector. He said, quote,
we had decided to give the Germans a Christmas present
(07:47):
of three carols and five rounds. Rapid accordingly, as soon
as night fell we started, and the strains of white
shepherds arose upon the air. We finished that and paused
preparatory to give the second item on the program. But
low we heard answering strains arising from their lines. One
of them shouted a Merry Christmas, English, we're not shooting tonight.
(08:08):
German Lieutenant Johannes Niemann wrote of the decoration, saying, quote,
our soldiers had hung little Christmas trees covered with candles
above the trenches, and British Sergeant A. Level wrote quote,
I shall remember to my dying day right along the
whole line where hung paper lanterns and illuminations of every description.
And I keep imagining the terrible image you have of
(08:32):
World War One trenches with trees that are just completely decimated,
villages decimated, mud and bodies everywhere, and little Christmas trees
and lanterns strung around it. It really um It paints
quite a picture if you try to imagine that. But
Private Albert Moren described hearing the Christmas Eve carols as
(08:52):
quote one of the highlights of my life. So you
can imagine that it did have this really huge effect
on these men who had just seeing carnage day after
day or boredom, experiencing boredom to have something so pleasant
and so out of the ordinary occur. And on Christmas
Day the truce continued in many of the places, with
more games and gift exchanges and singing and combined religious services,
(09:17):
and uh soldiers would swap gear, you know, like switch
hats or let me trade for your German coat for
my British coat or something, and take pictures together, kind
of like just dressing up in costumes almost. And there
was also, of course the very somber task of burying
the dead, some of whom had been lying out there
in No Man's Land, where, of course, as the name implies,
(09:40):
nobody could go collect them for weeks or even months. Yeah,
And it's interesting to note that while the French and
Belgians didn't really participate in the Christmas Truths in the
same way that some British did, they might have had
harder feelings against the Germans. Obviously, some did arrange a
temporary Christmas armistice solely for the purpose of burying the dead,
so they carry each other's men's to the Middle exchange
(10:02):
and shake hands, so something that was a lot more somber,
a lot more official. Just let's agree to take care
of this important task and not celebrate, right, no singing
of carols with that. Another truce oddity was the exchange
of insignia, buttons, scraps of cloth, and best of all,
pickle helves. The German dress helmet. So those are the
(10:23):
helmets with the little spikes on top, and I can
imagine why you might want one as a as a souvenir.
But there's one story from the London Rifle Brigade written
up in a History Today article by John Terrain that
tells of a German soldier who had traded away his
dress helmet, and the day after Christmas, he calls out
(10:43):
to speak to a British officer and they meet up
in No Man's Land and the German explained that he
had traded his helmet the day before, and he had
a grand inspection the next day, so he really kind
of needed to borrow it back. He apparently borrowed it,
must have used it for his inspection in a satisfactory manner,
and then did return it in exchange for a little
(11:05):
more bully beef because that was hot stuff in the
German trenches. Another famous incident has a British soldier recognizing
his German barber from London and getting a trim in
the middle of No Man's Land. And that's actually not
quite as unlikely as it may sound to some people.
Many Germans had worked in pre war England, so I
might have known each other. And there's another example of
(11:27):
a soldier in the British Hampshire Regiment who described the
area between the trenches as just a mass of gray
and khaki. And those are of course the two sides
uniforms and um. That helped me also imagine what this
looked like. I can imagine the Christmas Eve with the
light strung up in the Christmas trees and all of that,
but to imagine Christmas Day just all of these guys
(11:50):
kind of seeing each other for the first time. In
many cases because they had been fighting trench warfare, fighting
at night for so long, a lot of them had
never seen the enemy really and they probably and in
in some documented cases, didn't make realizations about each other that, uh,
you know, the Germans weren't barbarians, the British weren't these
(12:11):
stubborn clods or something, you know, these um stereotypes, Yeah,
stereotypes that they had about the opposing side, and that
had really been indoctrinated in them too. Still though, in
a lot of the British letters and diaries that describe
the Truth, you'll find the British distinguishing between the men
that they were fraternizing with. They were Saxons and Bavarians,
(12:35):
they were not Prussians. That seemed a very important distinguished
for them to make, and I thought it was it
was really strange that the German troops themselves even would
sometimes dissociate themselves from the Prussians. In one case, there
was a member of the Dublin feast Laers who was
killed during the Truth by a stray bullet, and that
(12:56):
sounds like the kind of thing that would shut down
a truth immediately. But the Sacs and troops sent over
an apology and it said, quote it must have been
one of those damned Prussians exclamation point, and followed up
the apology with two barrels of beer. That was just
so surprising to me that a truce could continue, and
(13:17):
that you would differentiate among your your ranks like that. Yeah,
And that the one bullet would immediately started fighting again,
that the guy's buddies would just kind of get over
it or something. But um, you can imagine how in
some cases incidents like that would definitely bring the truth
to an end. And the truces did only last hours
(13:37):
in certain sectors, with some troops refusing to participate at all,
and others that stretched as long as January tent While
the truces were usually arranged by bold or brave bands
of soldiers, with officers having nothing else to do but
go along with it after their men began pouring into
no man's land, sometimes the officers made the arrangements themselves.
(13:57):
Captain Robert Hamilton's of the first of the killion Royal
Warwickshire Regiment station near Saint yvan Belgium, met with the
German officer halfway through no man's land. They shook hands
and arranged a forty eight hour truce. In his journal
he talked about doubling midnight centuries just for good measure,
but also notes quote, I am told the general and
staff are furious but powerless to stop it. I think
(14:20):
you would have been on the midnight century. You're suspicious
that this whole thing. But of course high ranking officers
on both sides were totally aghast at what was happening.
They thought is simply postponing the conclusion of a war
that had already gone on longer than expected, and for instance,
the British general Sir Horace Smith Dorian threatened disciplinary action
(14:45):
against any officers who fraternized with the enemy, even though
there aren't records of punishments actually being dolled out. But
by the end of January um with the war escalating,
of course, the death penalty was announced for what would
be considered high reason. So it's not Christmas anymore, it
is um treason against your country. On the German side,
(15:06):
officers were threatened, uh, we're officers threatened soldiers with a
transfer to the Russian front, which does sound like it
would make you give up on your button collection pretty quickly.
Not that some truce participants didn't skirt authority for as
long as they could get away with it, though British
General Sir Henry Rawlinson wrote in his diary quote a
(15:28):
German shouted out to our men, quote, lookout, we have
a general coming, so we have to fire at you,
but will aim high you do the same for us.
I find that pretty pretty remarkable that again the trust
here is the trust and the willingness to just play war,
not just like we are openly and defiance of we're
(15:48):
having this truce, but we're going to just pretend like
we're fighting. We won't really try to hurt you. Uh.
There's another example of that from Lieutenant Michael Holroyd, who
was a British machine gun officer in the first Battalian
Hampshire Regiment, and he told his parents that around New
Year's when the truce was still going on, the Germans
threw up a red light and cried out, put your
(16:10):
heads down before shelling them. After it ended, a white
light came up and they yelled, all right, Hampshire's our
officers are gone now, so putting putting on a show
for the guys in charge. In contrary to popular belief,
the press also celebrated the truce. News reached England by
the New Year, and the Illustrated London News showed a
(16:31):
single Saxon soldier delivering a candlelit tree to the British.
It was captioned the Light of Peace and the trenches
on Christmas Eve, so what was going on here and
what did it mean? I mean, did the truce mean anything?
Coming as it did at the beginning of a very long,
very terrible war. I mean, we talked about the chemical
(16:51):
warfare pretty recently in an episode. We know how bad
it is, and there were many cases of Christmas armistice,
but it wasn't everywhere. We should emphasize that point. Some
soldiers on the front were shocked to hear of what happened,
because they spent their night fighting just like they normally did.
For instance, Captain jail Jack of the First Cameroonians recorded
(17:13):
shelling and sniping mixed with a little German caroling, which
the British did not respond to, and even the truce
that was didn't continue beyond nineteen fourteen. By nineteen sixteen,
Sergeant p Hair of the eleventh Royal Feusalaers wrote to
his mother, quote, there is very little here to remind
us of Christmas, just a handful of us remembering that
(17:34):
it is December. We are not dispirited, nor do we
feel downcast at the fact that we should be spending
such a great day like this. It's not a truce,
but just some sort of strange understanding between us and
the Jerry's on the other side, that Christmas Day should
be like this. Perhaps next Christmas the war will be over.
He was killed two months later. That's so sad, But
(17:55):
even in nineteen fourteen, it's unlikely that many of the
participants really thought that any kind of international peace would
come from the truth. Troops on both sides didn't want
to lose just for the sake of you know, just
because you were making friends with a guy on the
other side, getting his address, trading for his cool looking hat,
(18:18):
didn't mean that you wanted your country to give up
or something. Bruce Barn's father, who was a famous cartoonist
and a machine gun officer with the Captain Hamiltons who
we mentioned earlier, the guy who walked out to meet
his German counterpart. He saw it as quote, an interval
between the rounds in a friendly boxing match, and I
(18:38):
have to imagine that for a lot of guys, they
would be like that something to to get away, as
we mentioned earlier, from that day to day probably really
boring and sometimes really scary existence. Yeah, it's funny to
bring up that comparison to sports though, because that whole
exchange of gear. Thing did make me think a lot
of like international soccer matches that you watch when afterwards
(19:00):
they'll exchange jerseys and the whole playing fighting instead of fighting.
Your soccer perspective coming in here. Um, But clearly the
perception of war was something so sporting as a boxing
match would change later. Some historians would see it as
kind of a bridge between the pre war and the
post war world. Contributing to the PBS series on the
(19:20):
Great War, Paul Fusil describes it as the quote last
gesture of the nineteenth century idea that human beings are
getting better the longer the human race goes on. Nobody
could believe that after the First World War, and certainly
not after the second. And to go along with that
idea almost I mean, some people consider it the last
holdout of like a Victorian Christmas, and and that makes
(19:44):
sense or Dickens Christmas, I mean kind of the same thing.
But that makes sense if you think that the origin
of a Victorian Christmas, which is from Britain, is of
course German because of Prince Albert. As we've talked about
all that before too, so it makes sense that the
two countries in particular would have such similar Christmas traditions
(20:04):
and and um end up celebrating them in this early
stage of the war together. But I was really surprised.
I know we've had a lot of quotes in this
episode because there are so many letters and diaries written
by soldiers, but we do have a quote from our
old friend Arthur Conan Doyle, who is really the new
Queen Victoria up in every episode. I really like what
(20:28):
how he described the truth, though it's quite poignant. He
wrote it was quote one human episode amid all the
atrocities which have stained the memory of the war. UM
and clearly it has been really well remembered and celebrated
because it is so unique. It is this one human episode.
I mean, if it had ended the war or something,
(20:48):
it would clearly be in a whole different league of history.
But it's so unusual that a lot of people have
remembered it and have marked it in existence. Members of
the Association for Military Remembrance reenact the Truce at Apra
and in November two thousand five, the last known Christmas
(21:10):
Truce veteran died in Scotland at a wopping one hundred
and nine years old. His name was Alfred Anderson. He
was a Black Watch soldier and he was eighteen and
nineteen fourteen. Later in the war, he had served as
a batman to the brother of the late Queen Mother
and consequently had received a visit from Prince Charles and
numerous telegrams from the Queen. I feel like we should
(21:32):
explain batman really quickly too, because the batman UM. I
found out about this from watching Downton Abbey. UM. It's
like the personal assistant almost of high ranking officers. So
the job would be anything from like getting your messages,
making sure you had your supplies, to offering some kind
(21:53):
of personal protection. And it was a really prestigious position
to have. You might get to go to a better
place is and move up faster in the army. UM.
So that was I was also kind of surprised that
this fellow, Alfred Anderson UM, died in two thousand five.
I believe that the last World War One survivor died
just this year, so not too not too far apart,
(22:16):
not too far for the last Christmas Truth survivor. UM.
But one final comment here on Bruce Bearn's father, who
he mentioned earlier. I looked at some of his cartoons,
and I kind of thought they were a neat way
to take a different look at World War One, one
that is personal, one that's sometimes humorous instead of remote
(22:38):
and upsetting and mechanical. You know, it's it's clearly depicting
the soldiers not just as cannon fodder. There are people,
and they do funny things, and they have funny reaction.
They were funny interactions with people. But I also liked
Beren's father's reflection on the truth, and they certainly suggest
that he may have seen it as more than just
(22:59):
a lull in a friendly boxing match. As we mentioned earlier,
he wrote quote, there was a kind of invisible and
tangible feeling extending across the frozen swamp between the two lines,
which said, this is Christmas Eve for both of us,
something in common. Well, that was a great choice for
a Christmas episode, I think, Well, I'm glad that you
(23:19):
liked it, and I really enjoyed listening to it. It
made me break out my family. Carol's book kind of
put me in a in a Christmas move but a
reflective one too, And I know that there are a
lot of other Christmas themed episodes that people want to
hear I think people request sat Nick every single year
people do. We get a lot of requests for sat Nick,
(23:41):
So maybe that will be next year's episode. Maybe. But
in the meantime, if you have any more requests Christmas
related or not, please email us or a history podcast
at how Stuff works dot com. You can also hit
us up on Facebook or on Twitter at mist in History.
And of course have a very merry Christmas and a
happy Hanukah, Kwanza, Happy New Year, Best of festivals Saturnalia,
(24:04):
of course christ Tide. If you listen into our old
episodes you will know both of those references. Whatever holiday
you celebrate, I hope you have a happy and peaceful season.
You can also learn more about Christmas as well as
the Christmas Truths. We do have an article on that.
I found it unfortunately after I was done researching this episode,
(24:26):
because I'm rarely expecting we have uncovered history articles anymore.
We usually don't. We usually don't, but we do have
one for this It's called what was the Christmas Troops?
And we have How Christmas Works, which I always like
to recommend. You can check it out by searching for
Christmas on our home page at www. Dot how stuff
works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
(24:52):
video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
of tomorrow. The Houstufforks iPhone app has a ride. Download
it today on iTunes, e
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