ChmmasMce THE WESTERN FRONT DECEMBER 1914 Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton J'- .0^ The Western Front December 1914 I Frankfurt Mannheim Stuttgart Chri...
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Chmmas Mce THE WESTERN FRONT
DECEMBER 1914 Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton
J'.0^
The Western Front December 1914
I
Frankfurt
Mannheim
Stuttgart
Christmas Truce
Overleaf: 'Saxons and Anglo-Saxons fraternizing on the field of battle at the season of peace goodwill.' Illustrated
London News,
9 JawMflry 79/5
and
© Malcolm Brown & Shirley Seaton First published
1
984
by Leo Cooper in association & Warburg, 1984
with SecKer
ISBN o 436 07102 9
Hippocrene Books, Inc 171
Madison Avenue
New York, NY
10016
ISBN o 87052 015 6
Designed by John Mitchell Printed and bound in Great Britain by Butler
& Tanner Ltd, Frome and London
Contents
Acknowledgments Preface:
'One human episode amid
1
A Background of Hatred
2
'Two huge armies
3
'Pals
4
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
5
Christmas Eve
54
6
Christmas
Day
87
7
Boxing Day
8
'The Long Truce
by Xmas'
sitting
vi
all
the atrocities
. .
.
'
ix
i
and watching each other'
12
26 41
154 is
Broken'
Postscript: Christmas 1915
163 195
Appendices
A
British Infantry Brigades in the line at Christmas 19 14
B German
Infantry Regiments opposite the
Christmas 19 14
210
Notes and References Bibliography
Index of Soldiers Index [V]
224
212
216 218
BEF at
205
Acknowledgments
first acknowledgment must be to the BBC Television Service for whom the present authors collaborated as producer and researcher on a television documentary about the Christmas truce called Peace in No Man's Land, which was transmitted in Britain on Christmas Eve 198 1 and has since been shown in a number of other countries. The programme revealed the existence of so many interesting and largely unexplored seams that it became inevitable that further work would be undertaken and that eventually a book of some kind would be attempted. Even so, no book might have appeared but for the persuasive encouragement of Roderick Suddaby, Keeper of the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum, who felt that since we had found out so much it would be a dereliction of duty on our part not to make it available to the public. So our second acknowledgment must be to him, and to his colleagues at the I in particular Clive Hughes, who has himself become a considerable expert on fraternization, and Philip Reed, who assisted us with a number of important translations from German. Roderick Suddaby and Clive Hughes also helped us by kindly reading the book in manuscript. Others whose invaluable work we are pleased to acknowledge include Jill Dales, who not only produced an immaculate typescript but also assisted in the checking of the legion of documents requiring scrutiny at the Public Record Office; Trudi Hoben and Peter Harris, who translated various letters and documents from German; Betty Brown, who translated a number of memoirs and war diaries from French; and Richard Baumgartner, who supported the project from across the Atlantic with some very useful German material and excellent advice. Our thanks too to Barbara Breslove in New York, Mark Caldwell in Cologne, and, nearer home, to Moira Johnston, who shared in the research at the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale and also cast a practised eye over our manuscript in advance of its being
The
WM,
submitted to the publishers. Further, we acknowledge with
much gratitude the help and interest of the numerous regimental associations and the many members of the public who responded to our appeals for material and information, and who have sometimes entrusted to us items of considerable value; and we would also like to thank the newspapers and magazines who kindly gave space to our appeals in their columns. Our greatest acknowledgment, however, must be to those survivors of the Christmas truce whom we have met or with whom we have corresponded and who have become during the making of this book not only our advisors and contributors but also our friends.
Malcolm Brown
March 1984 [vi]
Shirley Seaton
Illustration
The
Acknowledgments
authors and publisher wish to thank the following for permission to reproduce photo-
graphs or other visual material:
George Allen
& Unwin
Ltd,
25;
Richard Baumgartner, 49; Mrs Nora Brookes,
Lieutenant-Colonel R.A. Buchanan-Dunlop obe and Brigadier
DSO, 21; Bundesarchiv, 57 (bottom), 58; Mrs B.M. Buxton, 158; 158; Colonel J.B. Coates cbe mc dl, 50, 51; the late Brigadier C.A.F.
John Frost Historical Newspaper Library, 179;
Sir
123;
A.L Buchanan-Dunlop cbe Mr and Mrs M.D. Chater,
Westrow Hulse
Drummond
OBE, 157;
Bart, 125 (bottom);
The
London News Picture Library, jacket, title page, 35, 45, 67, 103, 125 (top), 138 (bottom); Imperial War Museum, 16 (centre & bottom), 24, 29, 30, 44, 93, 138 (top & centre), 141, 142, 158, 172, 173; London Rifle Brigade Veterans' Association, 16 (top), 22, 88, 107 Illustrated
(top), 164;
Macmillan
& Co
Ltd, endpapers (based on
map
of Western Front from British
History of the War); Mansell Collection, 57 (top), 150; National Portrait Gallery, London, 39; Mrs Felicite Nesham, 132, 158; Public Record Office, Kew, 152; Punch, 7; Queen's
Official
Westminster & Civil Service Rifles, Retired Members' Association, 75; Savoy Hotel, 5; Scots Guards, 143; Service Historique de I'Armee de Terre, Vincennes, 152; Ursula Skuballa, 109; The Staffordshire Regiment, 77; Brigadier I.M. Stewart DSO obe mc dl, 107 (bottom); Ullstein Bilderdienst, 65; Major M.L. Walkinton, 158; Brigadier J. Wedderburn-Maxwell DSO mc, 158
[vii]
Where Bruce Bairnsfather snipped
British Sector of the
two buttons from
German
Western Front CHRISTMAS 1914
coat
Where
^
Ar.3 of Truce
Where
a
lieutenant's
was
Sgt Collins
'killed in action'
Woodbines enemy
taking
the
6 Cheshires played
the
and shared a cooked pig with the
Where
football
to
the Lancashire
were beaten 3-2 by the Saxons Fusiliers
Germans Corporal John Ferguson, 2 Seaforth Highlanders
Private William I
Tapp,
f
\X'arnelon
R. Warwickshire
Where Rifleman 5
Graham
London
Williams, (London Rifle Brigade)
the
Germans
rolled barrels of beer
across from the
brewery, and swopped
them
Riflemen Bernard Brookes & Leslie Walkinton, 1 6 London (Queen's Westminster Rifles)
Johannes Niemann (133rd Saxon Regt )
N. Staffordshire
Where
Major A. Buchanan-Di I
2 Scots
a
German
juggler entertained
Leicestershire
Lieut. Sir
plum
Hugo Klemm and
Captain R.J. Armes, I
for
puddings
and
Edward Hulse,
a
Tommy had his
hair cut by his pre-
war London barber
Guards
Where Major Arbuthnot, disguised as a
German,
located
an enemy machine-
gun post
Scene of the 1915 Christmas Queen's Westminster's riflemen taken
truce Scene of the Garhwal
3 Rifles'
fraternization with the i6th
prisoner
(3rd Westphalian) Regt, resulting in cancellation of
Where
Captain Kenny's leave
hilarity
Captain Walther Stennes, 1 6th (3rd Westphalian) Regt
Sergeant of 2/Wilts caused wearing a skirt found in a deserted farmhouse a
Scene of the joint burial service conducted by the Chaplain of 6/ Gordon Highlanders and a German divinity student
Where a German deserter arrived at 13 London (Kensington) trenches on Boxing night, reporting an imminent German attack, and causing an 'alert' in the British line
Preface
'One human episode amid all the atrocities'
The Christmas
truce of 1914 did not take place. It could not have
brutal and savage a war.
Mons. Or of
if
It
was
a
myth
happened
in so
of the time, like the story of the Angels of
anything of the kind occurred
it
was some minor incident blown up out
proportion, natural fodder for the sentimentalists and the pacifists of later
all
generations.
Even veterans of the Western Front have been known to hold such views. In a letter to the authors in 1983 one old soldier who was actually in France at the time dismissed the whole episode, with a typical Tommy's directness and wit, as a 'latrine rumour'. But the truce did take place and on a far greater scale than has usually been assumed. It is an indisputable part of the equation of the First World War. It is verified, as this book will show, in a considerable range of sources. Enemy really did greet enemy between the trenches. There was, for a time, peace in No Man's Land. Though Germans and British were the main participants, French and Belgians took part as well. Most of those involved agreed it was a remarkable way to spend Christmas. 'Just you think,' wrote one British soldier, 'that while you were eating your turkey
etc. I
was out talking and shaking hands with the very
men
I
had been trying
a
was astounding!'* Reversing the well-known quotation, second lieutenant wrote 'It was not war, but it was certainly magnificent!' 'It was
a
day of peace in war', commented a German participant.
to kill a
was not
few hours before!!
It
'It is
only a pity that
it
a decisive peace.'
So the Christmas truce
is
no legend.
It is
not surprising, however, given the
standard popular perception of the horrors of the First World War, that this supreme
come to have something of a Young people who would normally dismiss that far-off conflict of
instance of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' has
legendary quality.
* Sources of quotations not ascribed in the text are given in 'Notes 'Index of Soldiers' on page 216.
[ix]
and References' on page 210 or
Preface
their grandfathers in the century's teens as
merely incomprehensible, find reassur-
ance, even a kind of hope in the Christmas truce.
It provided one of the most memorable scenes of Oh, What a Lovely War! Some years ago the entertainer Mike Harding wrote and moved audiences with a popular song about it. In 1982 it was
referred to in Alan Bleasdale's highly acclaimed television plays about contemporary
unemployment. Boys from
the Blackstuff:
cularly affecting scene to the time in
No Man's Land
one of
when 'enemy
and made friends and played
his characters harks
back
in a parti-
troops from Woth si5es got together football
and
just for
once forgot the
absolute lunacy of what they were doing to each other'. At the beginning of 1984 a
song by Paul McCartney based on the truce rose to number one
pop on video of Christmas Day 19 14 which accomand which was shown round the world, must have left in the British
charts; the convincing re-enactment
panied the song on television, a vivid impression
on many minds. The event
has, indeed, gained rather than lost in
potency as time has gone by.
One
thing must be said at the outset, however. This was not a unique occur-
rence in the history of war. to
do so today
-
it
was
Though
it
surprised people at the time - and continues
a resurgence of a long-established tradition. Informal truces
and small armistices have often taken place during prolonged periods of fighting and the military history of the last two centuries in particular abounds with incidents of
War British and French at times drew water at the same wells, washed their muskets in the same stream, and even sat around the same campfire sharing their rations and playing cards. Indeed, there were so many cases of fraternization that Wellington realizing the implications issued the strictest orders, making it punishable by death to strike friendship between enemies. In the Peninsular visited each others' lines,
up
friendly relations with the enemy. Kilvert in his Diary describes conversations
who
on which British and met in the middle space and drank together. In the Crimean War British, French and Russians at quiet times forgathered around the same fire, smoking and drinking. In the American Civil War Yankees and Rebels traded tobacco, coffee and newspapers (on one occasion pushing them across a river on improvised boats), fished peacefully on opposite sides of the same stream and with the old soldier Morgan,
French
sentries laid
down
recalled occasions in Spain
their arms,
even collected wild blackberries together. Similar
stories are told of the Siege of
where Germans once invited the French to join them in a massive share-out of wine-bottles; of the Boer War, in which on one occasion during a conference of commanders the rank and file of both sides engaged in a friendly game of football; Paris,
and of the Russo-Japanese War,
in
which, among numerous other incidents, oppos-
ing officers entertained each other during an armistice for the burial of the dead, the
Japanese bringing brandy, sake, beer and wine, the Russians bringing champagne. [X]
Preface
brandy and
claret.
Later wars too have their small crop of such stories; indeed,
rare for a conflict at close quarters to continue very long without
gesture between enemies or an upsurge of the
mas
and
'live
let live' spirit.
truce of 1914 does not stand alone; on the other
greatest
hand
some generous So the Christ-
undoubtedly the
is
it
it is
example of its kind.
Granted
that the Christmas truce actually
prehensions regarding held assumption
is
it
which perhaps
happened, there are certain misap-
call for
immediate comment. One widely
that only ordinary soldiers took part in
essentially a protest of the cannon-fodder. Private
that
it;
Tommy
it
was, as
it
were,
and Musketier Fritz
throwing aside the assumptions of conventional nationalism and thumbing their noses at those in authority over them. In
fact, in
many
NCOs
cases
and
officers
joined in with equal readiness, while in others truces were initiated and the terms of
Some
armistice agreed at 'parleys' of officers between the trenches.
contemporary accounts occur officers
in letters written
commanding who, while
of the best
by subalterns, captains, majors, even
plainly realizing that this
was not normal military
conduct, participated nevertheless, recorded the event in as enthusiastic terms as
non-commissioned fellows, and were often equally eager
their tinue.
There
some generals angrily opposed the truce, and indeed saw some advantage in allowing events to take their
also evidence that while
is
others tolerated
own
for the truce to con-
it
course - while never for a
moment doubting
that eventually
war would resume
in full earnest.
Of course, a
in certain instances worried officers at the front did intervene to put
peremptory end
to the
spontaneous camaraderie of their subordinates. In other
cases, the officers left the fraternizing to their
cipate but also
from
a
shrewd idea
that the
mood and
out more about the enemy's
men,
No Man's
Marxist division by rank or
class
in nationality
and rank
officer or
man, had occasion
to
between those who took part and those who did
and men of both sides mingling
from cautious acceptance
to parti-
themselves would find
Land. Basically, however, people looking for any quasi-
not, will not find particular satisfaction in this tale.
better story: officers
from reluctance
left to
dispositions. In yet other cases, off"ers of truce
were so swiftly and decisively rebuffed that no one, step out into
partly
Tommies
to delighted,
for the
The
truth,
freely, in a
we
believe,
makes
a
mixture of attitudes
even emotional participation, the
diff"erence
moment all but forgotten.
One other misapprehension about the truce calls for rebuttal. There has grown up a belief, even among aficionados of the First World War, that the Christmas truce was considered by those in high circles to be so disgraceful an event, one so against the prevailing mood of the time, that all knowledge of it was withheld from the public at home until the war was safely over. This heresy - for it is no other - has [xi]
Preface
not only lodged in the popular imagination but has also become the accepted
wisdom
of certain otherwise reliable historians. In fact, the truce was fully publicized from the
moment news
of
it
reached
home
and- we have found no trace of any censor's
hand. Throughout January 191 5 numerous national and local newspapers in Britain printed letter after letter from soldiers
who
took part; in addition they ran eye-
catching headlines ('Extraordinary Unofficial Armistice', 'British, Indians and Ger-
mans Shake Hands', 'The Amazing Truce'), and even printed photdgraphs of Britons and Germans together in No Man's Land. Similarly magazines like the Illustrated London News, The Graphic and The Sphere carried evocative drawings of particular incidents of the truce from material supplied by soldiers at the front. True, the event was soon superseded by more sombre reports and headlines as 191 5 went on, but it was no means as dead as most events in yesterday's newspapers are normally thought to be.
Contemporary
references to
it
war included
histories of the
occurred in some of the
whose aim was
as a matter of course,
many books published during
partly to chronicle the various campaigns
inspire a suitably patriotic
and ardent
time, included an approving section
which came out
it
spirit.
and events, but
in his
later, Sir
book The Drama of 365 Days, Arthur Conan Doyle, in his
history of 19 14, called the Christmas truce 'an amazing spectacle' and, in a
able description, saluted
stained the
memory
it
as 'one
episode amid
all
the atrocities
memor-
which have
of the war'.
Conan Doyle's
phrase, indeed,
human dimension which means of a fiftytwo-month war tion.
human
also to
Hall Caine, a popular novelist of the
on the truce
Publishing a year
in 191 5.
and
the war years
is still
sums up the
that this relatively
remembered and
attraction of the truce:
obscure event in the
it
fifth
is
the
month
will continue to catch the imagina-
In a century in which our conception of war has been changed fundamentally,
from the cavalry charge and the
flash of sabres to the Exocet, the cruise missile
and
bomb, the fact that in 19 14 some thousands of the fighting men of the nations met and shook hands between their trenches strikes a powerful
the neutron belligerent
and appealing note.
modern
It is
perhaps the best and most heartening Christmas story of
times.
[xii]
A
Background of Hatred
HE
Christmas truce was the culminating episode of a dramatic
and
tragic year. 19 14,
it
is
generally agreed, was one of the great
watersheds of modern times. Commenting on
Aldington wrote: 'Pre-war seems
it
years later, Richard
like pre-history
.
.
.
One
feels as if
the period 1900-14 has to be treated archaeologically, painfully re-
created by experts from slight vestiges.'
Among
who
those
recog-
happened was Thomas Hardy; for him this Old verities, old assumptions, old systems, old frontiers were never to be the same again. The ideological division of the world today can be directly traced to the great European upheavals which began in 1914. nized the cataclysm as
was
It
it
time of "the breaking of nations"
'a
was
also the year in
which the
'.
sacrifice of
thousands of young
men became
acceptable part of the international power-struggle: shocking in August, a ritual
it
an
was almost
by December. For C.E. Montague 1916, the year when the volunteer armies 'a web was woven across the
were slaughtered on the Somme, was the time when sky and a goblin
made
of the sun'. But the seeds of the
Somme
were sown when the
nations declared war in 19 14.
The Christmas
truce was time off from that killing, a pause in the weaving of
the web. But what gives
pened so soon
it
greater historical interest
and significance
is
that
it
hap-
and the war with loathing and contempt for their opponents. In the case of the small expeditionary force which Britain sent hurrying off to join the affray on the outbreak of war contempt instantly became a intention - of
after a violent explosion of nationalistic hatred, the result -
which was
cachet: described
word
as a
to inspire the peoples at
by the Kaiser
as a 'contemptible little army', its
members took
badge of pride. Their choice was an inspired one, for contempt,
the
racial
animus, the belief that the enemy were capable of every kind of wickedness, was a powerful ingredient of the atmosphere of 1914, a long-prepared poison gas.
The
explosion had been building up for years. That highly natioijalistic cen-
[I]
A
tury, the nineteenth,
Background of Hatred
had produced new
rivals to the
long-estabHshed powers of
Europe. In particular, Germany's success with her land wars, and her overt deter-
mination to match the world's leading seapower, Britain, in the element which the British thought peculiarly their own, sent Shockwaves of suspicion and anxiety across
The
the whole continent.
made no
kingship, betrayal.
Concern
fact that Britain
difference;
at the
if
and Germany shared kinship, and
anything
new development
it
added
to rivalry a
a related
dangerous whiff of
was, of course, natural in Ihe older, more
established nations; this was a major change in the balance of power. But everywhere
there were those eager to exploit the
new
situation to their advantage. In Britain, for
example, pressure groups such as that associated with Lord Roberts's campaign for
compulsory military service (Britain having always
relied
saw much
of fierce anti-Germanism, which
profit to
themselves in fuelling
a
mood
on the volunteer
principle)
the governing Liberal party deplored but the opposition Conservative party largely
supported. At the same time, journalists like J.L. Garvin,
and
later as editor of
The Observer, wrote
first in
the Daily Telegraph
in so antagonistic a fashion about Britain's
Teutonic neighbour that the German Emperor himself. Kaiser Wilhelm driven to complain Northcliffe,
at this
who owned The
Observer, also
owned
Novels, stage plays and
Meanwhile
in
Germany
much
was
Lord
the Daily Mail, which was the
populist fiag-carrier in a sustained attempt to present light.
1 1,
'continuing and systematic poisoning of the wells'.
Germany
in the
worst possible
bar and street-corner talk mined the same seam.*
the Kaiser's officer corps took to drinking to 'Der Tag' - the
day of reckoning with Germany's enemies. All
this
made
acceptable the idea of
some
kind of ultimate European conflagration. Looking back on the pre-war situation from the perspective of 1919, felt that disaster
H.G. Wells
wrote: 'Every intelligent person in the world
was impending and knew no way
to avoid
it'.
Yet part of the drama, and the poignancy of 19 14 stems from the
was
fact that there
a lull, almost with a hint of reprieve, just before the final collapse.
wrote Wells, 'realized in the earlier half of 1914
how
'Few of
near the crash was to
us.'
us',
For
Harold Macmillan, then an undergraduate, there was no sense of threat in those last months of peace. 'Certainly', he wrote, many years later, 'had we been told, when
we were enjoying few weeks our to take conflict,
up arms,
life of Oxford in the summer term of 1914, that in a band of friends would abandon for ever academic life and rush
the carefree
little
still
more, that only a few were destined to survive a four years'
we should have thought such prophecies
the ravings of a maniac'
from the War Returning makes the interesting point that the play Englishman's Home, depicting resistance by an English family during a German invasion, was so popular a play in 1909 as to beat all records by rurming at three London theatres simultaneously.
* Charles Carrington, in Soldier
An
[2]
A
Background of Hatred
Indeed, for Britain, such war clouds as there were in the earlier months of the year loomed over Ireland, not Europe; with a 'mutiny' by British officers at the
Curragh, gun-running to north and south and unofficial armies Ireland seemed to have ironically, relations least,
the ingredients of a major
all
civil
in
open
conflict.
training,
Meanwhile,
between Britain and Germany had become, for the moment
at
almost genial. In June 19 14, as the crisis in Ireland continued to hold the headlines, there
occurred an event which seemed to suggest that better times were ahead for these
two great European powers. The Royal Navy was invited
Two
Week.
to attend Kiel
Yachting
British squadrons rode at anchor alongside imits of the Kaiser's
High
much mutual entertairmient and no toasts to 'Der Tag'. The German battleships, together with eighty of their bluejackets, were witness a boxing contest on board HMS Ajax. The Kaiser's brother
Seas Fleet. There was of two
officers
invited to
Henry was quoted the British and
as saying: 'This
German
what
fleets lying side
was
British captain present
is
I
have long hoped
by
a British
was
Admiral
men
A
'Never was a fairer
bred to a profession of
most conciliatory mood and even appeared dressed 'proud', he said, 'to wear the xmiform worn by Lord Nelson'.
The Kaiser was -
portion of
side in friendship in Kiel harbour'.
to say of the event years later;
prospect of peace and friendship between two sets of arms'.
for, to see a
in his
as It
a highly successful fraternization.
On from
28 June the imperial yacht was called in to be given an urgent message
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Berlin.
assassinated at Sarajevo. to his capital.
Grand
It
was the
falling of the first
The Royal Navy squadrons
Fleet was steaming to
its
war
of Austria and his wife had been
sailed
station in
domino. The Kaiser returned
home. One month
later the British
Scapa Flow.
*
So Armageddon, the war of wars, the ultimate conflict, came at last, and there began campaign of hatred and vilification by both sides which made the propagandist
a
tirades of the days of peace
George his
way
in a
seem almost mild. 'The Prussian Junker',
speech in September,
'is
are flung to the roadside, bleeding
in a speech in October,
accused
said
Lloyd
the road-hog of Europe. Small nationalities in
Germany
and broken.' The Prime Minister Asquith, of 'devastation and destruction worthy of
Punch portrayed the Kaiser as 'The German was 'the Hun', the Attila of modern times. In the same vein the French cartoonist, Jean Veber, portrayed the German soldier as an unleashed monster striding out to slaughter and destroy. Meanthe blackest annals of the history of barbarism'.
Great Goth', but in popular parlance the
[3]
The
Prussian Monster Unleashed by Jean Veber, September 1914. A French
cartoonist's vision of the predatory Hun. Published at
francs,
S
within
a
few
months it was unobtainable under $00 francs - part of the enormous boom in the sale of France.
war
cartoons
in
while such of the Kaiser's subjects as had taken up residence in Britain - there were
many
- feh the
immediate impact of
swiftly as to leave
no doubt
that
it
a fierce anti-Germanism which sprang up so came from well-established roots. Even before
war the process of ousting and ostracizing began. Bernard Brookes, a volunteer of the first week of the war, who was later to participate in the Christmas truce, had worked in the City of London for a Belgian firm which had a number of the declaration of
Germans As
I
it is
in senior positions.
write
from
am
August he wrote
pleased to say that the office
resolved that none of the
to avoid
3
I
On 3
Germs
now
cleared of everything
will ever set foot in the office again if
Germy, and it is
possible
it.
August was Bank Holiday Monday, and that day's holiday-makers, returning found themselves crossing paths with
their excursions to the East Coast,
hundreds of Germans, many of them army land.
is
in his diary:
The exodus continued
either because they
naturalized, there
bandsmen,
reservists,
hurrying
home who
over the following days. For those
to the Father-
did not leave,
were over-age for military service or because they had been
was
a
hard time to come as the host nation turned on
waiters, hairdressers, businessmen,
and deprived them of
German
their liveli-
hoods, their premises and, frequently, their liberty. Concentration camps were
opened, though
it
should be added that
connotation they acquired a generation
at this
later.
[4]
time they did not have the fearsome
Catching the popular mood, the news-
THE SAVOY HOTEL
Secretary's
Office,
LiMireo.
Savoy
Hotel,
London, IV.C.
Strand,
Oopy of L»ll0r BMl
Prmmmm
io Brlllmh
October Ulh, 1914.
To THE Eduok
OI"-
GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPLOYEES AT LONDON HOTELS. With reference recently
appeared
in
Germans and Austrians
my
Board
to
state
to
that
in
articles
on
the
Hotels and
there
any capacity whatsoever
in
the
Press
the
in
and
correspondence which
subject
of
Restaurants,
Germans
the I
have
employment
am
instructed
are
no
this
Company's London Hotels,
or Austrians
of
by
employed viz.
:
—
THE SAVOY HOTEL. CLARIDGE'S HOTEL.
THE BERKELEY HOTEL. In October 1914 newspapers I
such
as
campaigned the public
vigorously to
am,
Sir,
Mail
Daily
the
for
to
'refuse
Your obedient Servant, A. G.
be
WARD.
an Austrian or German waiter. If your wai-
served by
ter says he
is
Swiss, ask to
see his passport.' Lists
were
published of those hotels responding to the call to dismiss their
German and Aus-
trian staff.
papers rejoiced
as, that
summer and autumn, Germans
spies to plainly innocent old gentlemen,
such
as the Ritz, the
was not a employed in
of
all
kinds, from suspect
were hustled into custody. London
hotels,
Carlton and the Savoy, published announcements to the effect
German or Austrian birth, whether naturalized The Hotel Cecil gave out that 'it had felt services of German and Austrian employees'. The
that there
single person of
or not,
their establishments.
necessary to dispense with the
latter declarations are of particular relevance to the
waiters from British hotels
seem
to
present story in that former
have been among the most prominent trucers
during subsequent events in Flanders.
[51
.
A
If the British
Background of Hatred
acquired a talent for hating Germans, the Germans excelled
themselves in hating the British - or, more specifically, England. England became
German propaganda. Shortly after the war began, a minor named Ernst Lissauer, serving as a private soldier in the army, wrote an anti-English poem. He called it Hassgesang gegen England - 'Hymn of Hate against England'. It so much caught the German mood thaf it became almost a second national anthem. First published in a Munich weekly newspaper in Septemthe target of virulent
Berlin-born
ber,
it
German
poet
was subsequently printed
in the classroom
in leaflet
form by the million, was taught
and was memorized by troops
award from the Kaiser of the fourth
won its Red Eagle
in the trenches. It
class of the
Order of the
191 5. Translated by an American, Barbara Henderson, for the
'Hymn of Hate' became almost as well-known much publicized - and derided - in the British
in
New
English as in
The
press.
to children
author the in
January
York Times, the
German and was
following lines give
its
flavour.
French and Russians they matter not;
A blow for a
blow, and a shot for a shot;
We love them not, we hate them not We have but one and only hate, We love as one, we hate as one, We have one foe and one alone. He He
is
known
to
you
all,
he
is
known
Cut
off by
you
all!
gall.
waves that are thicker than blood
We will never forgo our hate, We have all but a single hate, We love as one, we hate as one. We have one foe, and one alone -
to light
to
s.
crouches behind the dark gray flood,
Full of envy, of rage, of craft, of
A
...
.
.
England!
well-known but even more outspoken example of anti-Englishness came early in 191 5 when a copy of a newspaper published by the Germans in
less
occupied Lille was discovered on a
German
Entitled 'Fire' and written by one Lieutenant-Colonel Kaden, unambiguous concoction. These are a few key sentences:
Let every German,
German
now
man
or
woman, young
it
or old, find in his heart a Bismarck
storm and
stress.
Let
this fire,
breast, be a fire of joy, of holiest enthusiasm.
But
let it
a pillar of fire
in these days of
[6]
by the British. was a bizarre but
soldier taken prisoner
be
Column,
enkindled in every terrible, unfettered.
Hatred German
[7]
style -
and
the British response by
Punch
.
.
A
let it
Background of Hatred
carry horror and destruction! Call
thine enemy'!
We all
it
hate! Let no one come
have but one enemy, England\
How
you with 'Love
to
we have wooed her almost She would have none of us The time has long
our own self-abasement when we would do homage to everything English - our cousins that were! You men of Germany, from East and West, forced to shed your blood
to the point of
.
.
.
.
.
.
passed
in the
defence of your homeland through England's infamous envy and hatred of Germany's progress, feed the flame that burns in your souls.
PUNISH ENGLAND!'
were the sound of licking flames
Behold
Take
We
have
hxJl
one war-cry 'god
Hiss this to One another in the trenches, in the charge, hiss as .
it
.
every dead comrade a sacrifice forced from you by this accursed people.
in
ten-fold vengeance for each hero's death!
You German people at home, feed this fire of hate! You mothers, engrave this in the heart of the babe at your breast You fathers, proclaim it aloud over the billowing fields, that the toiling peasant may hear you, that the birds of the forest may fly away with the message: into all the land, that echoes from German cliffs send it reverberating like the clanging of bells from tower to lower throughout the countryside: 'hate, hate, the accursed English, hate' .
.
!
It
should be added that the British could express a
manism and
that their eflFusions too could be read
Ethel Cooper,
who
lived in
fairly
on enemy
Germany throughout
soil.
vigorous anti-Ger-
An
Australian lady,
the war, wrote in February 19 15
to her sister:
\ I
loathe the newspapers, and yet what else
policy of hatebreeding which
is
is
one
to read!
And
being followed everywhere.
I
I
loathe
must
most of
get
you
a
all this
copy of
the so-called 'Song of Hate against England', which the Kaiser has ordered to be
published little
among
while ago,
I
all
And
the troops and learned in the schools!
found
in a Daily
Graphic a
this:
Down
with the Germans,
down with them
all!
O Army and Navy, be sure of their fall! Spare not one, the deceitful spies.
Cut out
their tongues, pull out their eyes!
Down, down
And
that
is
supposed
to
with them
all!
be a respectable London paper.
I
do assure you that when
read the words 'our sacred cause' now-a-days - in any paper -
As
if
my stomach
I
turns.
the falling out of nations with a strong sense of relationship were not enough,
[8]
A strong fuel was added to the
Background of Hatred
by the angry debate, the claims and counter-claims,
fire
Belgium and France. Allied
relating to the treatment of the occupied territories of
newspapers
at
were
that time
full
of the appalling,
inhuman
atrocities allegedly
committed by the invading Germans. Babies spiked on bayonets, hands or breasts cut off, priests hung as living clappers from bells - the worst examples from this
gruesome catalogue have been convincingly discredited, but the they did sack villages
remains that
fact
a thoroughly modern
and towns, shoot hostages and show
disregard for homes, churches and fine architecture generally in the pursuit of their objectives.
were
The Germans
for their part claimed that
guerrillas (or, to use the
more
many
of the civilians executed
precise term, francs- tireurs)
and
that others
were
legitimately shot either to punish or deter resistance.
One
other factor often overlooked
is
that the
German newspapers
also con-
tained atrocity stories from Belgium - of horrors allegedly perpetrated by Belgians against
Germans.
A German
Reserve captain, Walter Bloem, in his account of his
regiment's train journey to the front wrote:
We
brought the morning papers and read, amazed, of the experience of those of our
troops already across the Belgian frontier - of priests, armed, at the head of marauding
bands of Belgian
civilians,
committing every kind of
atrocity,
and putting the deeds of
1870 into the shade; of treacherous ambushes on patrols, and sentries found eyes pierced and tongues cut
breath of war,
full
off,
of venom, that, as
it
were, blew in our faces as
*
Caught between the fighting. Regulars
hostile
marched
later
of poisoned wells and other horrors. Such was the
we
rolled
with first
on towards
it.
*
propaganda were the young
men who would do
the
off to war, Reservists hurried to their depots, the recruit-
ing offices opened. Britain's reliance on the volunteer principle proved itself well-
judged as thousands of would-be soldiers eagerly took the King's
shilling.
Bands
played, jingoistic songs were sung, poets celebrated their response to the challenge
of the hour and the sent to his fiancee
first
by
a
of
many
young
millions of
declared. Catching the sentiment of the
It is
awful, but one thing,
strong
war
letters
were written. One such was
Dougan Chater, on moment, he wrote:
Territorial,
it's
got to happen
some time,
&
the day that
best to have
it
war was
while
we
are
& have a good chance of whacking them.
'A good chance of whacking them.' -The school bully must be punished, be
[9]
A
Background of Hatred
how
given a sound thrashing and taught
young
simplistic values of the
to behave. Chater's phrase aptly evokes the
they went to war, in Rupert Brooke's
at that time, as
phrase, like 'swimmers into cleanness leaping'.
come. Shared between soldiers and
would be
anticipated the long ordeal to
was the assumption that the war
and glorious. 'The general view', wrote Harold Macmilwould be over by Christmas. Our major anxiety was by hook or by
short, successful
lan, 'was that
it
crook not to miss
Many at the
Few
civilians alike
of the
^
'
it.'
enemy went
war with equal ardour.
to
time - and has been too frequently assumed since
were in process of invading other nations' neutral, Belgium, that they
It
was too readily assumed
- that
because the Germans
territories, including that of a
guaranteed
were an army of insensitive brutes blindly obeying the
orders of tyrants and slave-drivers. Brutes there no doubt were - 'Frightful Fritzes'
and 'Hateful Heinrichs',
as
thousands of eager patriots
Bruce Bairnsfather called them
who
-
but there were also
believed as implicity in their national cause as the
in theirs. On 6 August a young studentmany, Walter Limmer (who would in fact be killed before the end of September), wrote to his mother just before leaving for the front:
French or the Belgians believed
British, the
soldier typical of
My
dear ones, be proud that you
such times and
live in
in
such a nation, and that you
have the privilege of sending several of those you love into this glorious struggle.
Summing up the mood commented: The whole
No moment
in
Germany
nation was in fact one
was more
of that time. Reserve Captain Walter
immense united brotherhood.
'glorious' for the
German
sacred river Rhine while heading westwards
Captain Bloem described great river
'a
mighty
yell
it,
at the
moment
German
soldier than the crossing of the
to fight in the Fatherland's cause.
that the train reached the
went up from the whole length of
to sing 'the great chorus, the song of our fathers
the
it'
and
all
"The Watch on
...
it
As
As
middle of the
on board began
the
Rhine"
'
- to
the equivalent of 'Rule Britannia' or the 'Marseillaise'. This, for Bloem,
was an unforgettable experience: he was participating in his country's bid out from the bonds imposed by encircling, hostile neighbours.
Was
Bloem
real or I
was
I
living in a
realized the
dream, in
meaning of
it
all,
a fairy tale, in
my
fulfilment, with the fullness of living.
[10]
some heroic
to break
epic of the past?
heart overflowed with that great joy of
A
Background of Hatred
though they did not know
when they went to war, and though the poHticians, the propagandists and the civiHans back home were never to know it, many of the fighting men of the belhgerent nations of 19 14 had much more in common than they reaHzed: their patriotism, their commitment to what they took to be a worthy cause, their strong simpHstic values, their soldier's pride. They also In
fact,
it
shared their youth and their vulnerability to
all
the
trials
and dangers of a
twentieth-century industrialized war. Inevitably, they would largely ignore such
common bonds
in the years ahead,
would not even recognize
that they existed and,
conditioned by the background of hatred against which the war was fought, would willingly
do
all
they could to outwit,
to
time there would be
in
which they
- or at
maim and
annihilate each other. Yet
from time
moments of comradeship and understanding, short episodes any rate a number of them - would opt out of the vicious
killing-game in which they found themselves caught up, and would communicate not as soldier to soldier or briefly
enemy
to
enemy but
acknowledge the inhumanity, the basic
nations required
them
to do.
The
greatest
as
man
to
man. Some would even
irrationality indeed, of
what
their
and most memorable of these episodes
would take place at Christmas 1914. The war would not be over by Christmas as many people had hoped and expected, but there would be a Christmas peace of a kind, even though the slaughter would resume thereafter with an increased intensity and bitterness which would effectively guarantee that nothing on the same scale would ever happen again. But for such an episode to take place, certain special circumstances were required. These were soon to be provided by the dramatic revolution in the style of war which took place in 1914 within weeks of the onset of hostilities.
[II]
.
9l
Two huge armies sitting and watching each
T
other'
was ninety-nine years since Britain had sent an army
to
Western
Europe. As the British Expeditionary Force marched towards the
advancing enemy in 19 14 some newspaper leader-writers optimistianother 181 5, another Waterloo. But instead of one
cally anticipated
make-or-break encounter, there followed decisive clash at
Mons, followed by
in swift succession the in-
long and exhausting retreat;
a
Marne, and the first attriof the war on the river Aisne. Indeed, it was as early as 15 September weeks after the declaration of war - that the French Commander-inthe dramatic turning-of-the-tide on the
tional battle - barely six
Chief, Joffre, ordered his armies to entrench.
French, gave similar orders to the
BEF
The
Commander, Sir John So the troops of all three Aisne, had their first taste of the British
the following day.
armies, digging in on the northern bank of the river
kind of warfare that was to dominate the next four years. In the King, French wrote:
most
in the future are
the
'I
think the battle of the Aisne
likely to resemble.
.
.
The
.
is
a
prophetic despatch to
very typical of what battles
spade will be as great a necessity as
rifle.'
The change
to trench warfare
implied an awareness of the enemy quite different
from that which pertained during the war of movement. The German was no longer a vague if dangerous threat beyond the horizon who might suddenly appear in sharp
and menacing focus neighbour
-
yet to come.
though
A
at the onset of battle:
at this stage
at times, visible
captain of the 2/Grenadier Guards* wrote on 23 September:
The German
line in
one place
yesterday moving about.
is
You can
only about 750 yards from us and see
them
quite plainly
The
.
I
was watching them
.
Guards' should be referred to as '2nd Battalion, The Grenadier shortened form used here is similar to that in the British Official History of the War.
* Strictly speaking '2/Grenadier
Guards'.
he was a near and,
not so close as in the days of cheek-by-jowl trenches
[12]
.
'
Two huge armies
sitting
and watching each
After dark they were, at times, audible too.
.
other'
The War Diary
of the i6th Infantry
Brigade recorded on 9 October: -
Afternoon quiet
At night much Singing and Shouting
ing of rifles apparently into the
But
after three
in
German
trenches and shoot-
air.
weeks the stalemate war was broken off and the armies
march and movement. The
reestablished a campaign of
BEF
briefly
transferred to the
become - with significant additions - its more or less permanent battleground. Now names began to appear in the official reports and the newspapers that were to become very familiar to the fighting soldiers of Britain and to their families back home - names like La Bassee, Neuve Chapelle, Armentieres, Ypres. The First Battle of Ypres, fought in late October and early November, was a prolonged and bloody encounter in which the Germans sought desperately to break westwards towards the sea and the Allies fought with equal determination to contain them - and if possible strike eastwards on their own account. The casualty figures on both sides were very high. A British officer wrote of one attack which was repulsed with terrible German losses: northwest to take up
My
right
hand
is
its
position in the area which was to
one huge bruise from banging the bolt up and down.
one could have missed the
ammunition
into
at the distance
them
in boxfuls.
and
just for
My rifle was red hot at the finish
In this battle thousands of those ardent young
such unqualified patriotism to the Fatherland's
I
don't think
one short minute or two we poured .
.
Germans who had responded with came to a very swift apotheosis.
call
A German cavalry officer, Captain Rudolf Binding, wrote on 27 October: These young fellows we have, only officers
have
have been
just trained, are too helpless, especially when their Our light infantry battalion, almost all Marburg students from enemy shellfire. In the next division, just such young souls,
killed.
suff^ered terribly
the intellectual flower of
.
Germany, went singing
into an attack
on Langemarck,
.
just as
vain and just as costly.*
The sides,
battles of 19 14, in fact, cut swaths
which had gone so bravely
the 2/Grenadier
*
Guards wrote
to
war
through
just a
in his diary in late
The Germans
many
of the units, on both
few weeks before. Major
Jeff'reys
of
November:
called this slaughter the Kindermord - the Massacre of the Innocents - a phrase with • strong overtones of Christmas.
[13]
'
Our
Two huge
armies sitting and watching each other'
casualties since the beginning of the
war have been:
17 officers killed 15 officers
wounded
739 other ranks
killed
and wounded
188 other ranks missing
Total
959 »
f Practically the strength of a
whole battalion.*
*
*
After
all
this there
also the options
nothing for
it
had
to be a
were played
lull:
out.
men but many battalions savagely hit, there was of new men from home depots to make up
for all the armies involved, not only the
With
so
but to wait for the arrival
their sadly depleted
*
numbers. More, the reinforcement units coming on
to the stage
required a period of acclimatization. There was also a growing feeling on
all
sides
no decisive blow would be possible before 191 5, when new initiatives and a new season would spring the war back into top gear again. For the British, there was the
that
additional awareness that they needed time to convert themselves from an expedi-
tionary force into an
army
- the great
hope
period was the knowledge that
at this
under Kitchener's inspiration Britain was an armed camp of volunteer soldiers who were training enthusiastically on barrack squares and football grounds against the day of their being given the coveted passport
to
would be marching
So
to the front before long.
be a cessation of hard fighting
France and who, it
it
was anticipated,
was inevitable that there should
- a natural break, as
it
were
- in the latter part of
1914, as the rival armies dug in where the last attacks and counter-attacks had
them. This, therefore, was the time when the trench so long
and become so notorious appeared on the
This was the time too when the
BEF
lines
it
to
left
endure for
Belgium and France. the sector which it was to
terrain of
established itself in
hold over Christmas 1914. For a brief while
which were
relinquished
its
share of the Ypres
some twenty-seven miles running from Kemmel, just south of Ypres, to the La Bassee Canal. Across the other side of No Man's Land, once again a neighbour, though a much nearer one now, was the enemy, in some places no more than 70, 50 or even 30 yards distant. He was sometimes so close that you could hear him talk. For those who had expected a swift outcome to the campaign all this was very Salient
*
and regrouped along
The normal complement
a front of
of an infantry battalion was approximately 1,000
[14]
men and
35
officers.
*
autumn
in his diary:
Something must happen soon. The watching each other
situation
The view from Kemmel this genial Belgian
seems absurd
- 2
huge armies
sitting
&
like this.
*
on the top of the
each other'
Wyatt, a second lieutenant of the Yorkshire Regiment commented
frustrating. J.D. later that
Two huge armies sitting and watching
Hill today
is
*
*
entirely peaceful; there are
no reminders
that
countryside was fought over in a four-year war or that the tower
hill
was once
a
prime target for German
artillery.
To
the northwest
its towers and spires reconstructed up to October 1914: from a distance, indeed, one might almost be looking at a scene from the Middle Ages. Inevitably, as one approaches Ypres, the signs of war multiply, for there is no ignoring the nimierous roadside memorials or the scatter of military cemeteries, many of them vast, in its neighbourhood. But
several miles off lies the walled city of Ypres,
exactly as they were
if
one turns southwards, towards the landscape associated with Christmas 19 14, one
could be forgiven for assuming that the fighting had scarcely touched are far fewer cemeteries
and almost no obvious
smoothly down to a shallow the quiet,
if
valley, then
lift
relics
it
at all.
There
of war. Well-tilled fields slope
gently to the modest ridge on which
sit
drab-looking villages of Messines and Wytschaete, which from a distance
appear to consist merely of a cluster of ancient red roofs around a sturdy, brickand-stone church tower. Only
if
one comes closer does one
realize that the
church
and almost all the houses are relatively modern, since these places were in ruins for most of the war. The Germans had seized this ridge at the beginning of November, after fierce fighting, leaving the British
holding the smaller valley villages such as
Wulverghem and Neuve Eglise. As one continues further south, the grey-green mass of Ploegsteert Wood appears - 'Plugstreet Wood' to the Tommies, and still known as the ''Bois de Guerre' to the local inhabitants - a crucial feature in the British line and, in fact, a focus of
much
trucing and fraternization at Christmas 19 14.
There are several war cemeteries most of them are concealed within the wood; fittingly enough, perhaps, for 'Plugstreet' was usually a quiet or 'cushy' sector, unlike the terrible woods of the Ypres Salient or the Somme, like Polygon, or Mametz, or Delville - the 'Devil's
here, but
Wood' to wood will
those find a
who fought there. The diligent searcher for signs of conflict in the number of old trench lines, most of them deep in the leaf-mould of
seventy autumns or, less affected by time, an old concrete first-aid post, with evocative name,
blightyhall,
still
visible in scratched letters
[15]
on the
lintel.
its
'
Two huge armies
sitting
and watching each
other'
After Ploegsteert the undulations disappear and one enters the totally
flat
countryside of the valley of the Lys - spacious fields dotted with farmhouses edging
hundred yards wide - where in 1914 the trenches ran right down to the water's edge and where two neighbouring villages, Frelinghien and Houplines, found themselves at Christmas one in German and the other in British hands. It is at this point that Belgium gives way to France. Behind Houplines, on a slow-flowing river a
what was the British
Armentieres, towered and spired like Ypres, but
side, stands
without Ypres's style and elegance; and, indeed, more famous for than
its
martyrdom,
of 19 1 8.
The
for
it
was spared
really
its
mademoiselle
heavy bombardment until the
last battles
old front line passes close to the town then heads southwestwards
across a further stretch of apparently endless Flanders plain, past a villages that are very
much
number of
tiny
La Chapelle d'Armentieres, Bois
part of this story -
Grenier (between which two places strides the dual-carriageway of the DunkirkParis autoroute), Fleurbaix, Laventie, Fauquissart,
Festubert, Givenchy.
It is
with long views across well-groomed
houses custom-built for businessmen
Markedly
trees.
There
Lille.
diff'erent
who
it is
Chapelle, Richebourg,
a landscape of character,
of root crops or maize to distant barns
fields
and farmsteads, among which have sprung up Opels to Armentieres or
Neuve
not a beautiful landscape, but
in
more recent years neat commuter
drive daily in fast Renaults or Citroens or
Copses darken the horizon, or
from Belgium, each
little
patterns of willow
village has its tall thin
church
spire.
are military cemeteries here too, but they are usually small or laid back
unobtrusively from the main roads, part of the landscape now. Near Laventie there is
one of the rare German cemeteries,
the white Portland headstones which
Here and there reminders of the war. -
though not
its
distinctive black crosses contrasting with
commemorate
the British dead.
in this part of the line there are
The most
immediately recognizable
notable relics are screw-pickets, used by both sides
as early as 19 14 - as stakes for their
barbed-wire entanglements;
now
they support by the score the fences of the local farmers. There are concrete block-
houses too, also into byres
relics of later years
than 19 14; some of them have been converted
and storeplaces, though others are
ugly, with perhaps at closer view
some
to
be seen
recently
crumbling doorway. Here and there too, in
fields
far out in the fields, derelict,
dug-up
shell
propped against the
which the farmers have
obvious areas of former battleground, bearing the distortions of ancient
As one moves plain,
and
further
down
the line, Aubers Ridge
on what was then the German
tragic fighting in 191 5.
are
very slightly above the
Neuve Chapelle, of vicious one approaches the La Bassee Canal,
side - scene, with
Further on again, as
the pit-heads and pyramid-like slag-heaps of the
appear, often under a
lifts
let lie,
shellfire.
Loos-Lens industrial zone begin to plume of white or yellow smoke from some nearby chemical [17]
'
Two huge
armies sitting and watching each other'
works. This area too was to see scenes of drama and gallantry in 191 5, but was beyond the bounds of the British sector at Christmas 1914.
This then was the part of the Western Front
in
which the British established
themselves as the First Battle of Ypres came to an end, and as the soldiers of armies concerned awaited the arrival of yet another belligerent: an enemy to
them
all
»
f
*
*
Coincident with the decline in the weather was the arrival of Britain to reinforce and increase the hard-hit
volunteers,
first
the
European winter.
- the north
came out and the
all
common
BEF. Now
of the Territorial battalions,* plus
who found
many new men from
the last of the Regulars
many
of the early Kitchener
themselves sent to the front not in newly formed units but as
replacements for badly depleted ones. In addition, after the longest journey of there was the Indian Corps, which had
come
five
all,
thousand miles from the heat of
India to the cold of Flanders. to trench life was particularly severe. They members being sent straight to the front without home leave) and found themselves holding a straggling
For the Indians the introduction arrived in October (their British
the benefit of even the briefest line of fetid,
water-logged ditches and slimy streams from Port Arthur, just west of
Neuve Chapelle, to Givenchy They suffered acutely from the
a
dismal sea of
cold,
mud
were unable
pitted with flooded shellholes.
to get their
accustomed special
rations,
and they lacked suitable clothing. Indeed, when the 2/39 Garhwal
receive
some warm clothing
days in trenches, small.
no
They
also
all
of
it
in
had
November during to
from which
to
twenty
be returned as the chest measurements were too
had certain problems which other units of the
available depot
Rifles did
their first rest period after
make good
their losses
BEF
did not have:
and no reserve of
officers
week-end soldiers who had enhsted as a potential wartime reserve under Lord Haldane in 1908. They were intended to be home based but when asked to volunteer for overseas service in 1914 most had willingly agreed to do so. They were inevitably eager to show that they were as good as the Regulars. It has sometimes been assumed that, largely because they missed the bloody early battles, they were more prepared than the Regulars to fraternize with the Germans at Christmas 19 14; and indeed not a few Regular battalions were proud that they had no truck with the enemy at that time. On the other hand (see Appendix A) a considerable number of Regular battalions did fraternize, so there is no hard and fast rule. In any case it should be remembered that the Regular battalions of Christmas 1914 were by no means the same in complement as the ones which had marched in August, having been topped up with replacements as new to the Western Front as the Territorials themselves. If a generalization had to be made, it would probably be to the effect that new men were more prone to fraternize than hardened warriors - though even to this rule there would be numerous exceptions.
*The
Territorials were
the scheme launched by
[18]
*
who spoke
Two huge
their language.
armies sitting and watching each other'
More, they were
heaviest fighting during the winter of 1914-15. Late
and the 1/39 Garhwals subsequently counter-attacking trench. For the 2nd Battalion, which relieved them,
attack lost
to see the
November found them
with the Germans launching an
fierce local action at Festubert,
was
in a part of the line that
in a
initially successful
to recapture their
own
the trench by this time was in a ghastly condition, with putrefying corpses in front
and others merely put out of
rear,
sight in the trench itself.
The duty
and
of disposing of
these horrors was peculiarly repugnant to the Hindus.
But they had acquitted themselves
won
terminology)
the
well: a corporal (or naik to use the correct
VC, and two
men
captains and several other
Indian
received decor-
ations.
Elsewhere the principal battle with the conditions. Those sufficiently
at this stage
who had been
was not so much with the enemy
as
out in France for some months were
inured to the hardships of war to take these assaults of the weather more
new
or less philosophically. But for the
arrivals
it
was often
a difficult initiation.
Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse, 2/Scots Guards (an Old Etonian and Balliol man,
aged 25, whose account of the Christmas truce was to become the most widely publicized of
all)
home
wrote
in
December about one
Territorial battalion
whose
baptism had been more than usually rigorous.
They have
not quite shaken
down
yet, in fact the other day,
trenches next to us, they had given up the ghost complete;
mud
lay
anything
deep
in the trenches; they
when occupying
foot,
and
I
Not one would work, and they were just and cold. One fellow had got both feet jammed
stiff
when
up by an
told to get
and was caught
his pals, 'For
Gawd's
in the clay,
and
on
all
on a flypaper;
all
he could do was look round and say to
had
sake, shoot me!'
directly they learn that the harder
fortable one can keep both
have never seen lying about the
to get
officer,
like a fly
the
had been pouring, and
like their rifles!
trenches getting
too,
were caked from head to
it
I
laughed
one works
them and
fours; he then got his
till I
cried.
But they
hands stuck
will
in the trenches, the drier
in
shake down,
and more com-
oneself.
Mud
was the inevitable -and much-hated byproduct of shelled and fought-over land under more or less permanently falling rain. It became a torment, an impossible enemy, an inescapable adjunct to men's soaked and filthy uniform. Arthur PelhamBurn, a second lieutenant of the 6/Gordon Highlanders, wrote in December to a schoolfriend:
[19]
.
'Two huge armies
I
used to think
sitting
knew what mud was
I
and watching each
before
I
other'
came out here but
was quite mistaken.
I
The mud here varies from 6 inches to 3 & 4 feet, even 5 feet, and until we were all issued with boots, my men used to arrive in the
so sticky that,
is
it
trenches with bare
feet.
It
was
a continuous struggle to
keep the elements
Sergeant William William-
at bay.
son of the 2/Devons noted in his diary on 12 December. During the day
I
my
improved
proved the trenches.
I
dugout.
Made
^
»
the top waterproof.
The Company im-
introduced sacks as overalls, to keep khaki a bit clean, the trenches
being so muddy. During night
it
was very
cold,
&
a continual rain.
Get wet again
as
usual.
mud,
Nevertheless, despite the arrivals
to
set
with
a
the cold and the squalor,
determined
zest,
enjoy themselves.
to
many
of the
new
Major Archibald
Buchanan-Dunlop of the Leicestershire Regiment joined the ist Battalion in trenches in late November. He summed up his first impressions in a letter to his wife: The Colonel is all
very cheery and jolly and
is
brought
in,
of course, at night.
them. Don't you worry a
my Company
long as
me It
was
.
in a similar
Brigade arrived
members, with
up
are
all
very well.
buoyant
as
life
I
don't
mind how much
though
some of the new
spirit that
November
excellent, but
I
rough
it;
it's
it
good
as
for
their trip to
when
the
London Rifle among its
there was almost a holiday air
France was merely an overseas extension of their
the advantage of better conditions, in that the wood,
and the presence of so much timber allowed the construction of corduroy roads. But, though there was an atmosphere of ex-
citement and adventure about their enterprise, with taking of photographs, they were the enemy.
When, during
all
their first tour of the
fire'!
Graham
joking and jollity and
wood,
a
few stray bullets whizzed
in the head, they all felt, in the
words of one
Williams, 'most gratified to be actually under
Far from being a grim memory,
a reasonably agreeable one.
much
eager to prove themselves and have a crack at
them and one man was wounded
of their number. Rifleman
was
is
dense afforestation and numerous paths, gave reasonably safe access right
to the front line
enemy
food
Territorial battalions adapted
of the front-line soldier. Indeed,
at 'Plugstreet' in
effective if primitive
past
The
course from bullets, but nobody minds
about me. I'm happy and well, and quite enjoying
right. ...
summer camp. They had
its
we
rest of
.
themselves to the
annual
bit
is all
No
this
Williams wrote [20]
period for the
later:
London
Rifle Brigade
.
YE TROGLODYTE Self-portrait by Major Buchanan- Dunlop
YE OFFICER Self-portrait by shire
Major A.H.Buchanan-Dunlop,
Regiment on arrival
we are up
'At
last
this
evening
last 3
.
.
.
in
France
.
1 1 Leicester-
'I've got on 2 pairs of drawers, 2 cardigan jackets, a wool It is bitterly cold and flannel shirt, uniform and great coat freezing hard. I'm sitting with my feet and legs in a big flour
and we join the Regiment deep snow and frost for the
at the firing line
Bitter cold, quite
several days later
.
.
days, but nice healthy weather.'
sack full of straw. not moving about.'
from
letters to his wife,
[21]
November 1914
It's the
only
way
to
.
.
keep
warm when you're
Front-line casino, Ploegsteert
Altogether,
life,
Wood
and the war
in general,
during those Plugstreet days, was not
at all
when compared with later experiences. Casualties were few and far between, 'Blighty' touches. When, occasionally, a member of the Battn had the misfortune
unpleasant, usually
to be killed,
it
was something
Yet even when the
was
a breezy spirit
to talk
about through the Regiment.
initiation into trench life
among
the
new
was considerably more arduous, there
arrivals indicative of
an eagerness to prove
themselves and make good. In December Leslie Walkinton, a 17 year old rifleman of the Queen's Westminster Rifles, described his third
which
his family - following a practice
publication to the local newspaper.
widespread
He was
visit to
at the
the front in a letter
time - promptly sent for
aware as he wrote that the
[22]
first
Territorial
'
Two huge armies
battalion to see action, the
London
sitting
and watching each
other'
had already distinguished
Scottish,
the
itself in
field.
The
pretty rough in the trenches this time.
It's
water
very cheery considering, and are resolved to stick
not sound so glorious as those of the sure conditions could not be
more
which
rain
fell
2
is
out.
ft
deep in places, but we are
Our doings
at the
moment may
Scottish, but as a test of endurance
London
I
am
severe.
*
The
it
*
*
on the Allied trenches
fell
with equal relentlessness and similar
on the German ones. In mid-December the Commanding Officer of the i/Grenadier Guards, Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence Fisher-Rowe, reported in a letter
results
to his wife the experience of
Jimmy went trenches
out
last
one of his
officers:
night and says he could hear the
& coughing as much as we do, so
I
Huns
sloshing about in their
expect they are equally uncomfortable.
Questions and suppositions about the other side of
No Man's Land
inevitably
occurred to everyone in the trenches. Closeness bred curiosity and curiosity was to
be a powerful motive in the initiation of the truces to come. this archetypal
his
or
enemy with
hymns of hate? Was he happy and content would he
prefer, like
all
fits
the
and
lice,
starts,
the rats, and
springs
to
all
How
did he cope with the rain, the
the other attractions of trench
enemy, the
up between men
and
be out there fighting for the Kaiser,
Imprecisely, by
life?
by no means universally, there began to appear the
fellow-feeling with the
really like,
but the hardiest and most devoted professionals, to be
back in the German equivalent of 'Blighty'?
mud,
What was he
his spiked pickelhaube helmet, his barbaric record
isolated
first stirrings
from
all
signs of a
first
of that natural comradeship which
normal experience and caught in the same
extreme circumstances, which only they, and certainly no
civilian,
could properly
understand. Looking back from the viewpoint of the 1980s, Leslie Walkinton, whose letter
on the severe conditions
in 1914,
We
summed up
hated their guts
intensely.
at the front
had been printed
the general attitude to the
when
German
they killed any of our friends; then
But otherwise we joked about them and
I
in his local
we
really did dislike
think they joked about us.
thought, well, poor so-and-sos, they're in the same kind of muck as
[23]
newspaper
soldier at that time:
we
are.
them
And we
of muck as
we
are'
Tals by Xmas'
HE
Germans were indeed
and
felt
Nickolaus, of the
after recovering from which he found himself.
Things have got very much worse: Flanders
is
In
it.
a
wound. He described the condi-
just
one great morass and
operations have been brought to a standstill by the mud.
our knees in
mud and
just to survive.
The
water.
We
On
The
all
military
we stand up in
to
sandbags
lookout positions have been raised up on
stilts
baled out of the trenches using pots and pans and any container to
is
we have
top of
night
from above, while beneath us the water-table
rain pours incessantly
hand. If only there were such things as trenches
Day and
have to wrap our legs up to our thighs
has risen to just below ground level.
and the water
as the British
December Pioneer Friedrich 53rd Reserve Pioneer Company, returned to his
company tions in
same kind of muck'
in 'the
same about
precisely the
all this
built raised
the
mad
pumps
walkways because
in the trenches! In the it
is
communication
simply impossible to drain them.
gun-battle goes on across this forsaken plain, stretching out
in front of us as flat as a table-top,
where
it is
dangerous even to raise your head above
ground during the day.
A month later, opposite British lines south of Armentieres, a German student-soldier, Karl Aldag, wrote in a I
must confess
letter
home:
this life of slime
ending wet, cold and
futile
and
mud
often
fills
me
with revulsion, also the never-
work. These are hardships which no
man would
suffer in
peacetime for the sake of any ordinary cause.
Only one thing keeps me calm, how one's strength grows with the demands made I can feel more patience and perseverance in me than I have ever known before would have thought possible. It is amazing how people come to terms with all this, how nobody gives in to tiredness or despair, even when the parapets collapse and night
on
it.
or
is
spent building
new
ones.
26]
'Pals by
Xmas'
Similar circumstances: similar reactions. Life was difficult but
go on.
And whatever
curiosity or incipient fellow-feeling there
it
and the war had
might be
as
one side and the other, everybody knew and accepted that they were there to
The
had brought with
lull
it
to
between fight.
which was greatly assisted by the
a certain inertia,
would be no attempt at a decisive battle in the immewas war, not peace, so hostilities grumbled on, with occasional spasms of activity, frequent artillery fire (somewhat limited at least on the general awareness that there
diate future. Nevertheless this
by
British side
a shortage of shells) and,
way of harassment, sniping. Major Buchanan-Dunlop of sniper on his
first arrival in
an economical but singularly unpleasant
the i/Leicesters was almost caught by a
the line.
He wrote
Last night, marching up here (you have to a
German
to his wife:
come up
at
night or you get picked
off) I
had
narrow shave. The enemy, who are only a couple of hundred yards from our trenches,
fired,
presumably
at the
sound of our marching, and
just
missed
my
head.
The
bullet
went into the bank behind me.
Darkness, rain and mist were, in
fact,
no bar
to the craft of a skilled sniper.
Bernard Brookes of the Queen's Westminsters digging a
new trench on
felt
a particularly nasty night in early
yards in front of their former front In the previous party two
line:
men had been
hit.
.
.
.
We
dug with
until
I
feverish haste
when the man next to me was shot, and he died him to the dressing station. This naturally made me
getting on well,
bearer had got
thought that
my arms would drop out
lay
It
we
are simply nothing but moles; for
Englander shan't break through here. our weary heads
at
.
.
.
and were
before the stretcher dig harder than ever
of their sockets.
The British snipers were also effective. On 20 October in trenches German soldier, Willi Bohne, began a letter he did not live to complete:
We
Rifleman
when out December some fifty
extremely vulnerable
near Lille a
are burrowing trenches so that the
We
Herren
have constructed dugouts in which we can
night and slip into to be out of the
was not shrapnel but a sniper's bullet which was finished by a fellow soldier:
killed
way of shrapnel.
him
shortly afterwards. His
letter
I
take the liberty of completing this letter
unable to finish
it
himself.
...
Be prepared [27]
begun by your son and brother, who is The bullet which struck this
for the worst.
'Pals by
hero was aimed only too well, for that he died the finest of
As
for shellfire, the
at
any time. In
summing up
all
it
Xmas'
killed
him. Comfort yourselves with the knowledge
deaths - a hero's death for the Fatherland.
permanent unpredictable hazard of trench warfare,
late
his first
November
Tapp
Private William-
month's experience
in Flanders,
of the i/Royal Warwicks, '
am
cook for him as well as myself, one day they were sending
officer's servant so
over at the rate of two per minute. biscuit tin that day, shells
that
and
I
I
had chicken on
a stove that
were knocking the top oflfmy trench. Once or twice
officer for
I
it
I
had
British
led,
under thrusting commanders,
few inches of water
a
one of which stunned
were giving
as well as receiving at this time.
and risk-prone form of warfare dealt death or injury without
in
which
losses
Entrenchment inevitably
demanding guaranteed, which
were
virtually
The Garhwal
Rifles of the Indian
German
trenches on 9
November
enemy with cheering and less well
if
warning to unsuspecting, often sleeping,
lines.
and both the
me and my
to the trench raid, that particularly
often seemed to produce only marginally valuable results and which,
much
a
over as the
some minutes.
The
the
lot
glimpse of hell during
a
was raining hard,
shells bursting right in the trench,
shells
had made out of
was very much afraid they would knock the
month, they attacked us one night when
under foot and
enemy
could arrive
wrote in the opening entry of
his diary:
I
it
Corps mounted
(arguably the
first
successful,
men
in the
a raiding party
yelling at the signal to charge; but this technique
worked
during a second attempt on the 13th, when they ran into heavy
assault party
and the support party sent
per cent casualties. Later in to the lot of Lieutenant Sir
in
some
fire
to give assistance suffered fifty
November 'an exciting bit of work', as he called it, fell Edward Hulse, 2/Scots Guards, which he carried out
with typical dash and bravado. This raid, fully chronicled by
worth noting here
on
of the war), scaring the
waiting war, but also because
it
its
leader,
is
perhaps
an example of the offensive side of the
detail, partly as
helps to define the background of professional
violence against which the curious camaraderie of the truce took place, Hulse's Scots
Guards being not only doughty fighters but doughty trucers as Hulse had no difficulty in assembling his raiding party eight
men
to volunteer with great ease', he
Opposite: British sniper and observer
in the roof of
noted
well. -
'I
got an
in his report -
a ruined farm near Ploegsteert
[28]
NCO
and
even though the
Wood
4
Lieutenant Sir
Edward Hulse
(centre) with
some survivors of the 2 /Scots Guards trench raid of
27 November 191
'A photo of myself and four of the raiding party. Unfortunately the others were not available, but it includes the Corporal who fired the rifle-bomb, and a grand, great fellow, Dotley, the big one on the left, who, I am sorry to say, was killed about a fortnight later. Our cleanliness is due to this photo having been taken when we were in billets. I wish you could see us when we emerge
from
the trenches!' (from a letter to his mother)
allotted task
peep over
if
was no walkover. They were not spotted, select our marks,
and then each man
for himself.
One
to 'get right
fire
factor,
up
to the
enemy
trenches,
two rounds rapid and kill all we could, it is thought, was in their favour: the
prevailing intelligence was that the enemy's front-line trenches were occupied by
The attack was due to go in at 11 pm, but moon, so they decided to wait. By 1.30 am it was pitch dark and the order was given and Hulse and his nine comrades eased themselves out Man's Land, crawling on hands and knees over a field of turnips, moving
only a smattering of sentries and snipers. there was a bright raining; into
No
[30]
.
Xmas'
'Pals by
The German
four or five yards, lying 'doggo', listening, then crawling on again. sentries
were obviously on station for every now and
then bullets sped across the
dead ground between the trenches, fortunately above the heads of the slowly advancing raiders.
When we
had got halfway some
firing
Regiment. This put the enemy on the
were
just as
many
of the
conclusion to arrive little
further on
them
.
.
goes there', I
I
certain of this, as
saw
I
and
fired straight I
same time we
right into the
wood burning
probably.
myself that there
.
.
We
.
were
just
between the scout and myself, he immediately
and there was
fired at the flash of the rifle,
all
doubled up
to the foot of the parapet,
little
party by the
fire.
The
my
other fellows
a
of
advancing
fired
who
where
high pitched groan;
saw dim
NCO all
rapid; there were various groans audible in the general .
think by the Border
I
satisfied
five fires, or rather the reflections
the trenches, bustling about, standing to arms and
hares
right,
had
the swine called out in King's English, quite well pronounced, 'Halt,
had told him, and
at the
and by then
enemy in their trenches as of us in our trenches, an unpleasant when we were supposed to be raiding a lightly held trench! A
charcoal fires with a bit of
.
when
again
at,
made
I
opened away on the alert,
down in bomb
figures
fired the trench
loosed off their two rounds
hubbub, and we then ran
like
.
I
found the bullets were
or so, until they a heavy
fall
was further
bang off.
of wet clay and
moment
seemed
their
all
round me, so
into our barbed wire,
These short
mud
fell flat
and waited another half-minute
to alter the direction of their fire a bit.
sprints
on each
foot. I
which was quite
feet. I
another run, and
and which
I
thought
were no easy matter, as one carried about an acre
had to
lie flat
and disentangle myself, and
machine gun swerved round and plastered away
not more than 2 or 3
Then
invisible
waited again
till it
directly over
changed, and then ran
at that
my
head
like the devil for
our trenches.
Hulse's assumption was that they had 'polished
on the other
presumably overshot the mark
oflP
four or five of the
Germans
but,
two of the Guardsmen were missing, 'having
side of the account, in the
dark and fallen into the
German
trenches'.
general opinion was that they were fortunate to have so few casualties. 'The
Adjutant', wrote Hulse to his mother, 'frankly told
me
CO
that they did not expect
The and
many
to get back.'
*
Meanwhile, however, here and there along the were
-
almost - becoming friends.
A
*
line, as
the weeks slipped by, enemies
telegraphist of the Royal Engineers,
[31]
Andrew
'Pals by
Todd, described this new development into the columns of The Scotsman
Xmas'
in a letter
which eventually found
its
way
:
it will surprise you to learn that the soldiers in both lines of trenches have become very 'pally' with each other. The trenches are only 60 yards apart at one place, and 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, but whenever the board comes down the first unlucky devil who shows even so much as a hand gets a bullet through it.
Perhaps
Breakfast truces were in fact to
become
a virtually accepted ritual
on many parts of
the Western Front throughout the war. Captain B.H. Liddell Hart has written
evocatively of 'the homely smell of breakfast bacon that gained
war reek of chloride of
lime,
and
in so
battle front, but helped in preserving sanity'.
time of the morning
by both
sides.
visit to
its
doing not only brought a
The
conquest over the tacit truce to
the
breakfast hour was also the usual
the latrine sap, an activity usually accorded due respect
Ration parties too often enjoyed a mutually understood immunity and
laughed and talked as they made their way up to the trenches. But
in the
weeks
before Christmas 19 14 understandings with the enemy went well beyond the acceptance of certain daily routines. Proximity; curiosity; the sharing of the same
wretched conditions; the
fact that so
many Germans spoke
English and had lived in
Britain; the general awareness that, neither side being in a position to
onslaught, the war was not, as
become; the natural
series of minor fraternizations
front line
We
Moren was
was only were so
all
and friendly
we threw
close,
Germans
these factors
it
acts
It
mount
major
any period of relative
up and down the 2/Queens
to
produce
a
whole
line.
in 1914.
In places their
from the Germans.
tins of bully
beef over to them or jam or biscuits and they
wasn't done regularly, just an occasional sort of thing.
at night,
a
had been and would again
worked together
a 17 year old private in the
a matter of yards
threw things back. hear the
were, as serious as
instinct of the soldier to take advantage of
slackness and have a bit of fun -
Albert
it
shouting and singing.
They
We
could
used to shout across 'Englander,
Englander' and we used to say 'Good old Gerry', and things
like that.
'Our chaps and the Germans often have a game with one another', wrote Staff Sergeant Charles Sloan of the Royal Engineers, 'shouting at them and giving them the news.' Sometimes the news was given to them quite literally, as Sergeant Charles Johnson, of the 2/Royal Berkshires described: [32]
Xmas'
'Pals by
On
one occasion the Germans shouted over to our trenches for a Daily Mirror and
guaranteed risked
it,
a safe
who would
passage to anyone
we managed
but
to
Of
bring the paper.
course, no one
throw a Mirror weighted with a stone near enough
for
them
to obtain
The
2/Royal Welch Fusiliers were to the north of Houplines, where the trench
lines ran
down
into the river Lys.
Their relations with their opponents were parti-
though the Welshmen were not too surprised
cularly friendly,
humour
it.
had
since they
a
brewery virtually
one of the company commanders, noted
The Saxons
in their front line.
at the
Germans' good
Captain C.I. Stockwell,
in his diary:
opposite were quite human. One,
who spoke
excellent English, used to
climb up in some eyrie in the brewery and spend his time asking 'how London was getting on', 'how was Gertie Miller
blind shots at
'Who the know you
him
in the dark, at
hell are you?'
-
I
in Britain
came out and
I
At once came back the answer, 'Ah, the
used to be the head-waiter
Ex-waiters and former
German
and the Gaiety', and so on. Lots of our men had
which he laughed. One night
members
were the natural
at the
officer - I
called,
expect
I
Great Central Hotel.'
of other professions
initiators of
much
associated with the
such inter-trench conversations.
A
trooper of the Scots Greys recounted the following story:
One day two
of the
Edinburgh and shop
I
in Princes Street.
practically next door
The
Germans
in the trench near ours
shouted back that
I
did.
They asked me
They had worked
and had often been
asked if I
there, they said.
if
any of us came from
knew I
a certain hairdresser's
replied that
I
had worked
in the shop.
tone of conversation between the trenches was brisk but amiable, as former
Rifleman Leslie Walkinton of the Queen's Westminster's described:
We
used to shout remarks to each other, sometimes rude ones, but generally with
venom than
a couple of
London
Singing in the trenches was also a great age of popular song
and even
were an essential part of service 'cushy' sector
and
common phenomenon
at that time. It
and ready participation; camp concerts
ballads or played harmonicas
less
cabbies after a mild collision.
life.
officers It
in
walked unselfconsciously
was therefore quite natural
a handful of enthusiasts, the relatively peaceful
should be improved from time to time with a
[33]
little
was
a
which men sang to the piano
that, given a
hours of the night
spontaneous entertainment.
'Pals by
Xmas'
That the 6/Gordon Highlanders participated without compunction in their During the winter
[of 1914-15]
it
the front trench, and there hold
The Germans
songs.
did
sometimes
calls for
a quiet night
tune
like 'Hail
be sporting and
for
little
groups of
head-down
men
to gather in
the same, and on calm evenings the songs from one line
and were there received
side,
we used
to sing to each other,
Ivith
applause and
sometimes alternate verses of the same
to the tune of
iiber alles\
'God Save the King'. Then an
officer
would come and stop it by ordering a few rounds of fire. high with the first round - and so did Brother Boche.
We
They of one
used to
fire
night was, of course, the natural time for such activities
were such episodes
admitted
also took part in these nocturnal serenades:
own words
side or the other
is
concerts, singing patriotic and sentimental
thou once despised Jesus' and 'Deutschland, Deutschland
often sang their
The
such singing bouts
an encore.
The Queen's Westminsters On
much
was not unusual
impromptu
on the other
floated to the trenches
in
official history:
as took place during the day,
more often than
in the trenches and,
be seen or a sound to be heard
when both
not, there
more curious
sides
was not
in the area of the battle lines.
still
were normally
movement
a
to
Lieutenant D.O.
Barnett of the Leinster Regiment, in a letter written in January 19 15, described an incident which created a brief but dramatic sensation:
Two
lads in this regiment
.
.
.
got fed
up with each other
in the trenches. In
broad
daylight they got up on the parapet and fought. After 3 hour one was knocked out, but all
the time the
combatants!
Germans were cheering and
Who says the Germans are not
firing their rifles in the air to
encourage the
sportsmen?
But the most bizarre daytime phenomenon of
this
phase of the war was, un-
doubtedly, the shooting match. In the part of the line held by Second Lieutenant
Dougan
Chater's 2/Gordon Highlanders things were extremely quiet.
were only the
fifty to sixty
Germans speaking
yards off and there was
much
The Germans
shouting between the trenches,
English, the Scotsmen responding with cries of 'waiter'. But
there was better entertainment to be had.
There was one fellow who had
men
were having shots
at
it
a fire with a
with their
rifles.
[34]
chimney
sticking
up over the parapet & our Germans waved a stick
After each shot the
I
AN ANGLO-GERMAN
'A shooting
German
test
setting
-DISLfY"
AT THK RUJNl
AIRIKNDIY MATCH HFTU'REN THf
between British soldiers in their trench and Germans tin on a branch in the snow for our men to try their
up a
in
RIVM
a trench opposite:
skill as
TRKNCHKS
A
"snipers" during
a lull in the battle' (original caption)
First printed in the Illustrated
and Dresden newspapers
in
London News on
or rang a bell according to whether
incidents
26 December 1914,
it
was reprinted
in Berlin
January 191 5.
we
hit the
chimney or
up there and altogether we have quite
not!
There
are lots of
amusing
a cheery time.
There were numerous parallels to this story in the weeks before Christmas, set up by opposing trenches and marksmen of both sides competing for bull's-eyes amid the plaudits of their comrades. Interestingly enough there seems to have been no attempt to conceal such essentially unmartial behaviour from the public. As early as 28 October Punch printed a cartoon clearly implying that it was an already accepted part of trench life. Later in the year - as it happens in its
with bottles or tins
[35]
'Pa/5 by
Boxing Day edition of what
its
- the Illustrated
Xmas'
London News included
sub-editors described as an
'Anglo-German
a
double-page drawing
Bisley at the front', based
on
drawn from a participant's account. 'The friendly interlude went on', ran the accompanying caption, 'until a shell from far in the rear burst in the German trench and recalled both parties to a sense of the stern realities of the situation.' details
»
f *
*
fraternization
had
*
Instances of
A German
Franco-German
been taking place for some time.
also
way into the columns of The Times described a visit to the front on 28 November which surprised and amazed its writer. After being entertained by the officers of one company with a glass of Diisseldorf beer, he and his comrades went on to a second company, of which they soldier's letter
which eventually found
its
had heard interesting things.
They had exchanged papers with couldn't believe
how
it all
it,
but a corporal
the French,
who had
who
just
are lying just opposite.
come back from
At
first
we
the rendezvous told us
came about. One of our scouting parties posted a placard with the proclamaWar' on a tree before the French outposts. This, of course, took place
tion of the 'Holy
during the night.
The
next evening,
when our
been removed, they found
a letter written in
posed one hour's armistice
at a certain time.
scouts wanted to see
good German,
in
if
the poster had
which the French pro-
In the letter was further found a couple of
cigars.
Eventually
German
it
was agreed that
time.
a
meeting would take place
At the appointed hour
a
German
at
1 1
am
the following day
corporal and a French sergeant, the
latter
being able to speak fluent German, advanced from their respective trenches.
They
saluted one another and shook hands; then the
the 'Order of the Day' from the a Paris
German General
Frenchman was presented with
Staff while the
German was
given
newspaper.
One final 'au revoir' and the cry was sounded 'Armistice expired' and they both got home in quick time. One wouldn't think it was possible, but it is true, every word of it. Our troops here are only 80 metres distant from the French, so that even our barbedwire entanglements are joining those of the enemy.
The 'Germans' concerned in this minor armistice were from Schleswig-Holstein which, though part of Germany since 1864, had not forgotten its Danish origins, so that many such soldiers felt they were fighting for a cause not their own. But there [36]
Xmas'
'Pals by
was no hint of diluted nationalism among the Germans who regularly met the French at Drywege in Belgium in the bitter early days of December, when a common desire to
make uncomfortable
conditions a
open. Captain Rudolf Binding
little
commented
more bearable brought them out on 8 December on
into the
in his diary
the fraternization that has been going on between our trenches and those of the enemy,
when
friend and foe alike go to fetch straw
cold and rain and to have
For Binding, however,
this
some
sort of
from the same
bedding to
was more than
lie
on
-
rick to protect
and never
a curious incident,
about the whole nature of war. 'Truly', he wrote, 'there
is
a shot
it
was
them from the is fired.
a revelation
no longer any sense
in
this business.'
Sometime
in this period, there
French troops on the Aisne
to a
was
a particularly friendly gesture
German commander whom
for his 'lion-like bravery'; he was, in fact, a Bavarian prince.
by some
come
to
admire
They decided
to
honour
they had
the hero as he deserved:
The French
captain in
together from his a violin. After
men
command
company was an
of the
He
got
programme ornamented by one of his men, a concert would take place in The programme was fastened to a stone and
two days' practice he wrote
announcing that
excellent musician.
an orchestra of trumpets and concertinas, and they even found
at 5 o'clock
a
on the following afternoon
honour of the brave Bavarian prince.
thrown into the German trench. At the appointed hour there was and the captain appeared, armed only with
a baton.
The
a blare of trumpets,
concert began, and the pro-
gramme was played
through. At the end the whole company sang the 'Marseillaise'. There then appeared an officer from the German trench, who stood at attention and saluted. It was the Bavarian prince. The French captain returned the salute, while there was a thunder of applause and cheering from both trenches.
It
time.
was the French who were the perpetrators of the best practical joke
With trenches cheek by jowl and
at this
the possibility of dialogue across the wire,
there was always the opportunity to play tricks on the enemy. At one point the
French and Germans were shouting
to each other,
Emperor has been down
The French
down the
Germans heard
a
out:
'Our
replied, 'Yes, but he has not been coming to visit us tomorrow.' Next day tremendous cheering and all the French troops singing the
to see us'.
to the trenches - but our President
'Marseillaise',
and the Germans called
and seeing
is
a tall hat protruding
they opened up with a vicious fusillade.
[37]
above the trench and moving along,
'Pals by
The
Xmas'
hat was on a stick, the French President was
tall
in Paris
still
and the
musical effects had been greatly assisted by a gramophone record.
*
*
*
^
December news of certain curious happenings at fhe front reached General Horace Smith-Dorrien, the veteran commander of the British II Corps. At 66, Smith-Dorrien had behind him years of experience in many campaigns. He was one of the five officers who escaped from the disaster at Isandhlwana in the Zulu War in 1879; he had served in Egypt, spent ten years in India, fought at Omdurman,
Early in Sir
distinguished himself in the Boer War, and as
Commander
sudden death
at
Aldershot.
He had
more
made a considerable mark command of II Corps on the
recently
succeeded to the
while on his way to the front - of Sir J.M. Grierson.
- in the train
John French had long held a violent dislike Dorrien's career was to end suddenly the following
and
for each other
Sir
May
He
and Smith-
with his controversial
dismissal by French following the Second Battle of Ypres. Smith-Dorrien also dif-
fered from his Field Marshal, in that he was an infantryman, not a cavalryman. his infantryman's instincts
and experience, he understood the reasons
With
for these
bizarre trench tales but also saw the potential danger that lay behind them.
On
2
December he wrote
Weird
stories
shout to
come
in
in his diary:
from the trenches about fraternizing with the Germans. They
each other and
offer to
exchange certain
articles
and give
certain information.
In one place, by arrangement, a bottle was put out between the trenches and then they held a competition as to which could break
becoming too Peninsula.
I
friendly, but
it
is
it first.
There
therefore intend to issue instructions to
way whatever with
the
enemy
is
a danger of opposing troops
only too likely to happen and
for fear
one day they
my
Corps not
may be
it
happened
in the
to fraternize in
any
lulled into such a state of
confidence as to be caught off their guard and rushed.
Three days later his 'instructions' went out, incorporated in a remarkable document written by his Chief of Staff, Brigadier-General Forestier- Walker, but expressing in forceful terms Smith-Dorrien's shrewd analysis of the peculiar difficulties facing an army in a state of relative quiescence, when the resumption of the offensive was plainly
and, in 'live
some way ahead. In its
and
particular, II Corp's
Document G.507
is
a penetrating
attractions of the concept of
way, a historic statement of the causes and war and defines most of the elements that were to result in the
let live'
Christmas truce. These are some of the key sentences: [38]
.
General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, Commander II Corps '.
.
.
weird
Germans
stories .
.
.
come
in
from
the trenches about fraternizing with the
I therefore intend to issue instructions to
fraternize in any
way whatever
with the enemy
(2
It is
not to
December 1914)
during this period [of waiting] that the greatest danger to the morale of the troops
exists.
Experience of
this,
and every other war proves undoubtedly that troops
trenches in close proximity to the 'live
my Corps
..."
and
let live'
theory of
life.
enemy
slide very easily, if
permitted to do
in
so, into a
Understandings - amounting almost to unofficial armis-
grow up between our troops and the enemy, with a view to making life easier, war becomes obscured, and officers and men sink into a military lethargy from which it is difficult to arouse them when the moment for great sacrifices
tices -
until the sole object of
again arises
.
.
[39]
.
'Pa/5 by
Xmas'
The attitude of our troops can be readily understood and to a commands sympathy. So long as they knovv that no general advance is to see
fail
result in
any object
some
loss
most dangerous, spirit in all
ranks
for .
in
of
undertaking small enterprises of no permanent
life,
it
and
likely to
provoke
Such an
reprisals.
certain extent
intended, they
utility, certain to
attitude
is,
however,
discourages initiative in commanders, and destroys the offensive
.
The Corps Conmiander,
Commanders
therefore, directs Divisional
to impress
subordinate commanders the absolute necessity of encouraging the offensive
all
on of
spirit
means in their power. 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 the troops, while on the defensive, by every
occasionally amusing they
may
be, are absolutely prohibited.
Thus, three weeks before Christmas, was the philosophy and practice which led to the most famous truce in military history roundly and specifically condemned. And indeed
a fact that,
it is
though some units of
zation, the majority did not, so that tive
was reasonably
effective.
it
II
Corps were
to take part in fraterni-
could be claimed that Smith-Dorrien's direc-
In the end, of course,
much would depend on
whether they took Smith-Dorrien's instructions
as a
the
is
no means of knowing
new and
potent piece of military
response and initiative of local commanders; and there
doctrine or merely a forthright restatement of what everybody
knew
in their
bones
was the inevitable attitude of high command.
Be
that as
may, there appears
it
to
have been no
falling off generally in the
instances of spontaneous detente and fraternization as Christmas approached. Private
Tapp's i/Royal Warwicks was
at Ploegsteert, in the
Corps, just to the south of Smith-Dorrien's territory.
northernmost brigade of III
On
8
December, he wrote
in
his diary.
Well the trenches have their bright just
we
side, for instance the
Germans
in their trenches
have
sung our national anthem and then shouted 'hurrah' and then several boos so then
give
them
a
and then send
song and a cheer, sometimes one of our fellows shouts 'waiter' 'sausages', five
rounds rapid over. The Germans seem to know who we are for they
shout 'Good old Warwicks' and our officer always think
we
shall
be pals by Xmas.
[40]
tells
us to give
them
a
song back,
I
ARLY
December the idea Christmas-time was mooted by
of a truce of
in
the
beseeched the belligerent powers
'in
all
the armies at
new Pope, Benedict XV. He the name of Divinity ... to
cease the clang of arms while Christendom celebrates the Feast of the World's Redemption'.
made
it
clear that her
Germany accepted
though she
at once,
agreement was conditional upon the acquiesc-
ence of the other nations involved. In fact his scheme had
little
chance from the outset. For one thing. Islamic Turkey would not easily respond to
Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas thirteen days after the Western Churches added a fatal complication. Launched on the yth, by the 13th the brief hope his idea had inspired was extinguished. The Pope commented sadly, 'Our Christmas initiative was not crowned with success'*. so specifically Christian a proposition; for another, the fact that the
But
if
there was to be no peace at Christmas, there was on
goodwill towards the
men who were
to
do the fighting
-
and
sides
all
much
a determination that
they should have as enjoyable, indeed, as normal a time as possible
when
the festive
season came. In the weeks before Christmas the British newspapers and magazines carried scores of advertisements reminding the reader of the needs of the
and the opportunity provided by Christmas
him Horlicks, send him
Bovril, but above
comfort and protection will night, in trenches
mean much
rimmed with
ice -
to satisfy
all
to
men
in
uniform
them. Send him Oxo, send
send him things to wear. 'The added
men who
are keeping watch, day
whose aim must be steady though
and
their fingers
shake with cold.' * Benedict
XV
X
had succeeded Pius in August 19 14. Though he failed in this initiative, he later intervened successfully with the French and German governments over the exchange. of prisoners of war.
[41]
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Pre-Christmas Initiatives
An all
avalanche of mufflers, socks, scarves, gloves and other
warm
clothing (some
too soon to be lost in the mud), as well as cigarettes, tobacco and eatables, was to
find
its
many
way
'gift
to the front in parcels
from loving
relatives
and friends and through the came pouring in from
funds' set up in Britain to which contributions
corporations and kindergartens.
On
5
December Sergeant William Williamson, of
2/Devons, noted in his diary: Received presentations as follows. Pipe
&
tobacco from the sick of Dartmoor, Packet of
Gold Flake Cigarettes from Princess Mary.*
&
The Evening News's
'Lonely Soldiers' Guild' was putting
box of matches from Eccentric Club London, Woolen Belt
its
readers in touch
with British and French soldiers, for 'an occasional reminder through the of the penny post that, while he
England'.
And
is
at the front,
he
is
medium
not forgotten by those in
there were gifts too for the lonely bachelors.
On
Christmas Day an
artillery officer wrote:
The
mail also brought us a parcel addressed, 'A Lonely Man'. Inside was a
letter, pipes,
tobacco, a tinder lighter, a pair of socks and a shirt - a nice present, a very nice thought.
We
tossed for
it,
and
I
got
it
for
The winner was
at stable time.
my
section.
thanks to censor for the kind donor. cheer us
The to
all
The unmarried men
greatly pleased, I
and has
shall also
just
then drew
lots for
it
me a nice letter of How much such things
brought
send mine.
up!
volimie of mail to the front at Christmas 19 14 was phenomenal. According
contemporary newspaper reports, in the
was assiuned
to
to the troops
and
six
days preceding 12 December, which
be the date for Christmas delivery, 250,000 parcels were addressed in the following
week there were 200,000 more and two and
a half
million letters. 2,500 letters were also being despatched daily to British prisoners of
Adding
war.
to the total in the last
soldier, sailor or nurse
serving latter
man
was
by the King and Queen and a present to every individual the special fund associated with Princess Mary. This
woman from
a particularly
front caused
*The
or
few days were Christmas cards sent to every
some
generous and bulky
gift,
the transportation of which to the
dislocation of the already overloaded railway system. Indeed,
17 year old daughter of of Harewood.
King George
V
and Queen Mary,
[43]
later the Princess
Royal, Countess
Coping with the flood of
there were those
presents was in
December
the
who
and parcels
letters
from Britain took only two
to four
days
to
to the front.
reach the
men
Even over
the Christmas period letters
in the trenches.
sudden obsession with Christmas and Christmas danger of deflecting the army away from its main purpose. On i8
2nd
in
felt that this
Command
G.D.
of the 2/Grenadier Guards, Major
Jeffreys,
wrote with some asperity in his diary: Everything seems hung up a positive nuisance.
I
am
just
now
for all the
Christmas parcels, which are becoming
told that the rations of the
army
of orders as to their distribution
been out, and after all,
our
else, whilst
it
... It
was the longest order
seems rather ridiculous to make such
first
business
we must mix
it
is
to beat the
I
I
for
have had reams
have had since
tremendous business of
it
I
have
when,
Germans. Our enemy thinks of war, and nothing
up with plum puddings. *
a
up
are to be held
twenty-four hours to enable Princess Mary's presents to come up, and
*
[44]
A
Foretaste
of
the
Joys
ot
Christinas
Mary's gift arriving in France - adding to the problems of the overloaded railway Over 35SyOOO found their way to front-line troops by Christmas.
Princess system.
In
fact,
Major
Jeffreys
was quite wrong about the Germans. They too were thinking
of the season to come. Indeed, as in Britain, the principal beneficiaries that year of
Germany's deep affection for Christmas would be the men in uniform. She had cared from the moment they marched, by launching the idea of the lovegift, or liebesgabe: civilians were urged to prepare parcels of comforts, tobacco and
for her troops
other such items to be sent to the front for general distribution. Christmas turned this steady
stream of giving into a vast flood.
As in Britain, the December editions of many popular German magazines numerous advertisements for Christmas parcels and gifts of all kinds for the soldiers in the field. Also, as in Britain, there was a considerable emphasis on warm clothing, along with watches of various kinds, cakes, liqueurs, cigarettes, and medicarried
[45]
Christmas liebesgaben (love gifts) for the soldiers of the Fatherland
caments against colds and rheumatism. Scattered among the pages were impressions of soldiers in the
field,
warm,
cheerful, healthy
by some appropriately decorated Christmas In
fact, that
a matter not
artists'
and relaxing contentedly
tree.
the soldiers of the Fatherland should have a happy Christmas was
merely of hope but,
virtually, of instruction.
A newspaper
report stated:
Notices were issued several days ago that the troops must do their best to enjoy the Yuletide.
Hundreds and thousands of
articles, sweets,
parcels have arrived
from Germany
- knitted
cakes and tobacco.
In addition, Christmas trees were despatched to the front in their thousands; these
were
to be crucial properties in the initiation of the Christmas truce.
sent to the ships and the U-boats of the
High Seas [46]
Fleet.
They were
also
Their presence particularly
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
angered the cavalry
officer
Captain Rudolf Binding,
who wrote
just before
Christmas
to his father:
If
I
had
my way some
celebrated this year joy of giving
enters the
cannot
little
lists
.
.
.
person in authority would proclaim that Christmas will not be
The
simplicity of Christmas, with the laughter of children, the
things; this
with a war
is
as
should be when
it
out of place.
it is
it
when
appears alone. But
Enemy, Death, and
a
Christmas tree
-
it
they
live so close together.
But Binding was an exception: the general attitude was different. Karl Aldag expressed the majority opinion when he commented with gratitude and delight on the mass of presents provided by the Fatherland:
.
.
.
Knitted comforts, tobacco, cake, chocolate, sausages -
Germany
*
At the
all
-
'love-gifts'
What
has done for us!
*
*
however, other, more warlike
front,
were
initiatives
afoot.
Shortly before
Christmas, even as the train-loads of cards and comforts were beginning their slow journey towards the railheads, the British mounted a series of attacks on the positions which were particular area
to cause
many
casualties.
by an episode which was,
These were
if to a
German
to be followed in one
limited extent, a rehearsal of the
Christmas truce.
None
of these attacks
made any
significant gains.
They were
carried out with
bravery and fortitude, but they were ill-prepared, on too small a scale to be more It was in angry comment Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the Prime Minister on 29 December: 'Are there not other alternatives than sending our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders?'
than a gesture, and impeded by almost impossible ground.
on
this small
but
sacrificial offensive that
Captain Billy Congreve, a highly professional Regular a
posthumous
VC
on the Somme, now serving
J.A.L. Haldane, commanding 3rd Division, saw the 14
December from
a
as first
officer
ADC
to
who was
to
win
Major-General
of these futile 'shows' on
nearby vantage point, together with Sir John French, Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien, the Prince of Wales and 'many other lights of the Gilded Staff. An impressive but ineffective bombardment was followed by an unsupported assault by two battalions, the 2/Royal Scots and the i/Gordons, against well-fortified positions.
'The attack naturally
'We had about 400
failed',
casualties. It
is
Congreve noted
in his diary the next day.
most depressing.' The 2/Royal Scots did reach [47]
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
enemy
and captured two machine guns and some prisoners, but were subsequently trapped by heavy fire from a German strong-point whose existence, as Congreve wrote, 'could have been found out by a proper reconnaissance before the the
attack'.
As
lines
for the i/Gordons:
Imagine sending
mud
a foot deep,
.
a battalion alone to attack a strongly
under frontal and enfilade
losses were, of course, very heavy.
German
the
fire. It
They were
till
darkness and then crawled back
Such was the 'British troops hurl
Gordons who were In
fact,
December later
One
A
Sir
.
.
.
They
attack ordered by Sir
back Germans
little
few
Some
and over
Death.
two even got into the enemy
lay in little depressions in the
John French. Next day,
A
I
read in the paper:
better than murdered.
John French was less to blame than Congreve realized. This was the result of strong pressure from General Foch, and
offensive
from General
JofTre, to
mount supportive
action for certaiq aggressive schemes
British yielded to these appeals for Allied solidarity with great reluctance.
true
is
that,
having
agreed
Commander-in-Chief could have words of useless in
his latest biographer:
which added
attacks
mud
beautiful epitaph for those poor
devised by the French - schemes which in the end virtually came to nothing.
it
The
almost reached
seven out of nine officers and 250 men.
lost
Wytschaete'.
at
or
hill
a regular Valley of
very, very gallant.
trenches, where they were killed.
trenches where they were killed or captured.
wired position^ up a
was
that
scarcely
an
offensive
produced
a
should
be
mounted,
more uninspiring
the
plan. In the
'He finished with the worst of both worlds, sporadic
to the butcher's bill to
no
real purpose'.
As
the pattern of
and wasteful onslaughts continued over the following days, Congreve's
command
The
However,
of i8th Brigade in the 6th Division further south,*
commented
father,
in his
diary as angrily as his son:
These small
isolated attacks
seem
to
me
deadly.
.
.
.
Horrid
losses
and nothing done with
them. It was the costly failure at Ploegsteert Wood on the afternoon of 18 December which moved Brigadier-General Congreve to write in this vein. Many men were hit by their own artillery fire before they got anywhere near the German lines.
Walter Congreve, who had won a VC in South Africa, was to become one of most distinguished Corps commanders of the Great War. Knighted for his services, he eventuto the King and finally became Governor of Malta. ally became a full general, was appointed
* Brigadier-General
the
ADC
[48]
A
mountain of love gifts' : a scene '
in
a
Hamburg post
office,
December 1914
Shortly after the Ploegsteert debacle the 2/Royal Warwicks, supported by the
companies of the 2/Queen's, went 'over the top' near the
village of Bois Grenier.
The attackers' progress to the front line was through muddy communicating trenches jammed by others trying to pass them on the way out. Adding a bizarre element to the scene was a flock of dead sheep in No Man's Land, killed when the British and the Germans first dug in. Here again scores of men were hit by British shellfire, while many of those who managed to cross No Man's Land ended up hanging on the German barbed wire. Witnessing
all this
from the British
lines
who was
was Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey,
in one of the two companies of the 2/Queen's not involved. In a letter to mother three days later, in which he claimed that he had had 'the most exciting time of his life' since he last wrote, he described what he called 'the great attack on
his
the
German
trenches':
[49]
UNOFFICIAL ARMISTICE
- I9
DECEMBER 1914
The burial of the dead
From 4 pm till 1 1 never ceased at all.
pm
In the trenches
there was the most tremendous fusillade
we did not know what had happened but
and Queens crawled back and then
firing
which
slowly the Warwicks
some of the wounded but could not go far as the German trenches are only about 150 yards apart. The attack was not successful as the German trenches were very strongly reinforced and it cost us very dear - we lost 6 officers and 77 men and the Warwicks lost 300.
To went
I
went out with some others
and gun
the southwest in the region of Laventie, the 2/Scots
in at the latest zero
hour of the day, 6 pm. The following
account of the action written by an anonymous
It
was about 4.45
pm when
the officer
Tommy
came down
[50]
Guards and 2/Border is taken from a diary
of the Border Regiment.*
the trench and told us there was going
half-illiterate but eloquent diary was recovered from a author has never been identified.
*This
to get in
German
trench in
November
1915;
its
UNOFFICIAL ARMISTICE
- I9
DECEMBER I914 No Man's Land
Fraternization and photography in
to
be an attack that night.
there wife
The Borders whistle
.
.
.
And
then you could hear
and Children should any think happen
men
Praying to
God
to look after
them.
trenches in some confusion, since in the din and melee the
left their
which was the
to
signal to
advance was never heard; more, they were attacking
with scant preparation and in darkness.
Some how .
.
.
or other our
Germans
the
let
left
was too soon with the charge
us have
it
.
.
.
.
.
.
and
and we were going down
as soon as
like rain
we went up As our
drops.
Trenches was only 70 yards apart we retired and then made the 2nd charge but received the same. We retired again and stopped in mid-field. And it was like being in a Blacksmith shop watching him swing a
hammer on
a red-hot shoe
round you. But instead of them being sparks they were to see
death
and hear our Comrades dying and could not get help if
we had moved.
...
So we had
to lay there
[51]
and the sparks
Bullets. ... It
from 6.30
to
them
to 8.15
am
was a as
it
flying
all
pitiful sight
ment
serten
the next morning.
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
And
down from Heaven it came over verry misty and this being our we made good of it. So we crawl half-way and then make a run for it. We could not see where we were going so fell over our Comrades who were Dead. As we were making for our trenches and were about to drop in the Trench we were challenged for our Regt., Name, Platoon we belong to. So we got into our trench at 8.15 am that morning after the Charge. And I must say I think it first time I said my Prayers in T f earness, which is nothing to my credit for when I looked round and saw my Chums I as
an Angel sent
only chance
thanked
God
he had spared
me there
Meanwhile, there had been further
down
fate.
hard-fought and relatively successful action
a
the line, spearheaded by the 2/Devons.
Some German
trenches were
captured and heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy. However, the following morning the the
Germans put
ground gained. There was one
in a vigorous counter-attack
and bombed the Devons out of
3.30am and Meerut and Lahore Divisions of the Indian Corps went into action near Givenchy. There was a series of confused encounters which went on well into the hours of daylight and which were fought with much bravery and dash, but the casualties were heavy and the gains small. 5.30
am
final attack in
the small hours of the 19th. At
respectively the
be a memorable postscript to
There was, however,
to
of the British front.
On
this
hard fighting on one sector
20 December Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey of 2/Queen's
wrote to his mother:
The
next morning a most extraordinary thing happened -
I
should think quite one of
Some Germans came out and held up their hands wounded some of our and so we ourselves immediately got out of and began to take in the trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to the most curious things in the war.
us and a
lot
of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead.
This lasted the whole morning and
seemed extraordinarily before
we had been having
their cigarettes
It
was
fine
men.
a terrific battle
Land. Photographs were taken. But
A
talked to several of
seemed too
them and
ironical for words.
and the morning
after, there
I
must say they
There, the night
we were smoking
and they smoking ours.
a foretaste of the great truce to
blemishes.
I
... It
come.
Enemy
talked with
[52]
Staffordshire
in
No Man's
was not without Regiment came across
this first brief armistice
young lieutenant of the South
enemy
its
to
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
help with the
wounded and was
killed
by
a shot
nizing regiment but from the next regiment in similarly
gunned down. More, two Queen's
approached too near
to the
German
from
officers
a sniper, not
A Tommy
line.
from the
frater-
of the Queen's was
and seven stretcher-bearers who
trenches were taken prisoner; their comrades
believed they had been enticed. Unfortunately,
The end
it
was not noticed that they were
came suddenly and not as expected by the participants when, without warning, from their positions behind the lines, the British artillery started shelling the enemy trenches. There was a not dissimiliar gesture opposite the 2/Scots Guards, as Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse recorded:
missing until the armistice was over.
The morning
after the attack, there
and about 6.15 three of
In
I
was an almost
tacit
understanding as to no
firing,
saw eight or nine German shoulders and heads appear, and then
them crawled out
a few feet in front of their parapet
and began dragging
in
who were either dead or unconscious ... I passed down the order my men were to fire and this seems to have been done all down the line. I one of our men in myself, and was not fired on, at all.
some of our that none of helped
am
in fact
fellows
fact, these
chivalrous acts were well within the rules of war. Armistices,
properly agreed, for the burial of the dead had long been part of the accepted military code.
What makes
the events of 19
December
occurred in a conflict marked by so
much
19 14 particularly notable is that they structured animosity and mistrust. But
they could only mollify, not change, the fact that several hundreds of lives had been
wasted on an exercise which value.
its
instigators
knew from
There would be many sad telegrams
the outset was of only marginal
that Christmas mingling with the festive
mail.
[53]
F
the pre-Christmas period had
the British - had
German
its
its
horrors at the front,
it
also - for
home. On i6 December two and Von der Tann, emerged out
'frightfulness' at
battlecruisers, Derfflinger
of the morning mist to
bombard Scarborough. Later they turned Whitby and the
their attention with equally devastating effect to
Hartlepools. Altogether 122 people were killed and 443 injured, and there was
much damage
to property.
The German
intention was to
refute the British doctrine of the mastery of the seas. 'This attack will bring to the English',
wrote the Kdlnische Zeitung,
them.' There was an angry reaction
among
'that their great fleet
the British, the
is
home
unable to protect
Germans being
labelled
with such descriptions as the 'assassin squadron' and the 'Scarborough bandits'. Churchill wrote of the 'stigma of the baby-killers of Scarborough' which would for ever brand officers and
men
of the
German
navy. At a time which ought to have
been one of peace and goodwill, stated one commentator
News,
this
had been a period of
in the Illustrated
London
German
cousins
'particular malignity as far as our
were concerned'. Malignity continued in Flanders where the end of the British off'ensive did not
The Germans retaliated on the 20th by flinging themon the Indian Corps, who were at the southern end of the line in the vicinity of Givenchy. The Indians were totally unable to withstand this counter-attack and, from the 22nd, were gradually withdrawn to be replaced by General Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps, which finally managed to re-establish the line. But it was a hard struggle bring an end to the fighting. selves
with enormous casualties on both sides and the fighting continued until the 24th. It
was
to
be a dour Christmas in that part of the
the season and business
much as
line,
with few concessions to
usual.
Elsewhere, however, along the greater part of the British front, the days before
Christmas brought a period of relative calm. For once there was something pleasur[54]
Christmas Eve
able to look forward to: the normal
routine.
corned beef
(also
if
And
known
nothing else Christmas would produce some variation in
bored with the deadly monotony of a diet of
for soldiers
as bully beef or bully),
Maconochie's stew
(that
combination
of meat, potatoes, beans and other assorted vegetables to be eaten either cold or
heated in its
its tins,
which no
Tommy
could ever forget) and Tickler's jam (which only
makers believed was made of plum and apple) Christmas would provide a rare
opportunity to dine and wine - or drink beer - in some sort of style.
Three days before Christmas Private William Tapp, of the Warwickshire Regiment, wrote in his diary:
22nd Dec and we
ate at
received parcels from
our old
billet, a
home and we
are
private house.
making
our
this
I
and
3
Xmas
egg each, and chipped potatoes for Breakfast, eggs are a luxury
and hard work
to get
any
at all.
had seen on the way down, cigarettes, for tea
we
Dinner
also
I
now
they are 3id each
roast beef, potatoes, brussels sprouts,
plum duff and mincepie and
are going to have a milk loaf
butter, cake, sweets, etc.
more servants have all we had bacon, one
day,
hope every one
in
a
which we
couple of jugs of beer,
which has come from E[ngland],
E[ngland] has as good food for their
Xmas
day.
Graham Williams and booked
a
room
celebration.
A
in
his fellow riflemen of the
London
Rifle Brigade
had
one of the several estaminets of Ploegsteert for their Christmas
family with
whom
they had become friendly while billeted in East
Grinstead had sent them a generous hamper. This was the foundation of a thoroughly satisfactory feast which, complete with mince pies and Christmas puddings, they enjoyed on the same day as
added
to the general gaiety
Tapp and
by having a
his friends
enjoyed
fully written out
theirs.
The LRB men
menu, complete with
(imaginary) musical programme. Later they were glad that, even though they had
expected to be in their
billets
over Christmas, they had had their special meal on the
22nd, as the next morning they were suddenly, and to their great disappointment, ordered back to the trenches.
They returned
LRB
there lavishly supplied with presents from
in particular received so
among
their
way
to
add
their weight to
[55]
*
indeed the
them out However, no unit went short:
many
to the line in the last days before Christmas.
*
-
parcels that they shared
the four other battalions of their brigade.
puddings and presents were
made
many Christmas
home
a
pack as the
Tommies
Christmas Eve
But
many
in the trenches, along
The
spirit
Added
force.
parts of the front, things were not as they
of Christmas was in the air arid
it
was
a
had been. most powerful and pervasive
to the other elements already present - the proximity, the sharing of
extreme conditions, the growing tendency towards
a 'live
and
let live'
mentality, the
eagerness of families, friends and even authorities that the soldiers should share the pleasures of the season - that spirit became irresistible. Althougfi
Tommies were
later to
many hardened
claim with pride that there was no lessening of warlike
determination in their particular sector that Christmas, no concession to the calendar or the enemy, elsewhere even the most stalwart of professional soldiers were to
respond to the increasingly relaxed and
Edward Hulse
festive
of the Scots Guards, for example, Christmas provided two splendid
opportunities, both to be seized with relish.
One was
to
have a thoroughly good
time, even in the troglodytic world of the trenches ('Germans or no
plum puddings
Germans
are going to have a
'ell
and the other was
to carry out a vocal assault, almost a vocal trench raid,
enemy
of a bust, including
was the duty of the
across the way. It
'keep the
Hun
on
alert
for the
whole
and thrusting
...
we
battalion');
on the
British officer to
his toes', constantly to maintain the spirit of the offensive. Hulse's
Christmas adaptation of surprise
moved
atmosphere. For Lieutenant Sir
them with
this
concept was to attack the Germans with song and
a barrage of carols.
a select little party together who, led by my stentorian voice, are going to up a position in our trenches where we are closest to the enemy, about 80 yards, and from 10 pm onwards we are going to give the enemy every conceivable song in My fellows are most amused with the idea, and harmony, from carols to Tipperary. will make a rare noise when we get at it. Our object will be to drown the now tooI
have got
take
.
.
.
familiar strains of 'Deutschland iiber Alles'
and the 'Wacht am Rhein' we hear from
their
trenches every evening.
The Germans, however, were now nationalistic ones
some
which plainly
irritated
singing other songs than the patriotic and
Lieutenant Hulse, while the British too, in
areas at least, were also adopting a seasonal repertoire.
wrote in his Christmas
We
letter
were relieved on the evening of the 23rd about 10
singing hymns, including a fine quartet.
sounded, with only
The German Karl Aldag
home:
now and
On
o'clock.
The
English had been
our side too the beautiful old songs re-
then a shot in between.
Meanwhile, the Christmas
trees so heartily disapproved of
[56]
by Captain Binding
German
soldiers celebrate
around the Christmas
had reached the area of the German
tree
billet villages
and some of them would soon be
carried up, along with other symbols of the season, to the trenches.
And
the
mood
of Christmas was being powerfully evoked in special services attended en masse by the
German
troops.
The Regimental
History of the i6th (3rd Westphalian) Infantry
Regiment records: In the
little
shell-riddled church of lilies
a light frost white snowflakes fell
priest
homely Christmas
trees
were
alight,
and during
through the damaged roof on to the ground and the
preached a moving sermon - to soldiers of
all
denominations.
The
small organ
[58]
II
Christmas Eve
and the regimental band under the direction of Bandmaster Beez, who had been with the regiment during the whole campaign, accompanied the various companies in the singing.
Numerous
by special
gift parcels
and
letters
and were taken up
lorries,
had arrived from home, some by post, some companies
to the
by the ration
in the trenches
parties.
»
»
»
On some sectors the Christmas truce began on 23 December. The 2/Cameronians relieved the 2/Royal Berks on the The trenches they took over were
the vicinity of Laventie.
night of 20 in
December
in
poor condition due to
them becoming However, there lieutenant of the Cameronians, Malcolm Kennedy, de-
the appaUing weather, requiring a continuous effort to prevent
waterlogged. All seemed set for a particularly dreary stint in the
were diversions
afoot, as a
line.
scribed.
On
the
fact that the
arms
my
morning of the 23rd, while
baling water out of
my
German
in the air
platoon was engaged in the never-ending task of
trench, one of the
men on
sentry-duty called
my
attention to the
troops opposite were clambering out into the open, waving their
and making friendly gestures
in
our direction. As they were unarmed
to do when a message came along from the Company Commander saying, 'Don't shoot, but count them!' This was followed a minute or two later by the appearance of Ferrers himself [the Com-
and showed no signs of
manding
Officer],
hostile intention,
who warned me
I
was wondering what
against letting any
Germans come
too close as
might be only a ruse on their part to enable them to inspect our position
it
at close
quarters.
Although the temporary truce that followed was apparently act of it
was
mutual friendship and goodwill,
it
a purely
was of so unique and surprising
spontaneous a nature that
no undue risks. The company on our left, however, allowed come across and a friendly exchange of cigars and verbal one of the two Germans jocularly remarking that he hoped the war
just as well to take
a couple of
Germans
greetings took place,
would end soon,
as he
to
wanted
to return to his
former job as
a taxi-driver in
Birmingham.
At another part of the line, according to an account by Vize-Feldwebel Lange,* a Saxon of XIX Corps from Leipzig, after nightfall on the 23rd some Saxon soldiers put Christmas trees on the parapet of their trench, upon which a nimiber of Tommies - who had had previous 'parleys' with the enemy in this sector and had grown accustomed to crawling across to exchange tinned meat and tobacco - came
NCO
*
The rank vize-feldwebel is
equivalent to a staff sergeant in the British
[59]
Army.
Christmas Eve
over to ask what the trees were
for. Told that it was the custom and that the Germans would be keeping Christmas on the night of the 24th, two of the Tommies hurried away, returning shortly to say that two of their officers were waiting beyond the wire
The
anxious to speak to the major in charge.
officers
proposed a private truce for
The idea was accepted. summer, 19 14 had contrived to produce one of the wettest winters on record.* December had so far been a particularly miserable month, with almost every day having its inevitable visitation of the rain. There was, however, a hint of change late on the 22nd. 'Last night was a jolly night', wrote Major Buchanan-Dunlop of the i/Leicesters the next afternoon, 'with bright stars and no rain, and my trenches were getting clean again; but this morning early snow began to fall and they are getting quite beastly again. However', he added, with a touch of his characteristic cheery optimism, 'now, they have cleaned up a bit and the snow has stopped, so if only we could get a little frost we'd soon have them fairly Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. After a relatively fine
passable.
The
.' .
.
frost
Buchanan-Dunlop hoped
formed the scene. The
No Man's Land
-
mud
for arrived
The dead men
hardened.
dead sheep, or
on Christmas Eve.
pools froze.
The
Rime turned the of ruined buildings. The
- lay white with rime.
copses into Christmas trees, and softened the hard outlines air
trans-
It
ljuddled shapes out in
was sharp and bracing, anaesthetizing the usual trench smells of chloride of lime, 'It was a beautiful sunny day and very clear'.
soaked clothing, gunsmoke and decay.
Rifleman Bernard Brookes wrote Albert
Moren
called
winter's day', was his
LRB
it,
in his diary.
remembering
Graham
it
'A Christmas card Christmas Eve',
nearly seventy years
later.
Williams's description, though his
'A really beautiful
memory and
that of
comrades was not only of the sudden appropriate beauty of the weather.
Unfortunately, the day was marred at breakfast time, of the original 'O' Coy, a sniper.
who was
in the next
This was the singer, Bassingham, who had been
pany and Battalion concerts. Casualties over us
when
all.
still
a
young and popular member
bay to ours, was shot through the head by a regular
performer
at
Com-
being comparatively rare, this cast a gloom
His body having been placed outside the trench for removal by stretcher-
general assumption has always been that 19 14 was one of the great hot summers, but in fact do not rate it as one of their top ten; temperatures did, however, reach the 80s and 90s in July and August, in time for the outbreak of the war and the first marches and battles. By contrast, December 1914 and January 1915 have always been thought of as particularly
*The
the Meteorological Office
wet and unpleasant and the figures prove this, both months being noted for above average rainfall and flooding. French statistics, taken at Dunkirk, confirm that the weather was as bad on the Western Front, with 1.99 inches above average in December and 3.71 inches above average in January.
[60]
Christmas Eve
bearers after dark, the normal routine was resumed.
It
their
was, indeed, a good day for sniping; the clear weather gave good
chance and some took
it
with a
will.
marksmen
'Air very frosty', Lieutenant William
Tyrrell, Medical Officer attached to the 2/Lancashire Fusiliers, noted in his diary:
'makes the sniping very vicious to the ears - the swish of bullets resembles a cane swishing thro' water
& the report of the rifles is peculiarly muffled.' *
*
*
At home the general expectation, encouraged by the newspapers, was that fighting
would continue at Christmas. Certainly few anticipated the curious events to come. Yet there were those who saw that, in spite of all the hatred and the virulent propaganda, there might well be some friendly gesture between the two lines of trenches. A commentator in the Illustrated London News wrote that for Christmastide there will probably be
Front) -
if
something
not by mutual agreement, at least by
And on Christmas Eve
like a 'truce
of God' (on the Western
common assent.
the Manchester Guardian carried this remarkably prophetic
statement:
It will
the
be strange
if
one of those truces arranged
commanders does not occur tonight
tacitly
by the
men and winked at by Germans may find
in order that, if possible, the
something to take the the place of Christmas trees and the English something the place of holly in the trenches 'hits'
on
For the longer troops
lie
use for signalling
up
Tomorrow,
too, the boards
either side will very likely bear
more or
to take
which have been
in
less chaffing greetings.
over against one another in trenches the more there grows
a certain friendly interest. This, however, does not interfere with the business of
fighting.
Christmas Eve
minor distinction in fell on the mainland of Britain. At 1 1 am a solitary German aeroplane appeared over Dover and aimed a bomb at Dover Castle. The bomb missed its target and landed in the garden of Mr Thomas Terson JP, blowing a Mr John Banks out of a tree in the Rectory garden next door, in which he was cutting evergreens for the Christmas decorations 1914 holds one other significant
twentieth-century history.
It
was the day on which the
in the parish church.
[61]
if
first
bomb
Christmas Eve
*
*
Germans who had fraternized with the 2/Cameronians on the showed no inclination to resume normal hostilities on the 24th. The Scotsmen were due to leave the trenches that evening but, before their departure they were, as Lieutenant Kennedy put it, 'treated to further demonstrations of temporary friendliness and good will on the part of their opponents'. In Flanders the
23rd,
Time and
again during the course of that day, the Eve of Christmas, there were wafted
towards us from the trenches opposite the sounds of singing and merry-making, and occasionally the guttural tones of a
happy Christmas
to
reciprocated, back Fritz, but
would go the response from
evening,
We
to be heard shouting out lustily, 'A to
show
that the sentiments
a thick-set Clydesider,
'Same
The Christmas
all
the horrors and discomforts of the
spirit
was
we exchanged Christmas
in the air.
As we
whom we
West Yorks, whose trenches adjoined ours on our came the shouts from the German trenches conveying the
and goodwill
to us
filed
greetings with the Devons,
exchanged them too with the Middlesex,
War seemed
to
be
out of the trenches that
who came
to relieve us.
passed on their way to relieve
right flank, while ever
and anon
similar sentiments of friendship
all.
Signs of an unusual relaxation of tension were evident elsewhere. 24
was 'very
were
to you,
dinna o'er eat yourself wi' they sausages!'
For the time being, forgotten.
German were
you Englishmen!' Only too glad
December
on the front occupied by the 2/Royal Welch Fusiliers on the banks Lys. A pheasant, thought to be a refugee from 'Plugstreet' Wood, was
quiet'
of the river
shot through the head in No Man's Land and successfully retrieved; no doubt it would make a welcome contribution to the Christmas festivities. One of the battalion companies had a sing-song in the trenches and, inspired by the festive mood, some of the Welshmen painted 'Merry Christmas' on a sheet of canvas in large letters, added a sketch of the Kaiser, and hoisted their curious creation on to the parapet. It was not shot down. Meanwhile south of Armentieres, a German band was playing
hymns in or near the trenches all afternoon. The weather was glorious. Several British at in a desultory way by the Germans. A British
aeroplanes were up, which were shot battery was firing, though apparently
Then, as an artillery officer wrote, 'about 6 o'clock things went positively dead; there was not a sound. Even our own pet sniper went off duty.' That evening there was to be no 'goodnight kiss' - as the Tommies called the sniper's farewell strike. But somewhere behind the lines an unusual and peculiar noise starwith
little
serious purpose.
[62]
Christmas Eve
group of
tied a
RAMC men who were sitting in a field shelter which they had just
constructed, eating a Christmas cake newly arrived from Blighty. Writing to his
brother that same evening, one of their number, Lance-Corporal Laird, explained
what
it
was.
A
party of twenty infantry marching along the road from the trenches singing, one
playing the bones, another two banging the cans, just as though such things as
man
Germans
did not exist.
They turned perary',
into the field
where we were, grouped round and sang
and several others we know, gave us three cheers
wished us
a
merry Christmas and
marched out on the road
safe
New
me,
again. Believe
it
for saving
carols, 'Tip-
them
at
Mons,
Year and return to England, and then
was worth seeing.
At St Omer, 27 miles behind the front line, the British High Command were lest the enemy, far from seizing the chance to fraternize, should seize the issued a signal to be passed to all units: chance to fight. On Christmas Eve
concerned
GHQ
It is
thought possible that the enemy
New Year. It
was not
battalions.
may be contemplating an
until well after dark that this
By
attack during
Xmas
or
Special vigilance will be maintained during this period.
the time
it
reached them, in
message was forwarded
many
to the front-line
sectors the preliminaries
were over
and the Christmas truce was well under way. *
The Germans had and
his
*
*
similar anxieties about British intentions.
When Hugo Klemm
comrades of the 133rd Saxon Infantry Regiment assembled that evening
in
front of the church in their billet village of Pont Rouge, preparatory to going into
the line, they were given a strong warning by their
He emphasized required, as
mood
at
it
that for that
was expected
company commander.
day and the following days special alertness would be
that the English
Christmas by mounting a
would perhaps take advantage of our good
raid.
Vigilant or not, however, they were not going to be deprived of their Christmas celebrations.
Several of
my chums
had been able
to get
[63]
hold of two small Christmas trees complete
.
Christmas Eve
with candles, to be mounted on the parapet of the trenches, while others dragged planks, fascines etc with them, to be used in thelsattle against water that time, having settled in the trenches, to let the
These
enemy know we would not
let
we
and mud. As was usual
fired the occasional shot
ourselves be surprised.
on the parapet and
formalities over, they put their trees
the candles.
fit
they did so hundreds of their comrades were doing exactly the same;
Klemm
were appearing
that as far as the eye could see lighted Christmas trees left
As
noted
to right
and
along the whole sector.
Johannes Niemann was
On
a
young lieutenant
in the
same Saxon Regiment.
Christmas Eve we got the order to go into the trenches.
The day
presented with chocolate, bonbons and cake.
Then
darkness
at
from
parcels hanging
Christmas tree
two
orderlies.
how from
.
to sing
No
in
good humour.
shooting. Little snow.
our old Christmas songs:
We
posted a tiny
'Stille
-
Nacht, Heilige Nacht' and
.
his friends
were
the other side of
cheering. In fact, on perhaps as
Tommies were watching some
quiet.
all
We placed a second lighted tree on the breastwork.
'O du Frdhliche'
bered
was
us. All
was
to the trenches like Father Christmas with
our dugout - the company commander, myself the lieutenant, and the
in
Then we began
Klemm and
It
we marched forward
we had who were
before
celebrated Christmas in our rest quarters with the civilian people and children
in
at
from our outposts
also singing,
and both he and Niemann remem-
No Man's Land came much
in fascinated
the sound of applause and
as two-thirds of the British-held sector,
amazement as the lighted Christmas trees, or on the German parapets. In what was
cases lanterns or torches, appeared
essentially a
zone of ugliness and desolation they made a beautiful and incongruous
sight. 'Like the footlights of a theatre', was how one soldier put it in a letter home; and indeed there was something dramatic about the whole scene - the suddenness of it, the extent of it - though here and there were areas of normal darkness where no Christmas celebrations were taking place and where the only illuminations were the
occasional spit of a sniper's as the sight presented
rifle
or the firework-like glow of a starshell.
As
striking
by the German trenches was the sound coming from them, men singing, harmoniously and with deep emotion,
the distant, haunting sound of the Christmas
hymns which they had known
Opposite:
German
soldiers singing carols,
since childhood. 'Stille Nacht' - 'Silent
Christmas Eve 1914. This photograph was taken on Angerup in East Prussia) but it parallels exactly
the Eastern Front (on the banks of the river
what happened on
the Western Front
[64]
Christmas Eve
Night', in
English form - stands out as being the carol most particularly and
its
remembered by the
affectionately
could never hear that
hymn
listening
Tommies,
much
so
was
a beautiful
in the
and there were these
evening there was a
lights -
Nacht\
'Stille
of them
in the
La Chapelle d'Armentieres.
moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere; and
about seven or eight
Night' -
many
Eve 1914. One such was Albert Moren, then
the Western Front, Christmas
front-line trenches held by 2/Queen's near the village of
It
so that
without being instantly transported back to
in later life
I
I
don't
never forget
shall
lot
know what
of
commotion
they were.
in the
And
German
was one of the highlights of
it, it
trenches
then they sang 'Silent
my
life.
I
thought, what a beautiful tune.
There were various reactions from the
One German
British side.
soldier's letter
records that during the singing of 'Stille Nacht' those on guard duty kept a keen
lookout through their observation
'with
slits,
the ready, as the
rifles at
enemy was
only 80 metres away'. But their vigilance was not necessary.
Suddenly
And
sure
a man from my company reported: 'The English are letting off fireworks'. enough across the way from us the enemy trenches were lit up with fires and
rockets and so on.
We
then
made up
a
few banners reading 'Happy Christmas!' with a
couple of candles behind and a couple on top.
In most cases, however, the British responded not with flares and fireworks, but
with
calls for
more, and songs and carols of their own. According to Charles Brewer,
a lieutenant in the 2/Bedfordshires,
carol 'O Tannenbaum', his
'We
are
men
Fred Karno's army'
when
the
Germans
replied, 'less artistically
sung
-
to the
up the famous German but no less heartily', with
struck
tune of the well-known
hymn 'The
Church's One Foundation'. Joseph Niemann remembered the British on long way to Tipperary' and
breaking into
'It's a
Rifle Brigade
on the other hand rose
offerings as varied
and vigorous
to the occasion with a
as that of the
not begin in their part of the line until quite o'clock (midnight according to
German
his front
'Home Sweet Home'. The London
German
late in the
performance of seasonal
initiators.
Proceedings did
when towards eleven Graham Williams was on
evening
time) Rifleman
sentry duty in the forward trenches.
I
was standing on the
firestep,
gazing towards the
German
very different sort of Christmas Eve this was from any the ordinary
way of
things,
my
father
I
would be making
[66]
lines
and thinking what
had experienced
Rum
a
in the past. In
Punch from an old family
[67]
Christmas Eve
which had been written out by
recipe,
his grandfather,
and was kept, of
places, in
all
we would have decorated the living and would now be looking forward to
the Family Bible! Earlier, after the evening meal,
rooms and
hall
with the traditional greenery,
wishing one another a 'Happy Christmas', and toasting the occasion in the result of
was
father's labours. Instead of this, here
muddy Flemish
I,
my
standing in a water-logged trench, in a
and staring out over the flat, empty %nd desolate countryside, with There had been no shooting by either side since the sniper's shot that morning, which had killed young Bassingham. But this was not at all unusual.
no signs of
field,
life.
Then suddenly
lights
began
to
appear along the
German
parapet, which were
evidently make-shift Christmas trees, adorned with lighted candles, which burnt steadily in the
still,
Other sentries had, of course seen the same thing, and quickly
frosty air!
awoke those on duty, asleep to pass'.
actually the first time as
I
heard
retaliate in
this carol,
They finished some way, so we sang 'The
this thing,
so
went on.
it
which had come
Nacht, Heilige Nacht'. This was
which was not then so popular their carol
and we thought
First Nowell',
in this
that
theirs,
country
we ought
and when we finished
began clapping; and then they struck up another favourite of
And
to
that they
'O Tannenbaum\
Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would when we started up 'O Come All Ye Faithful' the Germans
First the
sing one of ours, until
immediately joined in singing the same I
'come and see
to sing 'Stille
has since become.
it
all
in the shelters, to
Then our opponents began
hymn
to the Latin
words 'Adeste
Fideles'.
And
thought, well, this was really a most extraordinary thing - two nations both singing
the
same
carol in the
In the same trenches
middle of a war.
at Ploegsteert
was Major Arthur Bates,
also of the
London
Rifle Brigade, watching the proceedings, in spite of his relative seniority, with
disapproving eye.
Some
time before midnight, while the impromptu concert was
going on, he slipped away to write a brief letter to his
no
still
sister.
Dearest Dorothy, Just a line from the trenches on
on
& both
to the
Coy
Best love
Xmas Eve
- a
topping night with not
sides singing. It will be interesting to
are not to start firing unless the
much
firing
see what happens tomorrow.
Germans
going
My orders
do.
from your loving brother. Arthur.
Williams also records that the Germans urged the British to leave their trenches with shouts
on the
of, in
English,
'Tommy, you come over and see you come here'. But neither
British side replied, 'No,
us!', to
which someone
side availed themselves
of the invitation and eventually the lights burned out and the singing stopped, as
everybody, apart from the sentries, attempted to get some sleep. Elsewhere, however, men did leave their trenches and there was active fraternization in No Man's Land. [68]
.
Christmas Eve
In some instances only a few men were involved, in others little groups of soldiers met and mingled, while their comrades peered from their parapets, incredulously
moved
looking on, as the grey shapes
cautiously towards each other, talked,
whole scene lit by a bright, frosty moon. was the moon which worried Private Tapp of the i/Warwicks as his which had been in billets for several days, prepared to return to the
lit
cigarettes, the It
it is going to be a moonlight night so I think we we are relieving the other regt. We get near the trenches but now we hear some singing from their trenches and ours.
go back to trenches tonight,
men
few
lose a
hear any firing,
while
Second Lieutenant Bruce Bairnsfather, who was
He had
Warwicks.
Maconochie about
been out to
as usual, a bottle of red
and most
on the
distinct
'Come
frosty
some way
on,' said
I, 'let's
Officer of the i/Royal
air'.
He
much
bully and
medley of tinned things from quarter of a mile away to the left,
wine and
to his lines to find several of his
floating across
shall
can't
become the most famous
Gun
a special trench dinner ('not quite so
deputizing in their absence') at a dugout a
and returned
to
War, was the Machine
soldier-cartoonist of the Great
home
near
line
Wood.
Ploegsteert
We
battalion,
men
a
'listening to the burst of
song
noticed that the singing seemed to be loudest
to the right.
go along the trench to the hedge there on the right - that's the
nearest point to them, over there.'
So we stumbled along our now hard, frosted bank above, strode across the listening.
An
Deutschland,
field to
our next
ditch,
and scrambled up on
bit of trench
on the
right.
to the
Everyone was
improvised Boche band was playing a precarious version of 'Deutschland, iiber
Alles\ at the conclusion of which
retaliated with snatches of ragtime songs
some of our mouth-organ experts
and imitations of the German tune. Suddenly
we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again. A voice in the darkness shouted in English, with a strong German accent, 'Come over here!' A ripple of mirth swept along our trench, followed by a rude outburst of mouth organs and laughter. Presently in a lull, one of our sergeants repeated the request, 'Come over here!' .
After
much
.
suspicious shouting and jocular derision from both sides our sergeant
went along the hedge which ran quickly out of sight; but as
we
at right-angles to the all
spasmodic conversation taking place out there
Tapp was
also
two
lines
of trenches.
listened in breathless silence, in the darkness.
watching as the sergeant made his way into [69]
No Man's
He was
we soon heard
Land.
a
Christmas Eve
Our
sergeant goes out, their
man takes we can
find that they have sent two, cigarettes
and the German shouts
to
a lot of coaxing but
comes
at
the finish and
we
hear them talking quite plain, they exchange
wish us
a
Merry Xmas.
Another young officer of i/Royal Warwicks, Lieutenant Frank Black, was there as this meeting took place. He could see sufficiently clearly* to observe that when the sergeant
met the two Germans they
lit
each other's cigarettes,
at
which there were
cheers from both lines.
When
the sergeant returned, he brought with
which he had received
in
exchange for the two
Capstan which he had taken with him.
Germans not
to fire until
they received orders to
He
also
him some
tins of
and cigarettes
cigars
Maconochie's and the
brought with him an
offer
tin of
from the
Boxing Day unless the British did, and a promise that if they would fire high by way of warning. 'That evening',
fire
wrote Lieutenant Black, 'we were strolling about outside the trenches as though
no war going on.' 'After months of vindictive sniping and shelling', commented Bruce Bairnsfather, 'this little episode came as an invigorating tonic, and a welcome relief to the daily monotony of anatagonism.' Having nothing to do and no wounded to carry, the battalion stretcher-bearers came down from headquarters and went round the companies carol-singing. 'They sing several in our trench before going', wrote Tapp, 'the Gers give them a cheer for singing, this night I would not there was
have missed for
A
a lot,
longer and
I
don't go to sleep
more general
till
2.30
Xmas
morning.'
fraternization took place
Seaforth Highlanders, just to the north of Ploegsteert
men who began
singing carols and the
were immediately recognized
latter
as the
had some
amongst them'
sound
it
Germans who applauded and
as being the better singers -
'I
2/
was the Scotsreplied.
The we
don't think
Germans', commented Corporal John Ferguson, 'they
were so harmonious fine voices
on the front of the
Wood. Here
-
and the Seaforths listened 'spellbound' as the was the usual
floated over the turnip field to their trenches. Afterwards, there
shouted conversation between the opposing
Someone
calling
'Come
Ferguson's account continues:
us from the enemy's trenches
answered him, 'Hello! asks. 'Yes.'
lines.
Fritz'
halfways';
(we
call
them
'Komradd, Onglees Komradd',
all Fritz).
we shouted back and forward
out of the trench, and accompanied by three others of
him.
We
my
Old
until
section
were walking between the trenches. At any other time
suicide; even to
I
'Do you want any tobacco?' he Fritz clambered
we went out
this
to
meet
would have been
show your head above the parapet would have been fatal, but tonight a little shaky) out to meet our enemies. 'Make for the light', he nearer we saw he had his flash lamp in his hand, putting it in and
we go unarmed (but calls, and as we came out to guide us.
[70]
Christmas Eve
We
shook hands, wished each other
we had known each other surrounded by Germans translating to his friends
We
for years.
if
and
Fritz
what
I
I
a
Merry Xmas, and were soon conversing
were
in front of their wire
in the centre talking,
was saying.
We
as
entanglements and
and Fritz occasionally
stood inside the circle like streetcorner
orators.
Soon most of our company
('A'
Company), hearing
me
'Fergie' in the
gone out, followed us; they called I
was
in the darkness they kept calling out 'Fergie'.
English greeting, answered 'Fergie'.
What
that
I
and some others had
Regiment, and to find out where
The Germans,
thinking that was an
groups of Germans and British
a sight - little
extending almost the length of our front! Out of the darkness we could hear laughter
and
German
see lighted matches, a
and vice
lighting a Scotchman's cigarette
versa,
exchanging cigarettes and souvenirs. Where they couldn't talk the language they were
making themselves understood by
signs,
Here we were laughing and chatting trying to
to
and everyone seemed
men whom
to be getting
on
only a few hours before
nicely.
we were
kill!
That the participants could
scarcely believe
what was happening
-
and scarcely
expected their readers to believe them - comes through in numerous contemporary accounts. Sergeant A. Lovell of 3/Rifle Brigade described events on his battaUon's
many written on Christmas Day; London Evening News in early January.
front in a letter typical of
front page of the
You
home today
with: 'Bob!
going to
tell
was published on the
you: but thousands of our
same strange and wonderful
men
will be
story. Listen.
little dugout, writing, my chum came bursting in upon And I listened. From the German trenches came the sound My chum continued: 'They've got Christmas trees all along the
sat in
I
Hark
am
I
telling the
Last night as
me
what
will hardly credit
writing
it
my
at 'em!'
of music and singing.
top of their trenches! Never saw such a sight.' I
to
my
got
up
to investigate.
Climbing the parapet,
dying day. Right along the whole of the
I
saw
line
a sight
which
I
shall
remember
were hung paper lanterns and
many of them in such positions as to suggest that hung upon Christmas trees. And as I stood in wonder a rousing song came us; at first the words were indistinguishable, then, as the song was repeated
illuminations of every description,
they were
over to
again and again,
we
realized that
we were
listening to
'The Watch on the Rhine'. Our
boys answered with a cheer, while a neighbouring regiment sang
Anthem. Some were a shout in really
from trench
And
for shooting the lights
away, but almost
good English, 'Stop shooting!' Then began
to trench. It
some
at once.
Some were
and
lo!
came
to speak.'
rational, others the reverse of
sort of order obtained,
[71]
National
a series of answering shouts
was incredible. 'Hallo! Hallo! you English we wish
everyone began to speak
plimentary. Eventually
lustily the
at the first shot there
a party of our
men
com-
got out
Christmas Eve
from the trenches and invited the Germans
And smoking
to
you
midway between
cigarettes together
The group was
friend and foe alike.
presently
we heard
air,
meet them halfway and
to
talk.
there in the searchlight they stood, Englishman
a cheery
'Good
the lines.
A
away from me
too far
A Merry
night.
and German, chatting and rousing cheer went up from to hear
what was
Christmas and a Happy
said, but
New
Year
with which the parties returned to their respective^renchffs.
we remained
After this
the whole night through, singing with the
enemy song
for
song.
Though good-humoured and friendly, the proceedings were generally somewhat more cautious and restrained than those described by Sergeant Lovell. The 2/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were
in the same InfanAs elsewhere, candles appeared on the German parapets, 'Stille Nacht' was sung together with a number of other carols and there followed the standard invitation to join the Germans in No Man's Land. Their spokesman could not have better credentials: an ex-waiter who had worked in Glasgow and spoke good English. After some light-hearted banter it was finally agreed that two from each side should go out. All due precautions were taken and no one else, British or German, was allowed out of the trenches. A nineteen year at
try Brigade, the 19th, as the 2/Royal
Houplines, near Armentieres,
Welch
Fusiliers.
old subaltern, Ian Stewart, asked permission to be one of those selected and his
Company Commander agreed. I
German and one
could talk some
my
age.
Our
a football
match.
made me
sick,
He
and
was very proud.
.
.
.
a
.
.
gave
.
me
German
a cigar to
photograph of
My
gift
was
his
some English. He was about
officers,
which
we
I
was unaccustomed and which nearly
pre-War regimental
a tin of bully
thing available. After 10 minutes
and
of the
conversation was no different from that of meeting a friendly opponent at
beef from
said a friendly
my
football
team of which he
emergency ration
goodbye and returned
- the best
to our lines
relative normality.
Some particular
British battalions ignored the enemy's overtures, not because of any
anti-German feeling but because they were bemused by what was happen-
ing and were uncertain as to
how
to respond.
The
following eyewitness account
is
included in the regimental history of the 13/London Regiment, a Territorial battalion of the 8th Division, also
were
known
as 'Princess Louise's'
and 'The Kensingtons'. They
to the south of Armentieres, near Laventie.
It
was the
homesick.
first
Christmas of the war and the enemy, no
The Germans
gave the
first sign.
[72]
A
less
than ourselves,
felt
very
tired sentry in the Battalion, looking out
Christmas Eve
over the waste towards their lines spread the exciting news that the enemy's trenches
were
'all
and we
alight'.
He had
looked
all
at
hardly uttered the words before other sentries took up the cry
the enemy's line, which was dotted here and there with clusters of
lights. From behind the lines came voices crying 'English soldiers, English soldiers, Happy Christmas. Where are your Christmas trees?' and faint but clear, the songs of
We
were
a little
joke against us,
let it
be said that the order was given to stand to arms. But
the season.
fire,
of
for the battalion
embarrassed by
on our
right.
humour, answered the enemy's
ments
in
No Man's Land
for
this
The Royal
sudden comradeship and,
remainder of Christmas Eve in watching the
we did not
Irish Fusiliers, with their national sense
salutations with songs
Christmas Day.
as a lasting
We
felt
and jokes and made appoint-
small and subdued and spent the
lights flicker
and fade on the 'Christmas
Trees' in their trenches and hearing the voices grow fainter and eventually cease.
The i/Royal Irish Rifles did indeed the German trenches. The Germans,
fraternize, following a friendly invitation
(on the assumption, as in the case of the Seaforths, that 'English'), called out to fire'.
them
'If
from
ignoring the Irish nationality of their opponents
you English come out and
all
British units were
talk to us -
we won't
Their plea was successful: Irishmen emerged from their trenches and met the
enemy halfway between
the lines, the situation being eased by the fact that, in the
War Diary, 'a good many Germans spoke English well'. Even so the command was sufficiently concerned about their response to the enemy's
words of the battalion
blandishments to decide that they must immediately inform Brigade Headquarters about what they called their 'soldier's truce'. At 8.30 pm they sent this signal: 'Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs, and are wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions.
.' .
.
The Queen's Westminster Kensingtons, inclined to an
Rifles at
initial
La Chapelle d'Armentieres were, like the when the Christmas Eve celebrations
suspicion
began on their sector. In his account, written only three days Jones described the process of events: the
enemy
first,
later,
Rifleman P.H.
the lighting of three large fires behind
it would generally be madness to strike a match; numerous small lights on the top of the enemy's trenches; the playing of 'weird tunes' on bugles or horns, after which they suddenly
lines in
an area where
next, the appearance of
then,
burst into songs of all kinds.
Our private opinion was that the enemy was priming themselves up for a big attack, so we commenced polishing up ammunition and rifles and getting all ready for speedy [73]
Christmas Eve
action. In fact
we were about
to loose off a
few rounds
at the biggest light
when
the
following words were heard (probably through a megaphone) 'Englishman, Englishman,
Don't shoot. You don't shoot we don't shoot.' Then followed
This was
we kept a very sharp
How
we had heard
very well, but
all
it
all
so
many
a
remark about Christmas.
yarns about
German
treachery that
look-out.
happened
I
don't know, but shortly after
and the enemy troops were busy singing each other songs, punctuated with
terrific
salvos of applause.
The
scene from
my
sentry post was hardly creditable. Straight ahead were three
round them. The German trenches, which
large lights, with figures perfectly visible
bent sharply and turned to the rear of our advanced positions, were illuminated with
hundreds of our
A Coy
little lights.
Far away to the
trenches, where the
men were
left,
where our
few
lines bent, a
lights
thundering out 'My Little Grey
showed
Home
in the
West'.
At the conclusion of
some German the King'.
We
tune.
They
this
song the Saxons burst into loud cheers and obliged with
also sang
one of their national
replied with the Austrian
hymn,
at
airs to the
tune of 'God Save
which the applause was
terrific.
The
music then quietened down and some time was spent yelling facetious remarks across the trenches. After this
some daredevils
in
E Coy
actually
hands with some of the Germans and exchanged cake and
went out, met and shook
biscuits.
As the night went
on things gradually grew quieter.
Jones does not say whether he observed his daredevil comrades' return; indeed, since a battahon's front
may
covered quite a considerable area
well have been others heading towards the
-
roughly half a mile - there
German
line
whom
he did not
see.
However, the fact is that the following morning three men, Riflemen Byng, Goude and Pearce, were found to be missing. Rifleman Bernard Brookes was sent out on his bicycle to look for them. The obvious place was the dressing station at La
The when the Germans inthe German trenches in a
Chapelle d'Armentieres a mile or so away, but there was no sign of them there. truth finally emerged during fraternization later in the day
formed the QWRs that the missing men had walked into drunken state and had been taken prisoner. The British asked for their release, but the request was refused, since they had had the opportunity to see the German dispositions, in particular the location of their machine guns. The one concession which the Germans offered was that the men would be interned in a civilian camp and would not be treated as prisoners-of-war and the British were forced to leave it at that.
There were
certain others to
whom these Christmas celebrations were not, in When the 2/Scots Guards were arranging an
the event, to be without their shadow.
[74]
yf'
W,^
/
if)
7
''it- V
e«^«^
I
'
If
K /
/'7
..
7/
^ 7/ I
/
/'
-
..
a
A
^
••
V/ r'
the Casualty Book of the Queen's Westminster Rifles. The three missing were held as prisoners of war after fraternization on Christmas Eve
Pa^e from
[75]
men
described as
Christmas Eve
armistice with the 158th Saxon Regiment, a scout named Murker, who spoke German, was sent out to negotiate with a German patrol. He was given a glass of whisky, some cigars and a message to take back to the effect that the Germans would agree to a ceasefire if the British did likewise. All went.srnoothly that night but by the end of Christmas he too would find himself a prisoner of the enemy. Shortly before Christmas a young schoolboy at Loretto School near Edinburgh sent to his father, Major Buchanan-Dunlop of the i/Leicesters, a copy of the endof-term carol concert programme. Major Buchanan-Dunlop was particularly pleased as he himself was an old boy of the school and, following his distinguished service in the Boer War, had been in charge of the Officers' Training Corps there. When
the festivities at the front began, he organized, as he put
in a letter to his wife, a
it
band of officers and men' to sing carols to the Germans, and he took the programme with him - 'it was', he wrote, 'most useful to us'. He had a good voice, was an enthusiastic Christian and inevitably led the singing; as elsewhere, the Germans responded with carols of their own. The news of his exploits was to make headlines at home, where he would become briefly famous as the 'Major Who Sang Carols Between the Trenches' - a development which was to get him into some difficulty with the military authorities in the New Year. But on Christmas Eve, as the singing floated between the lines in an atmosphere of remarkable peace and 'select
goodwill, there was no hint of these troubles to come.
Not
all officers,
however, accepted the general change of atmosphere with the
of Christian charity
spirit
written by an
much
unnamed
as the following letter -
shown by Buchanan-Dunlop,
Brigade - clearly indicates: there was too
officer of the Rifle
bitterness standing in the way.
When
I
got back to our trenches after dark on Christmas
trenches looking like the trees I
was
burning all
however,
Regatta night!
along the parapet of their trench.
No
Eve
I
They had
found the Boches' got
little
men
that afternoon.
But
slowly dying outside the I
my
captain
German
Christmas trees
had
killed
(who hadn't seen our wounded going
trenches on the Aisne) wouldn't
soon had an excuse as one of the Germans fired
my platoon and had those
Christmas
truce had been proclaimed, and
for not allowing the blighters to enjoy themselves, especially as they
one of our
mad and
all
Thames on Henley
down and
let
me
shoot;
up
at us, so I quickly lined
out.*
on our
right,
without saying a word to
anybody, got out of their trench and walked halfway
to the
German
Meanwhile, unknown
met by two German
officers
to us,
two
officers
and talked away quite
civilly
trench and were
and actually shook hands!
*This action caused comment the following day, when German officers expressed annoyance some of their trees had been fired on, insisting that they were part almost of a sacred rite.
[76]
It
that
'/
have just been through one of the most extraordinary scenes im-
aginable'
Captain R.J. Armes, i/North Staffordshire Regiment, experienced Regular soldier and enthusiastic participant in the Christmas truce. He survived the war, retiring in 1919 with the rank of Brevet Colonel.
was an awfully stupid thing captains are
new
to
do
as
it
might
and, not having seen the
easily
Germans
have had different results; but our in their true light yet,
apparently
won't believe the stories of their treachery and brutality.
On
the other hand, Captain R.J. Armes, a 38 year old Regular officer of the i/North
Staffs, joined in gladly
hurried away the
and, indeed, was so excited by what he saw and heard that he
moment
the night's festivities were over to write everything
in a long letter to his wife while
it
was
still
fresh in his mind.
[77]
down
Christmas Eve
I
have
been through one of the most extraordinary scenes imaginable. Tonight
just
Xmas Eve and
I
came up
Firing was going on
I
was
in
my
reported that the
been calling
to
men
it
hard, firing
the firing stopped.
dugout reading
Germans had
a
paper and the mail was being dished out.
lighted their trenches
one another for some time
Xmas
up
along our front.
4II
wishes and other things.
and they shouted 'no shooting' and then somehow the scene became our
is
tour of duty in them.
the time and the enemy's machine guns were at
all
Then about seven
at us.
my
into the trenches this evening for
got out of the trenches and sat on the parapet, the
they talked to one another in English and broken English.
I
It
was
We
had
went out
I
a peaceful one. All
Germans did
the same, and
got on the top of the trench
and talked German and asked them
to sing a German Volkslied [folk song], which they men sang quite well and each side clapped and cheered the other. I asked a German who sang a solo to sing one of Schumann's songs, so he sang 'The Two Grenadiers' splendidly. Our men were a good audience and really enjoyed
did, then our
his singing.
in
Then Pope and command. One of
presented
me
were lying
in
row.
We
walked across and held
men
his
to his officer.
between
gave the
I
yard or
We
so.
Xmas am Rhein\
permission to bury some
officer
and then
German dead who
have no shooting until 12 midnight tomor-
more Germans gathered round.
saluted each other, he thanked to
do
it,
me
and
I
was almost
in their
for permission to
bury
that otherwise both sides
another good night and a good night's
and parted with a salute. it
German
my name
in their trenches.
Then we wished one sounded
and with
a
well.
got back to the trench.
I
Then our men sang
good night we
a lovely moonlight night, the
on both
to
and we fixed up how many men were
must remain
so well,
latter
and we agreed
us,
a conversation with the
introduced us properly, he asked
talked together, 10 or
lines within a
his dead,
I
all
and
It
a
happy
sang 'Die Wacht
quite well 'Christians Awake',
got back into our trenches.
German
sides gathered in groups
rest,
The Germans was
it
sounded
a curious scene,
trenches with small lights on them, and the
men
on the parapets.
At times we heard the guns in the distance and an occasional rifle shot. I can hear them now, but about us is absolute quiet. I allowed one or two men to go out and meet a German or two halfway. They exchanged cigars, a smoke and talked. The officer I spoke to hopes we shall do the same on New Year's Day. I said 'yes, if I am here'. I felt I must sit down and write the story of this Xmas Eve before I went to lie down. Of course no precautions are relaxed, but I think they mean to play the game. All the same, I
think
I
shall
be awake
tomorrow night we
Xmas
time to
be
night so as to be on the safe side. at
it
hard again.
If
It is
one gets through
weird to think that
this
show
it
will
be a
memory. The German who sang had a really fine voice. walk round the trenches to see all is well. Good night.
live in one's
Am just off for a Captain Armes's
all
shall
letter
emphasizes one very important contributory reason for the [78]
Christmas Eve
initiation of the
Christmas truce
- indeed, for
some
participants the real reason:
Christmas was seen as a suitable time for the decent disposal of the dead bodies lying
No Man's Land, most of which were the victims of the previous week's attacks, though some had been out there since October. Opposite the 2/Bedfordshires behind the flickering Christmas trees a voice shouted across to the British lines at about in
8
pm:
'I
want
to arrange to
bury the dead. Will someone come out to me?' Second
Lieutenant Harold de Buriatti went out with three
whose
men and met
the Englishmen, by his having lived in Brighton and Canada.
wanted
five
Germans,
leader, not an officer, spoke excellent English - a fact explained, as
to
He
No
bury about twenty-four of their dead the following day.
arrangement was made
at the time,
returned to their
Before they parted the English-speaking
lines.
Buriatti a signet ring
he told
said that they specific
but the Bedfordshires noted the request and
which he retained
many
for
German gave de
years as a souvenir of this extra-
ordinary occasion. *
*
As has already been described, the Indian Corps involved in the heavy fighting just before Christmas were being gradually withdrawn, but there were still some Indian units in the line at Christmas. How did they react when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by the sounds and trappings of a North European religious festival?
The
1/39 and 2/39 Royal
southeast of the village of
Garhwal
Neuve
Christmas Eve. Despite the hard
rumour had
it
that the
Rifles
Chapelle. frost,
all
the water they
pumped
in shallow,
waterlogged trenches
a particularly pleasant
water continued to flow into their trenches;
Germans were using
a
lines into those of the lower-lying Indians.
hosepipe;
were
They had not had hosepipe to In
fact, the
pump
the water from their
Germans did not need
out of their trenches ran naturally
down
a
a ditch
alongside the main Estaires-La Bassee road into those of the unfortunate Garhwalis
and the adjacent battalions of 24th Brigade. Fifty to sixty yards
away across
Freiherr von Sparr) Regiment of sian
Army. Among
No Man's Land was
VII
their officers, in acting
Stennes, who, though only 19, was
known
command of 6th Company, was Walther to his men as 'der Alte' - 'the Old Man'
- because of his reputation as a consistently brave his
the i6th (3rd Westphalian,
Corps, a distinguished regiment of the Prus-
and tenacious
fighter,
and despite
extremely boyish looks. In his account of Christmas Eve he wrote:
The
activities
on both
sides died
received mail, parcels and
down and
some Xmas
after nightfall ceased completely.
trees
[79]
from home. The choir of
We
had
my company
Christmas Eve
tuned up some Xmas-songs. Temperature about freezing point. sentries
and warned them
talking, eating, reading
Beyond
to be
... I
had inspected the
on guard. In the dugouts the men were awake,
gaily
and playing games.
the two lines of wire the Indians were watching and listening. But what
caught their attention more than anything else were the'lightefl Christmas trees which, as elsewhere, the Germans put in rows along their parapets. Far from seeming
and strange, the flickering lights had a very familiar look. The Divali or Dipavali festival is one of the most important of the Hindu year. Originally a fertility festival, it is more generally dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi, giver of wealth. It exotic
lasts five
days,
on the fourth of which
earthen bowls
little
filled
with
oil
are lighted
up in extended rows inside and outside the houses. The word Dipavali, in fact, means 'a row of lights'. So the Germans celebrated and the Indians looked on and were reminded of home. in the
evening and
set
*
What
of the French and Belgians on Christmas Eve?
The just
One
Belgians in
December 1914 held only
a small section of the front,
from
south of Nieuport on the Channel coast to the northern end of the Ypres Salient. Belgian soldier's account which was quoted shortly afterwards in the British
newspapers spoke of being heard and
house
severe cannonade' on Christmas Eve, and of confessions
communion administered
being nothing
- there
seemed
'a
left
in the
dark and wretched cellar of a ruined
of the local church except part of the tower.
to be living again at the time of the catacombs',
forget the touching ceremony,
when amid
he wrote. 'Never
the roar of the guns
I
'We
shall I
communion on
took
Christmas Eve.' Thereafter he returned to the line to spend Christmas there. Christmas
in the trenches! It
have spent
it
there,
must have been
and the recollection of
it
sad,
do you say? Well,
will ever
I
am
not sorry to
be one of imperishable beauty. At
The and when hymn finished applause broke out from our side cannonade roared, and the - from the German trenches! The Germans too, were celebrating Christmas, and we
midnight
a baritone
stood up and in a rich resonant voice sang 'Minuit, Chretiens'.
could hear them singing 200 yards away from us.
On the next day,
in fact, there would be fraternization in this area. There was much emotion at these midnight services, with their traditional and well-loved hymns. Robert de Wilde, Captain Commandant of the Belgian Artillery,
[80]
Christmas Eve
described in his Journal de Campagne a mass held in an improvised sanctuary at
Pervyse in the vicinity of the front Hne.
It
was freezing. The
stars
were shining superbly and the horizon was ht by multiple
blue rockets launched from the
The side,
German
floor of a barn, with
trenches.
huge double doors
its
draughts everywhere - that was the chapel.
in bottles - that
The
was the
soldiers
for
background, straw on every
A wooden
and two candles stuck
table
altar.
were singing.
It
was unreal, sublime. They were singing: 'Minuit,
all the songs we used to sing when we were little. The Christmases of long ago were coming to life again, all the things we had known in our childhood, the family, the countryside, the fireside, our eyes dazzled by the tree with its sparkling candles, all the things we now relive in our
Chretiens', 'Adeste fideles', 'Les anges de nos campagnes',
children.
The French were
to hold
by
held over four hundred miles of the front at this time and, indeed,
far the greater part of the line
throughout the war - though there
were long stretches where there was to be no serious fighting
at all.
In those there
as usual on 24 December, with the normal midnight services though peace had never been disrupted; in the more active sectors, as in the case
was no doubt Christmas as
of the British, there were areas of tension and others of remarkable and poignant
calm.
At one point, a French
officer
of the
line,
Capitaine Rimbault, sang carols with
his lieutenants; then to cries of 'Vive la France!', they
dark, he gathered his
men
precious candles, keeping
They
are
all
there,
drank champagne. Later, after
together in the middle of a wood, where they
them low
around me,
their hands, filled with the
Boches were not
since the
my
brave soldiers!
They have
good wine of the Meuse. And
I
their
lit
few
away.
far
their drinking
speak to them
... I
mugs
in
speak to
them of Christmas, of the war, of
their
difference of age or rank, there
only a brother speaking to his brothers, wishing them
a
is
There
homes, of our hopes
is
no longer any
good and gallant Christmas! At midnight, we held
a
mass,
fifty
metres from the Boches, in the trenches.
colour lieutenant [lieutenant porte-drapeau] said
makeshift
altar;
from the nearby
village,
it
for us.
abandoned and
We
had fixed up
in ruins,
we had
A
a sort of
fetched a few
candle-holders, a missal, a pyx, an altar-cloth. Debris from the forest supplied the rest.
The men
sang their carols, carols from their villages, from their childhood
peace and gentleness which, coming from those rough strife
and
lips,
seemed more
.
.
.
like
carols of
songs of
battle.
Throughout the whole ceremony, the Boches [81]
-
Bavarian Catholics - did not
fire
Christmas Eve
God
For an instant the
a single shot.
of goodwill was once more master of this corner
of earth.
The
Wiirttembergers of the 246th Reserve J^egiment of Infantry were opposite
Wood
the French at Polygon
near Ypres, scene of
they waited for
not come. Rifies Is
it
much
hard fighting already and th^ evening of 24 December the usual 'evening blessing' of artillery fire from the French. It did
where there would be much hard fighting at the ready,
On
again.
they prepared for a surprise attack. Nothing happened.
possible? Are the French really going to leave us in peace today, Christmas Eve?
Then
- listen -
from across the way came the sound of
the quiet of the night. Is
sense of security? all
Or
is it
it
our imagination or
in fact the victory of
kept on our guard; only our thoughts flew
Where
German 212th Reserve
the
is it
to our wives
A
French
included in the
officer
German Regiment's
tremor of fear
a
listening in
to lull us into a false
human
all
conflict?
We
and children.
was the turn of the French to described what took place in an account which was later official history.
there were lighted Christmas trees and as the officer felt
still,
Infantry Regiment were stationed to the
north of Ypres, the singing was from their side and listen.
maybe meant
God's love over
home
A Frenchman
a festive song.
singing a Christmas carol with a marvellous tenor voice. Everyone lay
as
it
Here
many
as at so
Germans began
he realized that the voices
other points
to sing the
now
French
ringing out with
Christmas hymns had sung patriotic songs before the terrible attack at Bixschoote October. 'One can imagine what coarse jibes and insults would have been hurled
in at
The French deduced that one man, a soloist, was marching unseen along the whole German front, being answered whenever he stopped singing by hundreds of German voices taking up the chorus. the singers at any other time. But that
is all
changed.'
I look at our side. Everyone is up and awake, they have all climbed up onto the parapet: some have even left the trench and gone into No Man's Land, just to be able to hear more clearly this unexpected concert! No one is angry and no one is poking fun. Rather
there
is
a feeling
near me. sector
And
of regret which shows
yet
it
would be
and everything would go
would commit the
Bang!
A
and attitudes of those standing one salvo from our
to this scene:
any normal night here. But no one
sacrilege of shooting at these soldiers at prayer.
when one can forget doing our duty a moment later.
Oh
end
quiet, as quiet as
are certain times
us
itself in the faces
so easy to put an
that
one
is
here to
kill.
Not
We
feel that there
that that
would stop
shot has been fired.
the folly of that bullet which has torn the air apart and perhaps reached
target. All at
once the singing stops.
No [82]
cries,
its
no curses, no complaints are heard.
Christmas Eve
Someone down
We
will
way.
There are is
there thought he was doing good by aiming at that man.
would have been
It
a
more noble thing
several accounts in
which
The Lady told such a story
to have held our
a striking solo voice,
described as playing a memorable
I
What
a pity.
have gained nothing by stopping them from celebrating Christmas in their
A
role.
in its edition of
own
fire.
from one side or the other,
correspondent of the British magazine
January 191 5:
heard that in the French trenches in the Argonne Forest the cold was intense, and,
whilst a spiritless fire was going
on
at intervals, a village
church
sounded the hour
bell
of midnight on Christmas Eve, whereupon a voice, clear and beautiful, was heard singing, 'Minuit, Chretiens, c'est I'heure solennelle\
Granier, of the Paris Opera. listening to that
moments
similar episode appears in the
son of the Kaiser, then
which had seen
region,
Christmas Eve he
them
And who do you
think the singer was?
French and German, forgot
troops,
wonderful tenor voice
of the guns, and for a few
A
The
lifted in
was peace.
all
memoirs of Crown Prince Wilhelm of
Commander
of the
German
throughout
fierce fighting
felt 'particularly
to fire whilst
harmonious sound above the snapping
drawn
my
to
Fifth
this first
Army
Prussia, the
Argonne
in the
winter of the war.
field-grey boys,' and decided to
On visit
in the front line.
I
spent the afternoon in the hutments of the Wiirttembergians with the 120th and 124th
Regiments. Thick snow lay on the hilltops above this Forest of the Dead.
howled
their
monotonous and hideous melody, and from time
was rent by the burst of a machine gun's drone of the trench mortar
shells.
very cheerful. Every dugout had
fire.
And
in
Christmas
tree,
shells
between, one could hear the dull
Nevertheless, the spirits of the its
The
time the sacred silence
to
and from
men were everywhere
all
directions
came the
sound of rough men's voices singing our exquisite old Christmas songs. Kirchhoff, the concert singer,
who was
attached to our Headquarters Staff for a
while as orderly officer, sang his Christmas songs on that same sacred evening in the front-line trenches of the 130th Regiment.
some French at last its
soldiers
who had climbed up
And on
the following day he told
their parapet,
he gave them an encore. Thus, amid the bitter
squalor, a Christmas song
had worked
a miracle
had continued
me
that
to applaud, until
of trench warfare, with
all
and thrown a bridge from man
to
realities
man.
But here and there the prevailing temper was concession to the season of goodwill.
was
in
German
A
distinctly violent, with
21 year old student-soldier,
minimal
Ludwig Finke,
trenches to the west of Roulers in Belgium, where his unit was
[83]
.
.
.
Christmas Eve
pinned down by intensive
artillery fire.
He
described the experience in a letter
written on 26 December.
Two
awful days came to an end on Christmas Eve.
behind
us.
I
a time, with
Nobody
starry sky.
hit
Many
was sent
had struck
believed that
off
my
my
we should
on the 23rd
We
hands folded round ever get
home
When whom I
to fetch rations.
dugout. Henn, the
man
with
had forty-eight hours of horror
my I
rifle, I
a|ain
sent a prayer
got back
shared
it,
we
he was when
I left
lost eight killed
The whole next to me.
him
a quarter of
an hour before, his
and 37 wounded out of 85!
of the 24th
we
lay in the
.
rifle
I
a direct
his arm.
.
.
.
to
sitting just
Altogether
.
Commander
.
the star-lit 'Holy Night', and our Christmas music was a horrible
last, at
2 o'clock,
and were upset by the awful
we were
rifle fire,
relieved.
rifle
The new
lot
just to the
bullets
and the bursting
had not been up before
so that everything got in a muddle.
the scoundrels over there did not attack.
Nearby,
He was
dugout, the Sergeant Platoon
blending of the screams of the wounded, the whistling of of shells. At
on
found that
.
We smoked unceasingly and counted the shots
Then came
to the
was dead, lying up
the waist in rainwater, his skull smashed, and a splinter in his back. as
up
.
north of Ypres
Thank God
^
at
Bixschoote, the
German 205th Reserve
Eve after a somewhat basic handing out of Iron Crosses. At a rest point en route
Infantry Regiment went up to the front on Christmas
Christmas service and
a
hundreds of troops spontaneously broke into the singing of there was a gruff 'to your
mas
rifles'
and they marched
off"
'Stille
to the trenches.
Nacht'.
Then
Their Christ-
was to be 'a continuous hail of French grenades'. Their regimental commented: 'On both the days of the Christmas festival the bloody game
'present'
history
continued'.
Gotthold von Rohden, another student-soldier, aged nineteen, was out
in
No
Man's Land on the night of Christmas Eve, in charge of a patrol, at Beaurains on the outskirts of Arras. The French were four hundred yards off and the Germans were more than usually wary, as there had been hints of a possible enemy attack. Taking advantage of a favourable fold of the ground, von Rohden and his six volunteer comrades succeeded in getting quite close to the French front line. In a letter home two days later recounting the event he reminded his family that while you were
happily around the glittering Christmas tree and the children
all sitting
were excitedly awaiting the removal of the snow-white sheets from the tables stacked and while you later spent the evening in harmony side by side, just with presents .
.
.
enjoying being together,
I
was busy crawling step by
[84]
step, all senses alert, listening for
Christmas Eve
the slightest sound, looking out for suspicious shadows, towards the enemy's trench. I
was
of making another
just thinking
discovered us.
The
first
move forward, when
the French finally
sharp shots rang out in the 'Silent Night'.
The Germans decided to withdraw but they were pursued by a spate of French bullets. One of their number was shot in the thigh and incapacitated. As the others made their escape von Rohden stayed with him, 'cradling his head, trying to give him comfort and courage', and the two men lay crouched in No Man's Land as a French patrol came out to search for them. They felt discovery was certain, but, as von Rohden put it, 'God had other things in mind for unlikely sound from the French trenches transformed the think
I
it
was because of
we were
this night that
of
From
the
On
German
across:
line
came the predictable reply. Huddled impromptu singing-match.
our side they sang Christmas songs in
at the
sang out loud into the night.
in
No Man's
Land, the
listened to the
songs. If
mice
now
'God Save the King', a Christmas hymn, soldier-songs. One 'You wanted to get to Paris, you will not get to Paris'.
'Marseillaise',
them shouted
two Germans
sudden eruption of
saved, for the French had obviously
attempted to celebrate the occasion with alcohol and
They sang
A
us'.
situation.
someone offered
full
harmony, then afterwards some national
a solo, the other side
as they listened to the
applauded.
The French
kept as quiet as
Christmas hymns which no doubt you were singing
at
home
same time.
The French
patrol lost interest
out to help the two
and withdrew. Eventually a stretcher-bearer came
Germans back
to their lines.
*
As
will
have been realized, such acts of camaraderie as occurred on the French and
Belgian sectors tended to take place at arm's length. Indeed, the French and Belgian troops did not mingle with the British.
The
Germans on anything
reasons are not hard to find.
To
like the
same
scale as the
allow the emotions associated with one
of the two greatest religious festivals of the Christian year to impose their the fighting zone was one thing:
Man's Land
to
for
meet Germans face
Frenchmen to face
was quite another.
orate Christmas was basically an aspect of the 'live
which the French
in particular
mood on
No commem-
- or Belgians - to walk out into
and
A
let live'
pause to
approach to war
at
were already proving themselves adept over large [85]
Christmas Eve
stretches of the
Western Front:
up
to fre-ternize, to strike
a friendly,
even jocular
would be to grant recognition to an enemy who had brutally seized French and Belgian territory and was holding not only land but also people in thrall. Moreover, for the French the wound had not been there just for five months, it had been there for over forty years, since the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. To have dreamed of retonqu^st and revenge for relationship,
and then, when the opportunity came,
so long
a particularly bitter
blow
to a nation
to
have
lost
more
territory
still,
was
which, a mere century or so before, had been
So there was on the whole, little temptation to think of by contrast, it was possible for an ardent French soldier to think of himself, as, in a very special way, part of the sacred, wounded, embattled soil of his much-loved country. As one French officer expressed it: 'The frontier is myself. My breast is the living boundary of France. If I pull back, it is France into which the enemy will break. With every step I advance I am enlarging la Patrie.' For such men to make friends with the Germans would have been an act the superpower of the
German
its
time.
as 'brother Boche';
of ultimate betrayal. Yet, there were to be a nvmiber of acts of fraternization on Christmas Day, and
some meetings between trenches did occur on Christmas Eve. the Daily
wounded French He
A
correspondent of
Telegraph reported one such episode following a conversation with a
said that
soldier
whom
he met some days after Christmas in a Paris hospital.
on the night of December 24 the French and Germans came out of their met halfway between them. They not only talked, exchanged
respective trenches and cigarettes &c, but also
danced together
The wounded Frenchman sequently refused to
fire
in rings.
also stated that the soldiers
on each other, and had
and replaced by other men. For the British and the Germans, the
to be
who had fraternized subremoved from the trenches
special sanction
imposed by the
fact of
homeland invaded - did not apply. Their sanctions were military le pays and patriotic and, under the powerful impact of Christmas, to a substantial extent they had been temporarily withdrawn. Many men went to sleep on the cold, moonlit night of 24/25 December 1914 curious and excited as to what might happen on the envahi - the
morrow.
[86]
FTER
the carol concerts, the cheers, applause and revelry of the
Day dawned
previous night, Christmas
An
unnaturally quiet and
still.
morning fog hid the opposing trenches in some areas of the and everywhere a layer of white hoar frost etched the landscape while, as on Christmas Eve, hard ground gave temporary relief from the squelching mud. Christmas Day hymns were sung in muted voices - unlike early
British sector,
those of the night before. officer in the
and
a great
'We
started with a service at 8
Queen's Westminster
many
Rifles, '3ft of straw
holes in the walls from shells.
Had
though the truce of the previous night was continued
am
in the barn',
wrote an
underneath, half the roof to sing the all
day,
hymn
off,
softly as,
we did not want
the
Deutschers to spot our headquarters.'
Mass
No
Rifleman Bernard Brookes of the same battalion had permission to go to 9 am at a nearby Church. It was very badly shelled and within range of enemy fire.
had been made to clear the wreckage, as this would have been fraught with danger. But a priest had come from Armentieres to minister to the few people who were still living in the district. 'In this Church which would hold about 300', wrote effort
Brookes, 'there were some 30 people, and
unique service, and during only one
who was
was being
At
I
a short address
was the only which the
not crying, and that because
I
soldier. It
was indeed
a
was about the did not understand much of what Priest gave
I
said.'
a billet village at the
northern end of the British sector, a service planned to
be held in the school had to take place in the open large congregation. 'like glass'
The Chaplain who was due
and he had great
difficulty in
air
to take
because of the unexpectedly it
was
late as the
keeping his horse on
its feet,
roads were so that the
journey took twice as long as he had anticipated. As he approached the village he
could hear
'a
noise like thunder' as the waiting
[87]
men stamped
their boots
on the
London
Rifle Brigade church
trenches. There
is still
parade early Christmas morning for companies not
a thick mist, and the field
Stones of the schoolyard trying to keep
On my
arrival the
is
warm.
stamping ceased and we
at
once began the service - Scottish Borderers
and Yorkshire Light Infantry, most of them were officers
and men joined
inspiring.
My
that influence
in front-line
white with frost
in the singing
- and, in spite of the cold,
both
with a zest and heartiness which was most
address was of necessity brief, but throughout the whole service there was
which
it is
the preacher's joy to
feel.
At the front Second Lieutenant Bairnsfather awoke in a particularly thoughtful mood, much affected by the events of the night before. Hate, war, and discomfort seemed entirely alien on this Christmas morning, and the spirit of Christmas seemed [88]
Christmas
to
be especially potent. For a was
It
moment he indulged
day for peace
just the sort of
Day
to
in a typical soldier's fantasy:
be declared.
would have made such
It
a
good
finale. I
should have liked to have suddenly heard an immense siren blowing. Everybody
to stop
and say 'What was
running across the frozen with a wire! -
In fact
He hands
it
that?' Siren
mud
to
me. With trembling fingers
George, R.I.' Cheers! But no,
it
was more than
trenches a
little later
blowing again: appearance of
and waving something.
it
was
He I
open
it:
was
all.
a nice, fine day, that
that as he soon realized, for as he
he suddenly became aware of
parapet in a most reckless
way and
that
some of
a small figure
gets closer - a telegraph
'War
off,
return
boy
home
was walking through the
German heads showing over their his own Tommies were following
suit.
In less time than
it
takes to
half a dozen or so of each of the belligerents
tell,
outside their trenches and were advancing towards each other in
No Man's
were
Land.
Bairnsfather later congratulated himself on having been present at the point of the line
where Christmas Day fraternization took
widespread Indeed,
it
it
was nor
in
was possible
how many
place, evidently not realizing
how
other areas similar scenes were being enacted.
for a battalion to be completely
unaware
whether
as to
its
near-neighbours were or were not taking part in a truce, so that what happened on
Christmas line,
Day was
not, so to speak, a contagion of goodwill spreading along the
but a series of individual
times.
That
this
so
is
relations with the
is
initiatives at a very considerable
number of places and
underlined by the great variety of ways in which friendly
Germans were
on Christmas
established - or re-established -
morning. Here a board would appear with 'Merry Christmas' written on the message might be a
more
Devons, who saw a board hoisted up with the words 'You no
many
Christmas greetings were shouted across in ceasefire or invitations to
it;
elsewhere
specific bid for a ceasefire, as in the case of the 2/
come out
or
come
fight,
areas, followed
we no
by
fight'.
offers of a
over. Saxons hoping for a truce
some-
times played on their presumed kinship with their British enemy: a i/Leicester
Tommy
remembers
we are we won't fire.' Opposite the 2/ German officer emerging with a white
a voice saying in clear English, 'Hello there, hello there,
Saxons, you are Anglo-Saxons. If you don't
fire,
Border Regiment the process started with
a
At other points friendly waves as the Some Queen's Westminsters, for example,
early fog lifted provided the first
flag.
tried the
the trench, waving, then jumping back in again;
when no
shots were fired they
bolder and began to edge forward beyond their barbed wire.
[89]
move.
experiment of climbing out of
On
grew
the front held by
Christmas
Day
the 2/Wiltshires, the fog cleared abruptly to reveal
walking
in
open ground trying
junior officer
who
to exercise or
men on both
sides
running or
keep warm. 'They waved', wrote
witnessed the scene, 'and our
men waved
back; after
a
was
all it
Soon the Germans opposite. to us and our men were meeting in Man's Land.' Another subaltern stated in his account that having received orders on Christmas morning not to shoot unless it was absolutely necessary 'this injunction seemed to "wireless" itself across to the Germans, for they stopped sniping altogether, and an unearthly stillness reigned over the scene'; in a short time the entire personnel of the rival trenches were standing on their respective parapets waving and shouting to each other. 'I need hardly tell you', the subaltern added, 'what a relief it was to everyone; it was not war, but it was certainly magnificent.' In the words of an Old Contemptible: 'It became evident that both sides had inexplicably decided to honour the Season of Goodwill'. Most British accounts suggest that it was the Germans who made the first overtures on Christmas morning, just as the previous night they had led the way with the Christmas trees and carol singing. On the other hand, some German reports give the honour to the British. One German soldier wrote in a contemporary letter: Christmas Day.
.
.
.
No
Suddenly from the enemy hurrahing was heard and, surprised, we came from our mouse-holes and saw the English advancing towards them, and therefore we knew
it
us. ...
They had no
could only be a greeting and that
it
was
with
rifles
all right.
We
advanced towards them about halfway.
Another
soldier's letter states quite unequivocally:
At about 9
came
am on
Christmas day an English
officer,
accompanied by two of
his
men,
across and asked for a ceasefire until midnight to bury the dead. This was willingly
granted.
In the case of the 133rd Saxon Regiment, however, according to
Hugo Klemm,
the initiative was definitely German, the prime mover being an NCO acting on a personal impulse. At dawn the Germans became aware of heads appearing everywhere along the parapets of the British lines, as the Tommies peered warily out into No Man's Land. Someone was needed to break the ice.
A
non-commissioned
officer
from our own company decided
into the area between the trenches.
An Englishman came
to take a Christmas tree
forwards towards him despite
the shouts of warning from his friends, which did not prevent
him from shaking hands
with the enemy. After this had happened and the Englishman had returned safely to his
[90]
Christmas
lines, his
In this as in
was
relations
Day
comrades applauded the magnanimity of the Germans.
many
instances, the
task following the establishing of friendly
first
Klemm's account
lain
No
continues:
was then possible
It
who had
some of which were Man's Land for weeks.
to dispose of the decaying bodies of the dead,
victims of the recent fighting while others had lain out in
to take note of
between the two
many
fallen
German and
comrades, both
under a blanket of snow, the
lines
English,
result of a battle of the
of
November between Jager from our Corps and the English. So in the grey light dawn our platoon commander Lieutenant Grosse met an English officer and agreed
to
bury the dead behind the two
previous
The mas
lines if the higher authorities
who had ordered
Brigade
officer of the Rifle
trees the previous night
the shooting
and had thoroughly disapproved of
going out to meet the enemy,
now found
Germans but
them
collaborating with
were mainly allayed by
gave their assent.
down
himself not only conversing with the
in the burial of the dead,
his discovery that his
though
out,
and
as
soon
as
his suspicions
opponents were not Prussians, for
whom the British reserved their greatest animosity, but the more genial The Germans came
of Christ-
his fellow officers
we saw they were Saxons
I
Saxons.
knew
it
was
because they're good fellows on the whole and play the game as far as they
The officer came Germans lying in do.
We
out;
we
gravely saluted each other, and
I
all right,
know
it.
then pointed to nine dead
midfield and suggested burying them, which both sides proceeded to
won them
over,
enemies working together to sort out and bury the
men
gave them some wooden crosses for them, which completely
and soon the men were on the best of terms and laughing.
It
was
a curious situation -
they had jointly killed, a
few weeks before.
It
men was
a
with
whom
they had marched side by side to war just
grim business
too, as the
freedom of
No Man's Land
revealed sights which had not been visible from the limited vision of the trenches.
In front of the Queen's Westminster Rifles was a ploughed
which ran
field,
down
about four feet wide and four feet deep.
the centre of
When
Rifleman P.H. Jones, going out to fraternize with the enemy, reached this ditch, he realized that it was 'simply packed with dead Germans. Their faces, brown and leather-like, a large ditch,
with deep sunken cheeks, and eyebrows frozen clear water.' 'It
was
a ghastly sight',
ranks' of a group of dead
Tommies
stiff,
stared
up horribly through the
wrote a subaltern, after scanning the 'dreadful laid
recognize someone he knew. 'They lay
out for burial, and fearing at every step to
stiffly
[91]
in contorted attitudes, dirty with frozen
Christmas
Day
mud and powdered with rime.' Up and down the Hnes the Armes of
their trenches after Reveille
2/Bedfordshires, a
white
flag to ask
shires, sat
on
burials \Vere carried out. As agreed with Captain Germans opposite despatched a burial party from and some of the British went out to help. Opposite the
the i/North Staffs, the
who
German
officer
and two men, unarmed, emerged
at this
it
am
with a
many Germans
time were confined to their trenches, noted that
their parapets
watching as the work went on. At Ploegsteert
Somerset Light Infantry met some German
and
at lo
permission to bury their dead. This was ^reed;^and the Bedford-
officers
was arranged that the Somersets would bring
officers of the i/
halfway between the trenches in their
dead for burial
in their
own battalion cemetery. The Somersets' War Diary noted: 'The bodies of Capt. Maud, Capt. Orr and 2/Lt Henson were brought in, also those of i8 NCOs and men. They were buried the same day.' The cemetery was a peaceful enclave some way back from the line in Ploegsteert Wood; men from other battalions were similarly buried in quiet regimental cemeteries that Christmas-time.
many
There were
brief poignant services as the bodies were interred.
But the most memorable services that day were those sides took part
One
in
which men of both
and men of both nations were buried.
joint burial service
which made
a lasting impression
on the participants
took place to the southwest of Fleurbaix, in a waterlogged cabbage patch near the Sailly-Fromelles road - at the scene of the attack by the 2/Scots Guards and 2/
Border of 20th Brigade on the night of 18/19 December. Early on Christmas Day, Rev.
J.
Esslemont Adams, Chaplain of the Gordon
Highlanders in the same Brigade and Minister of the West United Free Church,
Aberdeen, carried out
had been
killed
a burial service
by sniper
fire
behind the
lines for
one of the 6/Gordons who
the previous day. Subsequently, he accompanied the
commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel McLean, on his daily tour of inspection. As they made their way through the trenches, they saw some of their men clambering out and talking with the enemy. Colonel the
men
to
come down,
McLean
further along were standing on the top and that their side
and gazing peacefully this was an
Adams realized that dead who had been
ran along the front Hne and ordered
but they ignored his instructions, pointing out that others 'a
number of the enemy were out on
across'. Swiftly taking in the situation,
Esslemont
ideal opportunity to arrange for the burial of the
beyond the wire since the previous week's attack: the Gordons had not been involved but they were now in trenches occupied at that time by the Scots Guards. He told the CO his intention, then climbed on to the fire-step and strode out into No Man's Land. On reaching a small ditch, which ran along the middle of the field between the lines, he held up his hands and called out to a group lying
[92]
No Man's Land by the willow-lined stream near the Sailly-Fromelles road. Scene of 20th Brigade attack on iSj ig December.
Joint burial in
of Germans,
'I
want
German
English?' Several 'Yes!
Come
to speak to
over the ditch.'
man present and began
to
officers
your Commanding
were standing together,
The Chaplain
Does anyone speak and one of them said,
Officer.
hurried forward, saluted the senior Ger-
put his proposal to him and his
staff.
same moment a hare, disturbed by the unaccustomed activity in the field, burst into view and raced along between the lines. Germans and Scots, the latter with kilts ffying, gave furious chase and it was finally captured by the Germans. Adams and the German commander then resumed their 'parley' and the latter Almost
at the
agreed to the burial of the dead and that subsequently religious service: the
Adams should conduct
a short
23rd Psalm would be read and a prayer offered in both English
and German.
Throughout the morning the were intermingled and
task of collecting the dead
were carefully sorted out; the British were carried
Germans
line,
the
work
to dig the graves.
to the
The Adjutant
went on. The bodies
lay dotted over the sixty yards separating the lines.
German
side.
to the British side of the
They
halfway
Spades were brought and each side
set to
of the 2/Scots Guards, Captain Giles Loder, had led his batta-
December. On Christmas morning he was in the front-line trenches away to the right, and observed the activity going on opposite the Gordon Highlanders as the bodies were collected and the graves dug. So he climbed over the parapet and walked over the half-mile of open farmland to talk to the Germans and lion's attack
on
18
arrange burial for the Scots Guards killed in the same attack.
extremely pleasant and superior brand of
our dead to the halfway
line'.
German
officer,
There were twenty-nine [93]
He
spoke with 'an
who arranged
in all,
to bring all
most of them lying
Christmas
enemy
Day
Loder sorted through the bodies, collecting the personal discs. 'It waS heartrending', he wrote later that day in the battalion War Diary, 'to see some of the chaps one knew so well, and who had started out in such good spirits on December iBth, lying there dead, some with horrible wounds due to the explosive action of the high-velocity bullet at short range.' He detailed some men to bring in the rifles of his cofrirades^ but the Germans demurred at this; indeed, all rifles lying on their side of the halfway line they kept close to the effects,
wire.
paybooks and identity
as spoils of war.
From
his conversations with the
had happened
to his fellow officers
Germans, he was
also able to find out
who had been found
what
missing after the attack.
Very severely wounded, they had been amongst those seen by Lieutenant Hulse being dragged into the German trenches. One, Lieutenant The Hon. F. HanburyTracy, had died after two days in the
and had been buried
local hospital
in the
German cemetery at Fromelles. Another officer whom the Germans had been unable to name had also died and been buried: from his description the Scotsmen were able to
him
identify
Braves,
Lieutenant Nugent. Most of this information came from a
as
French-speaking c'est bien
officer,
who
kept on pointing to the British dead and saying, 'Les
dommage'. Loder gained the impression that they were treating
their British prisoners well
and had done
all
they could for the wounded.
Altogether about a hundred bodies were gathered for burial, and there then took place what must surely have been one of the most moving and memorable services of the war. 19 year old
Second Lieutenant Arthur Pelham Burn, of the
Gordon Highlanders, who intended the participants.
He
described the event in a letter to an old Lancing schoolfriend.
Burying the dead was 'awful, too awful
ceremony
We
6/
Anglican ministry, was among
to train for the
that followed
was
to describe so
I
won't attempt
it',
but the
different.
then had a most wonderful joint burial service. Our Padre
.
.
.
arranged the prayers
German. They were read first in and psalm etc. was studying for the ministry. who German by a boy and then in our Padre English by It was an extraordinary and most wonderful sight. The Germans formed up on one and an interpreter wrote them out
side, the
think
it
English on the other, the officers standing in front, every head bared. Yes,
was
a sight
one
will
I
never see again.
Standing between the ranks of British and
Adams spoke
in
German
officers.
Chaplain Esslemont
the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm, and in the cold, clear air they
were echoed by the young Saxon divinity student by [94]
his side.
Christmas
Day
The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. Derr Herr
is
mein
Hirt: mir wird nichts mangeln.
Er weidet mich auf einer griinen Aue:
und
As the
came
service
to
mich zum frischen Wasser.
fiihrt
and bade him
farewell. 'It
6/Gordons recorded,
and
reverent,
for the
moment of silence, then the Chaplain German commander, who shook hands with him
an end there was a
stepped forward and saluted the
was an impressive and men,
'officers
moment
sight', the
bitter
Regimental History of the
enemies as they were, uncovered,
united in offering for their dead the
last offices
of
homage and honour.' Reporting
all this
mother, Hulse commented:
in his letter to his
This episode was the sadder side of
Xmas Day,
whom
collect [the dead], as their relations, to will
but
it
was
a great thing
being able to
of course they had been reported missing,
be put out of suspense and hoping they are prisoners.
Hulse also remarked that the Germans they had been dealing with were mostly 158th
Regiment and feeling of
War Diary, Both
Jagers: 'the
men we had
temporary friendship,
I
attacked on the night of the i8th.
suppose.'
Summing up
Hence
the
the episode in the battalion
Captain Loder wrote:
sides have played the
game and
I
know
this
Regiment anyhow has
learnt to trust
an Englishman's word.
But not
all
the participants took Loder's charitable view. Private Alexander Runcie
of the 6/Gordon Highlanders,
who had
witnessed the joint burial and subsequently
exchanged souvenirs with the Germans, recalled that one of our
and added
men on 'I
the
way back from
*
The
joint burial service at
mas Day; but
fraternizing
showed me
a
dagger he had hidden
don't trust these bastards'.
at the
*
*
Fleurbaix was the greatest occasion of
other end of the scale there were
[95]
some
its
kind on Christ-
burial ceremonies
no
less
Christmas
Day
moving because they concerned only one or two men. Captain Josef Sewald of the 17th Bavarian Regiment recalled being approached by a British officer with a special request:
An
who had been killed the previous 'Why nt)t? - of course you can do him on the ground, and we all laid a handful
English lieutenant said there was a comrade
afternoon, and they wished to bury this man. it',
and so they brought the dead man,
of earth
laid
I
said
upon him and together prayed the Lord's Prayer: 'Voter
unser, der
du
hist
im
Himmel, Geheiligt werde dein Name'.
As
German and
Fleurbaix
at
North of Ploegsteert lines',
was
Wood
'there
own
present
language.
were two dead Frenchmen between our
wrote Corporal Robert Renton of the Seaforth Highlanders, 'and the Germans
helped us to dig the grave. It
man
British voices echoed each other, each
speaking the familiar words of the 'Our Father' in his
a sight
One
of the officers held a service over one of the graves.
worth seeing, and one not
easily forgotten,
both Germans and British
paying respects to the French dead.'
At Bois Grenier seven stretcher bearers,
all
wearing Red"Cross armlets, were
allowed by the Germans to come out and bury some dead of the 2/West Yorks
had been lying behind the German
who
Taking advantage of the ceasefire. Sergeant Self of the same battalion, working entirely on his own, buried a comrade of his in a grave some four yards behind the front line. This
in full
view of the
a shallow grave,
and
German
a small
lines.
front line -
wooden
cross.
no mourners
The
-
no chaplain
task finished
I
- just myself,
jumped down
into our
trench thankful that Fritz had kept faith to the truce.
memory of Christmas Day was of the unaccustomed silence was uncanny'. For once, natural sounds, normally drowned in
Sergeant Selfs particular -
'it
was so quiet
the crackle and
-
it
boom
of guns, could be clearly heard.
There were no planes overhead, no observation balloons, no bombs, no fore no snipers, just an occasional lark overhead.
rifle fire,
there-
Lieutenant Hulse remarked on the same phenomenon:
The
silence
arrive,
seemed extraordinary
and we hardly ever see
sparrows outside
my
after the usual din.
From
all
a bird generally. Later in the
dugout, which shows
how complete
[96]
sides birds
day
the silence
I
seemed
fed about
and quiet was.
to
fifty
Christmas
Private
I
Tapp
Day
too was struck by the sudden absence of the cacophony of war:
miss the sounds of the shots flying over,
it is
which has stopped
like a clock
ticking.
But there were other sounds instead, and unfamiliar sights that were totally incompatible with the normal world of the trenches as, in the words of one participant, both sides met in that
'soldiers of
talking, gesticulating, side' to
Christmas
strip of
Day
to celebrate
There
is
if,
as
Hulse put
war met together
it,
also
No Man's
there was
'a
Land, sadder
opposite, as
its
in friendship
men
and good
own highly individual fashion. men who took part realized that they were
Christmas in their
no doubt that many
something quite unusual and that they were sharing
would only be able
was
in the burial of the dead, there
trained and committed to unremitting
humour
God-forsaken earth called
and shaking hands'. For
in
doing
an experience which they
to describe in superlative terms. It was, wrote Sergeant A. Lovell
of 3/Rifle Brigade, 'the most wonderful day on record'. 'On Christmas Day', wrote
Corporal T.B. Watson of the Royal Scots Territorials, 'the greatest thing took place here.'
'The most extraordinary celebration of [Christmas] any of us
perience', wrote a subaltern quoted in the Daily Telegraph.
experiences of
my
life
shires told his parents.
was how
it
seemed
he added that
it
will ever ex-
had one of the greatest
on Christmas Day', Private C. Hunter of the 2/Monmouth'The funniest and most amusing Christmas
I
have ever spent'
Rifleman J.T. Griffiths of the Queen's Westminster Rifles, and 'would have made a good chapter in Dickens's Christmas Carol.' to
Writing on Christmas
Day
itself.
Highlanders told his mother: sights that
'I
anyone has ever
'I
Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater of the 6/Gordon think
seen'.
I
have seen one of the most extraordinary
A German
amazement: 'The way we spent Christmas
expressed his reaction with similar
in the trenches
sounds almost
like a fairy
tale.'
Men 'Just
you
were frequently struck by the sheer incongruity of what they were doing.
think',
wrote Oswald Tilley of the London Rifle Brigade to his father and
mother, 'that while you were eating your turkey
hands with the very
men
I
had been trying
astounding!' 'You will hardly credit this, but
etc., I
was out talking and shaking few hours before!! It was
to kill a
it is
the truth', wrote Private Calder of
Germans] and going over to wish them a merry Christmas! I don't think it has happened in the world's history before. You would have thought that peace had been declared.' 'The whole thing is extraordithe 6/Gordons: 'fancy shooting at [the
Armes of the i/North Staff's, as he continued the letter he had begun the previous night, 'the men were all so natural and friendly.' In his letter Oswald Tilley wrote: 'This experience has been the most practical demonstration I
nary', wrote Captain
[97]
Christmas
Day
have seen of "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men".' 'It
a
was
a Christmas celebration in keeping with the
memory which
will stay
A German
soldier wrote
command "Peace on
earth" and
with us always.'
Indeed, the animosities which propagandists and politicians had sought to
seem
in their soldiers
tried to explain',
have suddenly faded away -
wrote Leslie Walkinton,
reported that 'the stated that 'there
to
'that
if
we bore
instil
'We
only for the time being.
no*malice\' Bernard Brookes
Germans have no bitter feelings towards us'. Bruce Bairnsfather was not an atom of hate on either side that day'. Dougan Chater,
well aware of the context of international mistrust in which the truce was taking
commented: 'It is really very extraordinary that this sort of thing should happen in a war in which there is so much bitterness and ill-feeling'. Describing the event many years afterwards, the German Josef Sewald recalled: 'There was laughter and joy as if there had never been any hostility between these thousands of young place,
men'.
would be wrong
It
to
imply that the crimes of which the
German
armies stood
accused were entirely forgotten, but the blame was usually fixed elsewhere; in particular the
Saxons were assumed
the Prussian soldiery or on the
to
have had no hand in excesses blamed either on
German
leadership.
when enemies
Indeed, predictably, propaganda had far outstripped reality and
met
face to face they
found that they were not only human but
likeable.
Lieutenant Hulse was scathing about some of the Germans
-
fat
'podgy
bourgeois', was his description of two officers with
to converse, 'looking very red
and
full
on the whole,
also,
whom
whom
he met
he attempted
of sausage and beer and wine, and
.
.
.
not
very friendly', while Bairnsfather, perhaps with more wit than actual malice, referred to the
Germans whom he encountered
as 'sausage-eating wretches'
unimaginative products of perverse kultur'. But the
many
Germans much more amiable than they would
and
as 'faded,
other British soldiers found
ever have imagined. 'They seem
Berryman of the must say some of them are very nice fellows', commented a piper of the Scots Guards, 'and did not show any hatred, which makes me think they are forced to fight.' 'We found them to be quite a gentlemanly lot of chaps', wrote a soldier of the Rifle Brigade. 'They seem decent fellows', wrote Private Tapp, quite friendly and genuine', was the opinion of Captain E.R.P.
Royal Garhwal
but he
later
shouldn't
if
Rifles. 'I
added:
'I
cannot bring myself to shake hands with them, as
they were in our coimtry,
I
have not forgotten Belgium and
I
I
know
I
never did
word German.' Yet whatever doubts and disclaimers there might have been, there was, in general, an amazing spirit of goodwill among the crowds of men swarming out from like the
the trenches to fraternize. Barely ten minutes after the
[98]
first
approach from the
Christmas
German
side,
Dougan
according to
Chater, 'the ground between the two lines of
men and
trenches was swarming with
Day
both
officers of
sides,
shaking hands and
Graham WilHams and Germans laughing
wishing each other a happy Christmas'. 'No Man's Land', wrote
London
of the
Rifle Brigade, 'was full of parties of British
and talking together.' 'By breakfast
time', wrote a junior officer of the 6/Cheshires,
men were on the ground between the trenches, and were the greatest pals.' A German soldier perhaps put it most pointedly of all: 'We achieved what the Pope himself could not do and in the middle of the war we had a merry Christmas'. And all this was happening in the same seasonal weather as that of Christmas 'nearly
all
our
Eve. In most - though not
all -
Bruce Bairnsfather.
day', wrote
on Christmas cards
- the ideal
'It
was such a
Day
Christmas *
When morning came and
*
still
of fiction.' *
everyone climbed out of their trenches. Both sides shook hands
made peace and exchanged
with each other, briefly tea
morning fog dispersed quite quickly hard and white. 'It was a perfect day as is invariably depicted by artists
areas the early
The ground was
to reveal a cloudless blue sky.
cigarettes, etc,
gifts.
We
which the English had a-plenty. They
were given corned beef, were
for their part
mad
about our cigars.
So wrote the German soldier who described like a fairy tale.
Up
his
Christmas in the trenches as seeming
No Man's Land men
and down
were bearing
gifts to
the enemy,
with bully beef, Maconochie's stew, Tickler's jam, cake, biscuits, chocolate, cigarettes,
rum and Christmas puddings
offered by the British,
nuts, chocolates, sausages, sauerkraut, coffee, cognac, schnapps
fered by the soldier
Germans. Not
all
tea,
and cigars, sweets, and even wine of-
the British recipients were as convinced as the
German
quoted above of the excellence of German tobacco products: Lieutenant
Hulse's encounter with two given what he described as
'fat,
'a
bourgeois
officers'
was not improved by
very nasty cigar'. Others, however, were
his being
more favour-
ably impressed while, according to Lieutenant Charles Brewer, the fact that every
German whom he and well-filled cigar case
met seemed to be in possession of a amazed respect among some of his men.
his fellow Bedfordshires
produced
a reaction of
'Blimey', exclaimed one of the Bedfordshire sergeants,
*The
'it's
a millionaires' battalion!'*
Bedfordshires, in fact, had no need to feel overawed: cigars featured prominently among the German front and the Kaiser himself had given a present of cigars to every
'love-gifts' sent to the
German
soldier.
[99]
tuhtrt
L ^#hr
Co
%
wtf
urf
f1a^t(^u.l
a?vi
Men rich
on
\ n4Ninr ft du^ -OuT.
Iff
BRUCE BAIRNSFATHER AND THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE: His map (above),
his cartoon
(opposite
himself (opposite right)
left),
There was much cheerful banter
as all this
frequently assisted by the fact that not a few
went on, the proceedings being
Germans spoke
English. Hulse recorded
an amusing moment.
One
of our fellows offered a
German a cigarette: the German German said, 'No thanks, I
fellow said, 'Aye, straight-cut': the ... It
gave us
Many
all
a
said, 'Virginian?'
Our
only smoke Turkish'!
good laugh.
soldiers returned to their trenches later that day with their uniforms
[
lOO]
depleted of buttons, badges and other accoutrements. Indeed, according to
Williams of the
London
Rifle Brigade, this
certain black metal shoulder-titles to
was an
which he and
Graham
ideal opportunity to dispense with
his friends
had always taken great
exception. For one thing they were very uncomfortable to wear
when
carrying the
on the shoulder; for another they bore the legend '5th City of London' (the battalion's wartime description) as opposed to the letters 'LRB' of which these young Territorials were so proud. rifle
I
thought
it
would be
a
good idea
to get rid of these things, so
[lOl]
I
swapped them
for a
Christmas
German
very nice uns'
on
and
it,
I
leather
used that
equipment
all
Day
belt with brass buttons
and the words 'Gott mit
my trousers.
through the-rest of the war to keep up
Williams's account adds the amusing detail that the words 'Gott mit uns' ('God with us')
was taken by some Tommies
as confirmation that the
To
Wood
the north of Ploegsteert
Germans
really
were
'
'Huns', as maintained by the popular press. Private
Tapp was
also out giving
and ob-
taining souvenirs: he did well, getting two buttons and a cap-badge in return for one
button given away. Lieutenant Bairnsfather, strolling the same piece of
Land
as
I
Tapp, struck
I
We do
more equal
German
spotted a
collector,
a
officer,
No Man's
bargain.
some
intimated to him that
sort of lieutenant
had taken
I
a
I
should think and, being a
bit of a
fancy to some of his buttons.
both then said things to each other which neither understood, and agreed to
a swap.
brought out
I
of his buttons and put
my
them
wire-clippers and, with a few deft snips,
my
in
pocket.
I
removed
a couple
then gave him two of mine in exchange.
Some battalions forbade such lax treatment of regimental property. The Kensingtons, who had failed to respond to the German overtures the previous night, were now out in force in No Man's Land (though there had been a certain hesitation on the part of their
enemy
officers until they
saw the Royal
Irish Rifles to their right greeting
However, they were ordered 'to preserve the identity of the regiment by giving away no badges or buttons'. This somewhat restricted their capacity to barter, though in the end they managed to acquire some German insignia as well as a few odd bottles of schnapps. One of the most prized souvenirs was the German spiked helmet, the pickelhaube. This had been much worn in the early part of the war but a recent order had the
'in
the friendliest possible manner').
substituted the
much
German
Among
army.
less
picturesque pork-pie hat as the standard headgear of the
plum-and-apple so-called jam',
became
officially his
possession
LRB
man, bartering bully beef and 'Tickler's managed to acquire one of these, though before it
others an
it
was temporarily returned by
special request to
its
former owner.
The helmet officer'
Bullybif.
The
achieved fame as on the following day a voice called out 'want to speak to
and being met in I
No Man's Land
loan was
made and
my
continued 'yesterday
I
give
me and
I
bring
have grand inspection tomorrow.
You
the pact kept, sealed with
[102]
lend
some
extra bully!
it
hat for the
back
after.'
British non-commissioned officers with their souvenirs of the truce - a
German
song book, a
bayonet and several pickelhaubes
The Germans had
their eyes
on certain British items
our equipment', wrote Sergeant-Major
wanted us
to give
'An English
them our
soldier',
wrote
Naden
too.
'They greatly admired
of the 6/Cheshires, 'and especially
Other souvenirs were of
jack-knives.'
Hugo Klemm,
'gave
me
a cap
a
sadder nature.
badge belonging
to a
dead
friend.'
*
*
Some attempted 'parleys' were inevitably inhibited by the difficulties of language, many English-speaking Germans on hand only too happy to engage in friendly conversation with their British opponents. Rifleman Graham Williams was one of the relatively few German speakers on the British side; he was inevitably in great demand and was deep in conversation with some Germans when he was
but there were
suddenly accosted in the most English of accents.
As
I
was
talking, a
chap came up to me, and he actually greeted
[
103]
me
with the words
.
Christmas
'Watcha cock, how's London?' said, 'Well,
I
am
Londoner!'
a
I
I
Day
'Good Lord, you speak
said,
said, 'Well,
army?' and he said 'Well, I'm a German, I'm a
had been born
in
with his parents,
Germany, but had gone
like a
Londoner', and he
what on earth are you doing to
in the
German Londoner', and
German
apparently he
England almost immediately afterwards
End
of London somewhere, and Eng^nd. A» by German law he he'd never been naturalized - he had been called up to go
who had
a small business in the East
he'd been brought up in England and gone to school in still a German national Germany to do his national service: he had come back to London, joined
was
to
Station.
He
In similar style
told
me
all this.
Tommies
at
He
they did three years at that time. his parents
and got
spoke absolute Cockney!
And
was most extraordinary
It
.
.
various places conversed with a waiter from the Ritz, a
waiter from the Hotel Cecil, a waiter from
De
Keyset's Royal Hotel, Blackfriars, a
former head waiter of the Trocadero, a hairdresser from the Strand and
Birmingham who had
afterwards
a job as a porter at Victoria
a
chef from
when he was recalled to i/Royal Warwicks, who met the chef, added
wife and five children behind
left his
the colours. Sergeant Philpott of the
the following postscript to his account:
had restarted a voice came from the German line, 'Are you Any Brumagem lads there? I have a wife and five kids in Brumagem.' Our company wag who in civil life was a policeman called back 'Yes, mate, and if you don't get your head down there will be a widow and five orphans in Brumagem.' .
.
.
One day
after hostilities
the Warwicks?
A
soldier
from the same battalion found himself toasting
a particularly demonstrative
and friendly German:
I
had
rum oflF one He had worked
a drink of
my hand
off.
of the Saxons and then in
I
drank his health.
He
nearly shook
Birkenhead before the war.
For many men the shaking of an enemy hand was the most
striking
memory
of the
day.
Other Germans joined
command
in the general talk not
because they could offer any
of the language but because they wished to display their British connec-
tions. Private Field of the Buffs
One
small, grubby,
him
if
found himself approached by
and ill-shaven German, who had
a
few words of English.
he had ever been to England and he said 'no, but
England'. 'What
is
your business?'
I
asked, and
'exporters of mouth organs'.
[104]
I
I
am
clerk;
I
I
asked
business with
shrieked with joy as he gravely said
Christmas
Day
The
tone of conversation was usually peaceable and friendly, though sometimes there
was
a hint that
one side or the other was using the occasion to squeeze
A British subaltern wrote:
amount of military advantage. It
was most amusing
truthful
which they put questions,
to observe the bland innocence with
a
answer to which might have had unexpected consequences in the future. One
charming lieutenant of
waved
I
my
was most anxious
artillery
No
Cormorants', was situated. Willie'.
a certain
hand
doubt he wanted
to
know
over the next company's
airily
various mangel-heaps in the rear. wistful eyes in hopeless longing.
just
where
my
dugout, 'The
to shoot his card, tied to a 'Whistling line,
giving
him the choice of
They spoke of a bottle of champagne. We raised our They expressed astonishment, and said how pleased
they would have been, had they only known, to have sent to Lille for some. 'A charming
town,
Lille.
Do
you know
'Not
it?'
yet',
we
assured them. Their laughter was quite
frank that time.
Pleasantries suggesting that the other side
humoured
response.
NCO
One German business,
October
and
An
officer
I
a
good-
spoke to said he went to America two months every year on
learnt his English there.
to a lady in Chicago.
he could get married then.
Many men made
was on the run usually found
of the Queen's Westminster Rifles told his family:
He
I
told
He was
to have
been married on the 12th of
him we would have them
last
well licked by Easter, and
laughed.
a point of
keeping away from serious arguments about the
conduct or outcome of the war. 'Of course we didn't
talk
about
who was
going to
By
contrast.
win', wrote Rifleman Leslie Walkinton, 'or anything touchy like that.'
Lieutenant Hulse found himself in a relatively animated exchange early on Christmas set off" into No Man's Land to head off a group of four Germans who were advancing somewhat too purposefully towards the Scots Guards' lines. To
Day when he
begin with the conversation was amiable enough.
had only come out to
keep the
left a
me.
told I
night.
The Germans
explained that they
wish us a happy Christmas' and that they 'trusted us implicitly
Their spokesman added that he came from Suffolk where he had and a 3^ hp motorbike.
truce'.
girlfriend
He
'to
me
that he could not get a letter to the girl,
and wanted
to send
one through
made him write out a postcard in front of me, in English, and I sent I told him that she probably would not be a bit keen to see him again.
They then entered on
a
it
off that
wide-ranging discussion, in the course of which they agreed
[105]
Day
Christmas
that neither side should or did use the hated
disagree markedly
when
They howled with
shortly,
bullet,* but they
to
laughter at a D[aily] T[elegraph] of the loth which they had seen the
me
that
we
are being absolutely
misguided by our papers, that
done, Russia has received a series of very big l^ows,
is
began
they turned to the subject of the press.
day before, and told France
dum-dum
and that the only thing which
is
keeping the war going
jftid
climb
will
down
England! They
at all is
am sure. They think that our press is to blame in working up them by publishing false 'atrocity reports'. I told them of various sweet which I have seen for myself, and they told me of English prisoners whom
firmly believe
all this, I
feeling against little
cases
they have seen with soft-nosed bullets, and lead bullets with notches cut in the nose;
had
a heated,
each other that
same time, good-natured argument, and ended by hinting the other was lying!
and
at the
'Newspapers' was the only answer another British
German
disapproval of the treatment of
who had
NCOs
let his
to
could give in reply to
prisoners in concentration camps, which
was voiced by one extremely clean and smart private,
officer
we
unteroffizier.
'Another
little
beard grow and seemed on familiar terms with
fellow, a
the higher
all
joined in, and said, "Yes, the papers had been responsible for the whole
war!'"
The most
extraordinary 'news' was learnt by some astounded
Tommies. The
107th Saxons told the Queen's Westminster Rifles 'they were just outside Paris, line in closed railway carriages. They also believed Germans were occupying London.' One of them told Leslie Walkinton that Germans had seized Buckingham Palace, while some soldiers of 2/Border were
having been brought up to the that the
the
approached by a group of equally confident Germans:
The
first
thing they asked us was
asked them [sic]
and
hand.
who had And they
told
them
told
me
when
all this
are
you going
to give in
and they pointed
to a
you are
beat.
paper they had
point blank that they had troop reviewing in
also troops in Calais. Well,
me and my chum
could not help laughing
at
So we
in there
Hyde Park them. And
make it out. So I said to them, well, I must admit that London, but they are Prisoners of War. They would not take gave them the News of the World, and they thanked us and gave us
they looked at us and could not
you have got troops that, so
my Chum
a segar [sic] to
in
smoke.
which spread on impact causing particularly unpleasant injuries. Developed by the British arsenal in Calcutta), they were subsequently prohibited under the Hague Convention of 1902. A dum-dum effect could be achieved, however, by adapting bullets in general use, and this was almost certainly done in some instances by both the British and Germans during the First World War.
* Soft-nosed bullets
the British
(Dum Dum was
[106]
Mementoes of the Christmas S'lgncuVttfe
one
Truce
G-evmana
From
the
London
f 1
«r Iff
I
l» -t
album of Rifleman David Smith,
Rifle Brigade
«
Photograph of the 133rd Saxon Regiment's pre-war football team, given Christmas Eve in exchange for a tin of bully beef (see page yz)
[
107]
to
Lieutenant Ian Stewart on .
Christmas
Day
'London has been bombed by our Zepps', Norfolk Regt.
'I
a
German
don't say anything about Zepps being over London.
paper and
Peel, of i/
He
and that
you believe your
said well
believe mine.'
I'll
However, confidence
among
A.W.
told
said don't talk rot - I've'got a paper only a few days old
front-line soldiers,
in the
was
accuracy of the
all
official
but destoyed for
at
war news, already shaky leBst onk rifleman of the
Queen's Westminsters: After our talk
Of course
I
these
really think a lot of
our newspaper reports must be horribly exaggerated.
men were Saxons not
Prussians.
There were Germans too who felt they had not been told the truth. In a letter Lance Corporal Stephen Coy of the 6/Gordon Highlanders wrote:
to his parents
The Germans are 'fed up' with the war, and will not fire unless the British soldiers do. They admit they have been bluffed by the Kaiser, and say they were told the Germans had captured x6o guns from the Russians, but knew now that it was all lies. One fellow, who was a teacher in England when asked what he thought of the war, said - 'The war is
finished here.
Private C.
German
We don't want to shoot.'
Hunter of 2/Monmouthshires talked with
a similarly disaffected
- 'a
Nice chap who could speak English', with
whom
told
me he wished who had been
in France,
he conversed for two
hours.
He
student
England
last
it
in
August only
was
all
over, as he had had
England
for
for the war.
two years and
He
asked
enough of
me what we
were
it.
He was
a medical
and was coming
at
war
for,
and
I
to
told
He told me he had as many friends in England and Germany and asked why should he be fighting his friends and his friends be fighting him. He would much rather be having a game of football than this. He was only 20 years of age, but there were a lot of old men with them, and they were asking him so many questions to ask me. The first man I came to was an old man, and when we shook hands I thought he was not going to let my hand go. The tears came rolling down his cheeks, and I felt so sorry for him as he was so old, and wanted to go him he had
better ask 'Willum'.
France as he had
in
home.
Disillusioned soldiers on the British side were gratified to find that coincided with their
wrote in a
letter
German attitudes
own. Second Lieutenant F.H. Black of i/Royal Warwicks
of 31 December:
[108]
A German
soldier
showed
this
photograph
to
some Tommies on Christmas Day. One of the
is over, I would like to marry your eldest daughter, she is beautiful'. The German was delighted as the said 'eldest daughter' was his wife and the mother of the other two. He told this story on his return, and the whole family was much taken by the incident, which was recounted many times over the years.
British, a sergeant, looked at
The Germans until
we
it
a long time and said 'when the war
are just as tired of the
war
as
*
Inevitably
we
are,
&
said they should not fire again
did.
it
and promises
was
a
*
day of instant friendships, with
much exchanging
of addresses
and meet again after the war. Photographs were brought out and duly admired. One sergeant was so struck by a photograph of three women which a German showed him that he professed himself in love with one of them and vowed that he would go to Germany after the war and marry her. Captain Armes of to write
[109]
Christmas
met two small daughters: the i/'North Staffs
One I
a
Day
German who was much
taken by a photograph of Armes's
man, wanted so much a photo of Betty and Nancy in bed, which him as I had two: it seems he showed it all round, as several me afterwards about it. He gave me a photo^aph o* himself and family
fellow, a married
had, and
Germans
I
gave
told
it
taken the other day which he had just got.
But here and there
a
few jokes were played. Captain Maurice Mascall of the in a letter dated Christmas Day:
Royal Garrison Artillery wrote
Our gunners were
wildly excited
signed postcards, and one lives in
It is
when
man had
they came back. Several of
actually
promised
to write to a
them had acquired Herr Kartoffel who
Chemnitz.
an amusing speculation that
postal authorities in
message from unlikely
name
at some time in the following weeks or months the Saxony might have found themselves puzzled at receiving a
a British soldier addressed to an alleged resident of
of
'Mr
Chemnitz with the
Potato'. *
*
*
While these remarkable events were going on, there were other parts of the British front where there was no fraternization and no friendly communication of any kind between opposing lines. Evidence assembled from many sources suggests that the Christmas truce held - to a greater or lesser extent - over more than two-thirds of the British-held sector*; but elsewhere Christmas came and went leaving little trace. In the confined and blinkered world of the trenches, it was possible to be entirely unaware of what was happening
Thus many
to the next brigade -
even to the next battalion.
came to hear about it afterwards, or even never heard about it at all: hence the number of old soldiers who tended to dismiss it as a piece of romantic fiction. As late as 13 January 1915 Captain J.L. Jack units not involved in the truce only
of i/Cameronians,
who
kept a
full
diary throughout this whole period, referred, with
evident surprise, to what he called 'extraordinary stories of unofficial Christmas truces with the enemy', adding the categorical statement: 'There was no truce on the
front of
my
battalion.'
Yet
his
i/Cameronians were
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the 2/Royal * See
Appendix A.
[no]
in the
Welch
same brigade as the 2/ and the 5/Scottish
Fusiliers
Christmas
Day
some extent with the enemy. One highly relevant was opposite Prussians, whereas the others were opposite Saxons.* Certainly the Germans on his front made none of the friendly overtures which helped to launch the truce in so many other areas. As far as he was concerned 25 December was no different from any other date in the calendar, and he summed up Christmas 1914 with these grim words: Rifles, all of
factor
is
which fraternized
to
that Jack states that his battalion
So passes the to all
men'
Christinas of the War, far away from the original 'Peace and Goodwill
first
- or
is
the true message
'I
came not
to bring peace, but a
sword'?
In some other areas, especially where there had been very recent hard fighting, overtures were
Towards
made by
the
Germans only
to
be angrily rejected by the British.
Guards had had a most 25 December Major Jeffreys,
the southern end of the line, the 2/Grenadier
unpleasant Christmas Eve, with considerable losses.
second-in-command, noted At Daybreak
a
few Germans put their heads up and shouted 'Merry Xmas'. Our men,
after yesterday, a sniping
There was
On
in his diary:
were not feeling that way, and shot
match went on
all
at
them.
They
at
once replied and
day.
a similar rebuff at the
northern end of the sector in the territory of 3rd
Division, as recorded in the diary of Captain Billy Congreve.
We
have issued
strict
orders to the
men
have heard that they will probably try towards us singing. So we opened rapid
we They came over
not on any account to allow a 'truce', as to.
fire
The Germans on
to
did try.
them, which
is
the only sort of truce
they deserve.
Opposition to any offer of cease-fire or fraternization was not confined to certain hard-line, or hard-pressed, British.
wrote a strongly argued
officer
lished in The Times) in
made from
On
He was
some
Christmas Day, for example, a German
(which was subsequently translated and pub-
which he explained
the previous night. his purposes for
letter
his reasons for rejecting a British initiative
one who saw no reason to temporize or
to divert
transient festival.
seems that hard-line battalions on the German side were referred to automatically as Prussians whether they were in the strict sense of the term Prussians or not. The corps opposite Jack's Cameronians was a Saxon one, but as in the British army some units, even individuals, were more 'thrusting' than others. It seems also that soldiers from Saxony or Bavaria were prone to use the term Prussian to denote troops from any other state.
* It
[Ill]
Christmas
Gentlemen
-
You
Day
asked us yesterday temporarily to suspend
Such
friends during Christmas.
a proposal in the past
hostilities and to become would have been accepted with
when we have clearly recognized England's real make any such agreement. Although we do not doubt that you
pleasure, but at the present time, character, are
men
we
refuse to
of honour, yet every feeling of ours revolts against any friendly intercourse
towards the subjects of a nation which for years has, friendship of
all
in
underhand ways, sought the
other nations, so that with their help they might annihilate us; a nation
is not ashamed to use dum-dum bullets; and would be to see the political disappearance and social eclipse of Germany. Gentlemen, you are not, it is true, the responsible leaders of English politics, and so you are not directly responsible for their baseness; but all the same you are Englishmen, whose annihilation we consider to be our most sacred duty. We therefore
also which, while professing Christianity,
whose
greatest pleasure
request you to take such action as will prevent your mercenaries, diers',
It is
down ities.
from approaching our trenches
in future. - Lieut, of
not surprising, in view of such attitudes, that
the line the daily
War
whom
you
call 'sol-
various points
up and
Landwehr.*
at
Diaries suggest a continuance of almost normal hostil-
In the region of Festubert the 13th Infantry Brigade recorded
amount of sniping along the whole
'a
considerable
The southerrmiost battalion of all, 1/ men wounded, even though they left the
front'.
King's Royal Rifle Corps, reported seven trenches as early as 1.30 pm.
Perhaps most tragically of they
felt
some men were killed on Christmas Day when on fronts where ceasefires had been agreed and
all,
themselves to be secure,
fraternizations were in progress.
The
loss of
particularly bitter
two men of the 2/Mormiouthshires
memory.
in
such circumstances
left a
Private Ernest Palfrey, a former miner aged twenty-one,
was shot while returning from the task of burying dead comrades. 'A truce was supposed to be prevailing', ran the report
in the
South Wales Echo, 'but Private
Palfrey received a bullet in the back of his neck which killed similar fashion a sergeant
was
fatally hit.
One
'Blackwood' Jones, a former Pontypool footballer,
No Man's Land
him
instantly.'
In
of the dead man's comrades. Sergeant
who had
carrying a newspaper on top of his
rifle
himself led a group into as a flag of truce,
wrote
angrily about the event in a letter which was published in the South Wales Argus
under the headlines: 'Sad News from the Firing Line. Sergeant Treacherously Shot.' I
took some tobacco and jam to the Germans. But, never no more. Another sergeant, a
pal of
*
mine from Monmouth, did the same, but when he was coming back
The Landwehr was
the
German
equivalent of the British Territorial
[112]
Army.
to the trench
Day
Christmas
him through the back and killed him. He fell down and They are dirty cowards, after giving them tobacco.
they shot done'.
The a
'My God, I'm
said
sergeant in question was Frank Collins, a 39 year old former postman,
widow and
been
The
'killed in action'.
action in
enemy. The Germans opposite
to the
who
left
him as having which he was engaged was taking Woodbines
three children. His official notification of death described
later sent
over an apology.
Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater, 2/Gordon Highlanders, commented in letter written on Christmas Day that 'the truce will probably go on until someone foolish
enough
to let off his
our fellows letting off his it
so
it
We
rifle.
nearly messed
up
it
a is
by one of
this afternoon,
skywards by mistake but they did not seem to notice
rifle
did not matter.' But on Christmas afternoon a shot fired by another battalion
unhappy
of 'Regulars' did have
results, as described
by Rifleman John Erskine of
the Territorial 5/Scottish Rifles.
We
had a tragedy
One
in the trenches
during the time the hand shaking
of the Regulars disobeyed our strict order not to
Germans immediately evidently fired at the
replied first
and instead of
who was
with the
was that he has three brothers
shot through the head.
...
and
etc.
let
was going on.
off a shot.
The
on where the shot came from they
person they saw. Unfortunately
our corporals affair
firing
fire
A
happened
this
most regrettable
in this battalion,
and
it
to be
one of
connected
fact
must have
a
most
disheartening effect on them.
The Corporal Rifles;
in question
was Walter
Sinclair Smith, of 2
Company,
he died without regaining consciousness. His Chaplain wrote
in the trenches
with his Company, so that you can
country in a just cause.
He was
'He was
he died fighting for his
feel
buried side by side with
5/Scottish
later:
many
other soldiers
who
have fallen in this dreadful war.'
As the Queen's Westminster Rifles arrived in billets morning they heard the news. One of their officers wrote: The
man shot at another place. Apparently someone German officer so they fired back. One of the German
over and apologized.
The
Houplines early the next
Scottish Rifles had a
mistake, and hit a
Day
at
It
was a rotten mistake
i/Leicesters also lost two
men
loosed off by officers
came
as the Rifleman died.
killed
and three
men wounded on
Christmas
while fraternization was in progress. According to Major Buchanan-Dunlop,
they were somewhat awkwardly placed, with their centre and right opposite
non-trucing Germans
whom
some
he took to be Prussians ('very vicious indeed'), and
[113]
Christmas
Saxons
their left opposite
cheery fellows for the most part, and
it
seems so
the circumstances to be fighting them')- Seeing that the next battalion was
silly in
No Man's Land
out in
('jolly
Day
with the Saxons and aware that a ceasefire had been arranged,
Buchanan-Dunlop decided to leave his trenches -and meet the enemy face to face a decision which was to cause him some difficulties at a later date. Writing the same '
day, he told his wife:
hour talking to the German
I've spent an
halfway between our
We
there.
and
it's
exchanged
left
cigars, cigarettes,
when our men
only
some warning
officers
and men who have drawn
trenches and theirs and have
and papers.
start repairing
.
.
.
all
met our men and
a line
officers
Firing has practically stopped,
wire entanglements that they send along
shots.
In the course of Christmas Day, Buchanan-Dunlop led the
men
of his
company
in worship.
I
had to have three
the
left. I just
Mother
sent
end. Please
had
me
tell
a
[services],
a lot of St
her
how
was awfully
hostilities
nice.
right, then
John gospels
move
for the pocket,
useful they have been and
The General happened it
one on the
to the centre, then
to
come round
He had come down
and they have hymns
how much
just as the last
the
men
liked
at
the
it.
one was going on, and said
rather angry over the informal cessation of
but seemed to be quite soothed by the hymns.
This was Brigadier-General E.G. Ingouville-Williams (known
command
one on
few prayers, read them the Christmas story, and had some hymns.
as 'Inky Bill'), in
of i6th Brigade. Buchanan-Dunlop's assumption that he had gone away
somewhat ill-judged. During the afternoon a second senior British officer paid a visit to the front and found fraternization in progress. This was Brigadier-General Walter Congreve VC, commanding i8th Brigade, father of Captain Billy Congreve, whose approval of 'soothed' was to prove
the shooting down of Germans as they came singing out of their trenches that' morning has already been noted. Congreve senior appears to have taken a much more indulgent view of events than his son: certainly his diary account of the day contains no angry criticism - indeed, if anything, it suggests a reasonable acquiescence in what was taking place, together with an awareness that such a situation could
have
its
military advantage.
After lunch went to
Rue du Bois
and found an extraordinary
to take
some presents mother had
state of affairs.
[114]
The men had arranged
sent for the a truce
men
between
Christmas
themselves in am, and
smoking. that
all
The
all
officers also
were to be back
Day
day they have been walking about together singing and to a colonel. At 4 pm it was arranged midnight, firing would commence. My
walked and smoked even
in their trenches and, at
German Army, who others said had know where his loophole is now and
friend said he had a cigar with the best shot in the
more of us than any dozen mean to down him tomorrow'.
others, 'but
killed
I
A
somewhat less charitable attitude was taken by a senior German officer visiting the line on Christmas Day, according to the Regimental History of the 139th (nth Royal Saxon) Infantry Regiment. The truce agreed at the front had not been reported to the higher command 'for the sake of caution', and when the Regimental commander came up to the line and found an English soldier out in the open digging he ordered the guard in the front-line trench to shoot the enemy down. The order was carried out but the marksman hit a ruined building. 'The Commander sneered at him', says the Regimental History, 'but was astonished at the effect of the shot the Englishman turned round and waved his spade. It is difficult to say whether in waving he was humorously giving the Germans a sign for "missed" or to remind us .' that we ought to keep truce and not fire till midday. .
One of local
.
of the interesting aspects of the day, indeed,
commanders
is
the wide-ranging reaction
- 'Fergie' - and his up the friendliest relations with the Germans oppoexpected them to continue the next day, but it was not to be
to fraternization. Corporal
John Ferguson
fellow 2/Seaforths, having struck site
during the night,
as they
had planned.
As was arranged before saying 'Good-night', Fritz and his friends had to visit us this morning, and here they were coming. It was like an attacking force coming on to us in extended order, but all without 'arms'. Our Colonel, who had not heard about last night's occurrence, saw them coming, and also saw me up on the parapet and waving my hands as I called 'Here you are, Fritz'. Very soon he was in a rage. 'Who is that man waving the enemy over here? Send them back.' He called out to them in German, 'Go back or we'll fire', and everything he said in German was answered by our German
Our Major went out and spoke to Fritz. He told them that the Germans we wanted near us were those who wished to give themselves up. Did he
friend Fritz in English.
only
intend doing that? But Fritz was ready for him. 'Respecting your rank,
here to talk "politics".'
They were
loopholes with orders not to
them, back and It
was
fire
fire
sent back to their trenches,
unless they
left their
sir,
trench, and then
am
not
left at
our
but
and we were
I
we could warn
high.
a very quiet day, but
we had made
kept calling and joking across to their trenches.
[115]
friends with the
enemy, and
all
day we
Christmas
Day
commanding
In complete contrast, the
officer
of 2/Scots Guards, Captain
George Paynter*, strode out in mid-morning to where Hulse and others were fraternizing and arrived on the scene with a hearty 'Well, my lads, a Merry Christmas to you! This is d d comic, isn't it?' '
.
George
Germans]
told [the
that he thought
it
only right that
could desist from hostilities on a day which was so important then said, 'Well, with',
we
his pocket a large bottle of
rum
(not ration rum, but the
stuff).
was passed from mouth
bottle
you could say
As
that
both countries; and he
boys, I've brought you over something to celebrate this funny show
and he produced from
proper
The
my
we Ihould show in
the
mouth and, wrote Hulse,
to
'polished off before
knife'.
morning wore on
- in that
now
thickly populated zone
where normally
no one began to take many curious forms. The hare which started up during the 'parley' of Chaplain Esslemont Adams was not the only one to be chased wildly across the cabbage patches and shellholes that lay between the trenches. Rifleman Maskell of 3/Rifle Brigade saw two hares got up and found dared set foot - fraternization
it
'laughable to see the
Germans and
ourselves helter-skelter after the Christmas
plump
dinner, which escaped'; whilst of five
captured, and the spoils shared.
behind their
lines and,
The
hares reported by Hulse, two were
6/Cheshires killed a pig which they found
according to their regimental history, 'cooked
it
in
No Man's
Land and shared it with the Boche'. Captain Josef Sewald recalled seeing Germans kneeling down with their heads held up to be shaved by English soldiers; and Bruce Bairnsfather retained as one of his principal memories of the day
a vision of life,
one of
my machine
gunners,
who was
the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept
One Tommy
who was
patiently kneeling
on
up the back of his neck.
of 3/Rifle Brigade even had his hair cut by his former barber from
High Holborn, who was now for those looking on;
German
a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil
cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche,
juggler
and
a
Saxon
soldier. All this
a further sensation
who had performed
in
provided
was created
London
much
in this
same
entertainment area,
where
a
before the war drew a large crowd
of British and Germans. was indeed CO of the 2/Scots Guards while holding the comparatively junior substantive rank of Captain. An Etonian like Hulse, he had joined the Scots Guards in 1899, served with distinction in the Boer War and been awarded the DSO in October 1914. He survived the war to become a Brigadier-General and a KCVO.
* Paynter
[116]
.
Christmas
Nor was
there any lack of background music to these increasingly bizarre
scenes. Bagpipes ful
Day
were played
much
din and there was
in Scottish trenches, lively singing.
Hulse
mouth organs added as ever
was
to the cheer-
at the centre of these
activities.
A German NCO
with the Iron Cross - gained, he told me, for conspicuous
sniping - started his fellows off
on some marching tune.
When
they had done
I
skill in
set the
note for 'The Boys of Bonnie Scotland, where the heather and the bluebells grow', and so we went on, singing everything from 'Good King Wenceslas' down to the ordinary Tommies' songs, and ending up with 'Auld Lang Syne', which we all, English, Scots,
Wiirttembergers,
Irish, Prussian,
had seen
it
on
a
joined
etc.
cinematograph film
I
in. It
was absolutely astounding, and
should have sworn that
it
if I
was faked!
*
Captain Armes had, All this
like
Hulse, enjoyed his forenoon, and in similar
morning we have been
fraternizing, singing songs.
front of their trenches, have spoken to officers
and several company
We
have
just
knocked
Or, as Lieutenant Hulse put
it,
officers. All
I
style:
have been within a yard in
and exchanged greetings with were very nice and friendly
off for dinner,
and have arranged
to
.
a colonel, staff
.
meet again afterwards.
writing three days later:
We then retired to our respective trenches for dinners and plum puddings. *
*
There seems to have been a general exodus at this point in search of Christmas fare, as though this were an agreed luncheon interval at a sporting contest, with every intention of a resumption of play in the afternoon. to look
forward
to:
Christmas puddings were
in
For most there was
a decent
meal
ready supply - Lady Rawlinson, for
member of her husband's IV Corps - and home ensured that few had to subsist on the basic trench diet. Indeed, it is arguable that as much corned beef and Maconochie's stew was consumed on the German side that day as on the British, as the Germans enjoyed the novelty of what was to the Tommies dreary routine. Even so British standard foods featured in several of the recorded menus of that day, usually improved with festive variations. Lance-Corporal Bell of the London Rifle Brigade example, had given a pudding to every the mass of Christmas parcels from
[117]
Day
Christmas
noted
in his diary:
For dinner we warmed two
tins of
pudding sent from home, with
Maconochie (M. and V. jam and
biscuits, butter,
ration)
and some Christmas
coffee.
Rifleman Bernard Brookes of the Queen's Westminsters had to be content with 'bully'
and 'spuds'
(the former
found
as his basic
Christmas dish, but 'vin rouge' and 'Xmas pudding'
farm the Queen's Westminsters were using
in the cellars of the
headquarters) gave the meal an appropriately seasonal flavour.
And
as
Rifleman A.E.
Watts of the same battalion was positively euphoric about the Christmas dinner
which he and
his
You ought
fellow-Tommies achieved:
to
have seen our table when
four of us in our dugout, and
was followed by white wine.
a
What
a feed!
And
laid out
on Christmas Day. There are
a tinned ration of
Christmas pudding, mince a glorious
with cigars from the Germans galore.
One
was
it
we each had
pies,
wood
What
fire
meat and vegetables, which
almonds and going
all
raisins,
and red and
day. Cigarettes, tobacco,
strange warfare!
of the most elaborate feasts eaten that day in or near the front line was
that devised
by some soldiers of the Honourable Artillery Company, who had
brazier burning at each end of their trench on
a
coke
which they heated and prepared
their
dishes one by one. Again featuring Maconochie's, the
menu
read:
HORS D'OEUVRES sardines
SOUP Turtle - Ivelcon -
Oxo
FISH Herrings
ENTREE Meat and Vegetable Ration
(consisting of Tinned Beef,
Potatoes, Carrots, Beans, Onions, and
Gravy
POULTRY Turkey (Devilled or Roast)
SWEETS Christmas Pudding (hot and alight with rum) and Mince Pies
SAVOURY Bread and Butter and Bloater Paste and Pate de Foie Gras
[ii8]
Day
Christmas
DESSERT Almonds and Raisins, Preserved Ginger, Mixed Chocolates, Marrons Glaces
Dates, Figs, Apples,
Black Coffee - Cocoa - Cafe au
lait
LIQUEURS
Rum
Cognac
Crackers and Cigars
Their
officer
was invited
them
to join
pudding
at the
stage,
and
it
was he who
supplied the cigars. Their toasts were:
The The The The The
King Other Sections People
at
Home
Wounded Boys
in Hospital
in the Firing
Trenches
and
A Silent Toast for those who have gone under They were
so well supplied that
were able to
number
when they
left
the trenches on 27
offer their successors a substantial seasonal
December they
bonus, as one of their
recorded:
We made
up
and grateful
we way
a brazier well
for
it,
and
left it for
fowl
'found' and plucked but not cooked,
the
of a few bullets from
sent
me
Not
a
who relieved us. Gee! they were glad rum we left them in a stone jar, a half a pig that somehow had got itself in
those
together with the half-bottle of
my
automatic
pistol, cheese,
jam, and half a bottle of sauce
by a friend.
few fowls, pigs and other livestock found their way into some unsus-
pected stockpot that Christmas Day. While the officers of the 3/Indian Cavalry were well cared for in a chateau near Bethune, the transport drivers attached to left to
them were
forage for themselves.
On Xmas Day
1914 having nothing else
in the
way of Xmas
fare
we scrounged
a
goose
belonging to the gentleman of the Chateau and having no other means of cooking
trimmed him up and boiled him one end
welcome Xmas dinner followed by balloo
when
the
at a
time in a small iron bucket.
a couple of native
maid of the house found
business and after the usual questioning
we
[119]
it
we
very
cooked chapatis. But the huUa-
their pet goose all fell
A
was missing was nobody's
for a dose of
pay stoppage.
A
dear
Christmas
Xmas
Day
dinner but a long way in front of Bully and Biscuits.
Considerably more privileged than such deprived tain Billy
Congreve recorded
if
resourceful
Tommies, Cap-
in his diary the details of his
own
dinner
of beef with macaroni, oie
excellent lunch at
3rd Division Headquarters.
We roti,
have had a great
Xmas
plum pudding (on
to the occasion. It's not a
- oxtail
caviare,
fire),
bad
(from a
tin), fillet
champagne and port
Xmas Day,
I
hope the next
to drink. shall
I
The
spend
chef quite rose
home.
at
Hulse, too, did well, as he told his mother:
We
had
steak,
mashed
potatoes, plum-pudding, ginger biscuits, chocolate (hot), whisky
and water, and finished up by drinking your health and
all
at
home
in best
Russian
Kiimmel!
At British Headquarters
in the rue St Bertin, St
Omer, Field Marshal
French entertained Generals Haig and Smith-Dorrien night Haig had been very late to bed having spent presents - sent to
of his
staff,
him from England by
including servants. 'What an
in his diary, 'to distribute Doris's
had been distributing presents
morning and given him here as
GHQ
at the front
is
much
Doris
gifts in the
too, having
Sir
John
the previous
of the evening wrapping
midst of
motored over
and some
On
- for the thirty-six
amount of pleasure
a small cigarette case
it
all
my
to see
cigars;
members
gave me', he confided anxiety.'
French
Marshal Foch that
it is
noteworthy that
tobacco was the standard token of fraternization.
The menu at made
not recorded: what mattered was the announcement which French
over the luncheon table. guests, that the First
Xmas
his wife
to lunch.
BEF
The Commander-in-Chief had
decided, he informed his
should be formed into two Armies forthwith: Haig to
Army, Smith-Dorrien
to
command Second Army,
command
the change to be effected by
the following day.
*
*
*
At about 12.45 3 lone biplane appeared over Sheerness heading in the direction of London. It was German. It got as far as Erith, some fourteen miles from the City, but was then accosted by three British aeroplanes which pursued it back down the Thames. It was finally lost in the fog over Essex and made its way home across the channel. Subsequently The Graphic, in a feature about the event called 'A Santa
[120]
Christmas
Day
Claus Surprise that Failed', wrote:
If the
much-vaunted
air
raiding of England
Christmas Day attempt on London, there
This was not the only
mans bombed Warsaw, and sea-planes on the north
fog and caused
little
air strike to
is
not
is
no more formidable than the
to be
much occasion
for alarm.
be mounted on Christmas Day.
The Ger-
the British carried out an ambitious attack by seven
German
seaport of Cuxhaven.
The
raid
damage but was reported with much pride
The belligerent countries mood was, on the whole,
was hampered by
in the British press.
celebrated Christmas in their various ways. In Berlin
restrained. Reports spoke of shops and war shadows in Berlin this Christmas' and suggested an almost deserted city, with no sound on Christmas night except the tolling of church bells, snow falling on Christmas Day itself, and the Christmas trees in almost every home hung with mourning. Other observers, however, described the streets in the centre as being crowded during the Christmas holidays, and pointed to a general attempt to prevent the war from impinging too much on the appearance and mood of the imperial capital, with the wounded (much evident in the early weeks) scrupulously kept from the public eye, the wearing of mourning discouraged, the restaurants busy, and Shakespeare still playing at one Berlin theatre in spite of the hatred of all things English. Yet most people seem to have commemorated Christmas quietly that year, with the obligatory tree, a gramophone, a carol or two. Similarly Miss Ethel Cooper in Leipzig had a series of 'very quiet evenings' over
the
serious
warehouses closing early 'owing
Christmas: 'there Paris spirits
were
is',
and
to the
she wrote, 'absolutely no sort of festivity anywhere this year'.
was observing an uncharacteristically religious calm, though people's lifted
which was barely
by the exceptional weather - precisely the same fifty
an English resident, the saddest faces
miles away at
'to
its
nearest point.
'It
as that at the front,
was kind of Nature', wrote
look so beautiful on this particular Christmas Day; for even
showed
a
gleam of pleasure
in the glory of the
morning.' Such
celebrations as there were tended to be of a charitable kind. In the hospitals
and
refugee camps, there was a determined cheerfulness, with Christmas trees, presents,
entertainments and good fare. But the city's
mood was
A
when
British correspondent wrote: 'At a time
uncharacteristically sombre.
the rivers of France are almost
running with blood, Christmas in Paris has never been more Christian'. There were sufficient reminders of the war in London for some observers to claim that it was having a 'martial Christmas'. As well as the familiar khaki figures in the streets and on the posters, there were several thousand Canadians currently training on Salisbury Plain who had come to enjoy Christmas in the Empire's capital. literally
[121]
Christmas
Christmas Day music
in the
main
hotels
Day
was mihtary and
national, quite excluding
the season's ragtime, and there were toasts at every table to relatives or friends in
army and navy. Many hotels had Belgian children as special guests at their trees. Meanwhile at the Earls Court Exhibition building three thousand Belgians were given Christmas dinner and presented with a huge Christmas tree; at Alexandra Palace another two thousand five hundred Belgians were similarly entertained. But the popular mood in London was buoyant, the principal thoroughfares were as thronged as usual, the hotels were packed for the traditional Christmas the
Christmas
dinner and, though after dark searchlights played over a darkened sky, the general feeling
was that London's Christmas Day was more nearly normal than that of the
other belligerent capitals.
The Then
Family was at Sandringham; after attending morning service Sandringham Park they settled down to their Christmas dinner. now the popular press was fascinated by the activities of royalty, with the British Royal
church
in the
as
in
result that the readers of
what
fare
some Fleet
would be gracing the
Street newspapers
royal table. It
was
knew
in
advance precisely
a stoutly traditional
menu
with
scant concession to any defeatist spirit.
Turkey, goose,
a
baron of beef - as the tenants
Park, cygnet from the
which
will
Thames,
have - venison from Sandringham
and
a flaming
plum pudding,
be served by the King.
In contrast, the King's royal cousin, Wilhelm
Douai, where he took part
On
will
boar's head, mince pies,
II,
was
in a festive gathering of a
at
Military Headquarters at
thousand
officers
and
soldiers.
long rows of tables stood Christmas trees shimmering with lights. Green
branches decorated walls and ceilings. Spiced cake, apples and nuts were given to officers
and men, and the
sung. But
when
no concession
We
also received tobacco
came
to
pouches and
cigars.
all
Carols were
speak his message was stern and unyielding, with
to the spirit of the season:
stand on hostile
God. We say, Germany'. Amen.
to
as
soil,
the point of our sword turned to the enemy, our hearts turned
once the Great Elector
said,
'To the dust with the enemies of
Germany, in the prisoner of war camp at Sennelager in from the Kaiser was the one redeeming feature of the day, remembered by Rifleman Plumridge of the i /Rifle Brigade: Meanwhile, deep
Westphalia, a special as
men
the Kaiser
fir-
in
gift
[122]
[123]
Christmas gift from Princess
On
Mary and friends at home
Christmas Day 19 14 for dinner we had a few pieces of swede
German
Emperor has today given you all a Christmas each man. I smoked them in my pipe. Royal
in hot water.
A
Sgt Major came in and shouted 'Achtung, Englanders. His Imperial Majesty the
gifts
were much
in
present',
and he dished out
five cigars to
evidence at the front on Christmas Day. For every
serving soldier from the Commander-in-Chief to the humblest private there was a
Christmas card from the King and Queen, plus the special present from Princess
Mary's Fund which had been trundling up by the trainload
in the previous
week.
It
them to all the units in Flanders. Most battalions would have to wait until they were out on rest, but some did receive them in the trenches on Christmas Day itself - such as the 2/Scots Guards who were given theirs along with Lady Rawlinson's pudding (and a card from Lady Rawlinson as well) on Christmas morning. The card from the King and Queen carried their was
a
tremendous task of distribution
to get
photographs and the touching message: 'With our best wishes for Christmas 1914.
May God
variation:
protect you and bring you
'May you soon be restored
morale, but better
still
home
safe.'
For the wounded there was
to health'. All this
was Princess Mary's
gift,
[124]
now
was
revealed in
fine its
and good
a
for
not inconsider-
/
A
corporal at the front opening Princess Mary's box
Card sent to every member of I V Corps drawn by Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Rawlinson {the initials denote this was the card sent to Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse)
EH
V/e wT-sK you. (K
M<^t*PY
^^"^
ckXI
Nlvs^ \ux.yr
[125]
.
\
\
\
'
Christmas
able splendour; a beautifully designed,
Day
embossed brass box, containing
cigarettes,
tobacco, a Christmas card and a photograph of the Princess herself, together with a pipe.
For non-smokers there was an
alternative
box containing acid drops and
a
khaki pencil case, while for the Indians the contents included sugar candy and a tin
box of
The box had been
spices*.
Christmas spent
in the field or
specifically devised as a
on the
seas and, indeed,
to their families, often with the contents
untouched
permanent souvenir of
mSny men
carefully sent
to ensure its safe survival.
it
This
present was particularly appreciated by some of the very young soldiers, such as
Rifleman Leslie Walkinton,
who
'was rather pleased about the tobacco because
my
smoke and it made me feel rather older and bigger'. Princess Mary's photograph was also an immediate success; in the course of the day, according to Henry Williamson, then serving as a private soldier in the London Rifle Brigade, one found its way into the hands of a delighted German, who was heard going around saying 'Ah, schdne, schdne Prinzessin' ('Oh, beautiful, family at
home thought
I
was too young
to
beautiful Princess').
The Germans had
their royal gifts too, as has
been indicated: from the Kaiser
a cigar-case bearing the inscription 'Weihnacht im Felde 191^' ('Christmas in the
Field 1914'), and from
every
member
Crown
Prince Wilhelm a pipe with his
own
portrait
on
it
for
of his army - a Christmas memento, he explained, following the
by his grandfather, then Crown Prince, in 1870, when German armies
precedent
set
also spent
Christmas in France. *
*
Have just finished dinner. Pork chop. Plum pudding. Mince pies. Ginger, and bottle of Wine and a cigar, and have drunk to all at home and especially to you, my darling one. Must go outside now to supervise the meetings of the men and the Germans.
So wrote Captain Armes, hurrying
to finish his letter so that
he could despatch
it
immediately to his wife and pass on as speedily as possible the news of the extraordinary events
some
Keep *
at the front.
He was
well aware that he
was reporting an episode of
historic importance:
the letter carefully and send copies to
all. I
think they will be interested.
It
did
Other variations were: for the nurses, chocolate instead of tobacco; and for ships' boys - hkewise not to be encouraged in the smoker's art - a bullet pencil case. Everybody received a gift box and a card. This was the only year of the war in which such a gift was distributed. (The only British parallel from other wars appears to have been a gift of a box of chocolates by Queen Victoria to all soldiers serving in South Africa at Christmas 1899.)
[126]
Day
Christmas
funny walking alone towards the enemy's trenches
feel
arrange a
The in
Xmas
peace.
In
on the
be a thing to remember
meet someone halfway and
to
one's
all
to
life.
climbed over the parapet to rejoin the fraternizing crowds
task completed, he
No Man's
It will
Land.
some
areas the truce did not really begin until the afternoon.
where the 2/Royal Welch Fusiliers were
river Lys,
Near Houplines
down men were
in trenches that ran
throughout the morning and the
to the water's edge, the mist lingered
when it finally dispersed. Captain C. I. Stockwell, one of the company commanders, having seen that his men were being well fed, had just retired to his shelter to get his own meal, when the sergeant on duty suddenly ran in and said that half a dozen Saxons were to be seen standing unarmed on their already at dinner battalion
parapet.
I
ran out into the trench and found that
the
all
men were
holding their
on the parapet, and that the Saxons were shouting, 'Don't shoot.
We
today.
men
A
send you some beer.'
will
started to roll
it
into the
No Man's
middle of
and the Saxons kept shouting
they were
unarmed, but we had
all
appear.
Our men were
We met and formally seemed
all
them
to
my
in
He He
a very decent fellow.
Land.
A
lot
more Saxons then
My men were getting a bit out. We did not like to fire as
bit thick.
come
to
best
chattering and saying.
saluted.
German,
The
for the
I
opposing Captain to
Captain's going to speak to them'.
introduced himself as Count Something-or-other, and could not talk a word of English.
He
then called out
his subalterns
and formally introduced them with much clicking of heels and
They were
very well turned out, while
all
to fight
orders and someone might have fired, so
strict
climbed over the parapet and shouted,
the ready
want
cask was hoisted on to the parapet and three
appeared without arms. Things were getting a excited,
rifles at
We don't
I
was
in a goatskin coat.
One
saluting.
of the subalterns
could talk a few words of English, but not enough to carry on a conversation. I
said to the
German
Captain,
allow no armistice. Don't you think
open
like this?
'My it is
orders are to keep
dangerous,
all
my men
in the trench
and
men running about in the an order, and all his men went your
fire.' He called out me and the five German officers and a barrel of beer in No Man's Land. He then said, 'My orders are the same as yours, but
Someone may open
back to their parapet, leaving the middle of
could 'No,
we not have we certainly
agreed.
I
have
from shooting today?
don't want to shoot, but
then suggested that
come out of was
a truce
the trench.
to signal that lots.'
So
I
We
we should
called
We
don't want to shoot, do you?'
have
my
He
said,
in
exchange, and
[127]
when
I
'You had better take the beer; we
to bring the barrel to
something
said,
return to our trenches and that no one should
to begin.
up two men
I
orders to obey' - to which he
agreed not to shoot until the following morning,
we were going
their beer without giving
I
I
our
side.
I
did not like to take
suddenly had a brainwave.
We
Christmas
had
lots
of
plum puddings,
for the beer.
He
so
sent for one
I
Day
and formally presented
then called out 'Waiter', and a
German
private
it to him in exchange whipped out six glasses
and two bottles of beer, and with much bowing and saluting we solemnly drank cheers from both sides. We then all formally saluted and returned to our lines.
it,
amid
Frank Richards, author of the Tommy's present as a
member
of the
Welsh
battalion; a
classic Old Soldiers Never Die, was rugged professional, he had joined the
regiment in 1901, had served nearly seven years in India and
Burma
and, in a phrase
not unfamiliar in the ranks, had 'risen to the rank of Private'. His version suggests
was much more actual fraternizing than Stockwell's account allows, in spite of attempts to prevent it, and that there were some lively exchanges between Saxon and Welshman.
that there
One
of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for
some
But
on
it
was
all
over.
We
told
his story of the parley in the
one with
No
up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad him that he wasn't the only one that was fed up with it.
years and that he was fed
when
his officer, as
indeed are
middle all
much
is
the same as Stockwell's and he
is
the accounts, in portraying the rolling out into
Man's Land of
a barrel or so of beer as the central feature of the fraternization
The
beer had been purloined from the Frelinghien Brewery which
this sector.
stood virtually in the Saxon
Richards provides the scarcely necessary detail
lines.
two barrels of beer were drunk', but not, apparently, with any very great
that 'the
enjoyment since he and
his
comrades thought that 'French beer was rotten
stuff'.*
Opposite 15th Brigade, between Ploegsteert and Wulverghem, the mist also lingered throughout the morning, inhibiting any friendly relations between opposing trenches.
At about
2
pm, however, an unarmed German
officer
was seen walking
towards the trenches of the i/Norfolks, with other Germans following him. the Norfolks shouted to so, to
them
telling
to
come no nearer but they took no
prevent them seeing the state of the British defences, the Norfolk
out and advanced to meet them.
Land
them
in
officers,
It
was the
Some
signal for a
of
notice;
men climbed
mass-meeting in
No Man's
which eventually between 200 and 400 British and Germans, including took part and which continued for about one and a half hours, with much
communal hymn-singing. Reporting the episode, the War Diary of Brigade noted that the Germans had said that they were not going to fire
conversation and the 15th
for three days. 'Little
*The
mention of war was made',
British destroyed the brewery
by
shellfire in
it
added. 'They expected
February 1915.
[128]
it
to
Christmas
months
finish within 2
at least.'
out of the trenches than
it
The
Day
report also stated that
more Germans had come
was thought the trenches held.
At Port Arthur near Neuve Chapelle, Lieutenant-Colonel Lothian Nicholson,
commanding
officer of the 2/East
Lanes, was more concerned with the state of his
trenches than with striking up temporary friendships with the enemy.
been,
was
it
put up
a
true, a little flurry of activity
few Christmas
trees
on
and shouted 'Merry Christmas East
their parapets
Lanes' - 'pretty smart', Nicholson noted in his diary, 'considering that first
tour in this
line'.
But the afternoon found him
Brigadier, Carter, and the
There had
soon after daylight, when the Germans
Commander Royal
in
was our
it
urgent discussion with his
how
Engineers, Rotherham, as to
to
solve the 'water situation' of a stretch of line particularly vulnerable to flooding -
much beyond making
'they didn't get
drained out 24 hours
later'.
became suddenly aware of
He decided
Land'.
futile
As he was
'a lot
of our
&
suggestions
fixing a
pump which was
talking with the Brigadier, however, he
men hobnobbing
with the
Hun
in
No Man's
to investigate.
and found Fryer, one of our attached subalterns, talking fluent German German NCO. I gathered that they wanted leave to bury the dead of which there were a good many lying in No Man's Land. After vain endeavours to get hold of a German officer I sent the German NCO with a message to the Bn Commander that he could have an hour and a half & that we would bury all the dead lying close to our line went out
I
.
.
.
to a
&
they could do the same with theirs. This was accepted and subsequently extended for
another hour in the course of which the Adv. Post in the 3rd Sector For[ester]
who had been
killed
&
we buried
was not
the dead
&
Sanders went out from
about a month before. *
It
all
recovered the body of Dilworth, a Sher[wood]
*
*
under way on the sector
until the afternoon that fraternization got
to the
south of Neuve Chapelle held by the Indians of the Royal Garhwal Rifles.
At dawn on the other side of to
No
Man's Land the
Captain Walther Stennes 'everything
all
right,
Stennes went round and talked to the sentries,
officer
on duty had reported
but strange: not a shot
who
all
insisted that they
fired'.
had not
heard or seen anything. Off duty, Stennes settled into his dugout and started reading; but his soldiers were
still
eager to continue the celebrations begun the previous
night.
Within earshot
Rifles,
Captain E.R.P. Berryman.
We
in the Indian trenches
was the adjutant of the 2/39 Garhwal
heard them singing and shouting in their trenches, and about midday they began
[129]
Day
Christmas
up
lifting
hats
on
sticks
and showing them above the trench, then they showed
their
heads, and then their bodies and finally they climbed out of their trenches into the open!
Of
we could not shoot them
course
blood
in cold
like that, tho'
one or two shots were
fired.
W. WSir of \he i8th Hussars, who was manning a Maxim gun in the
Also observing these developments was Private attached to an Indian Cavalry Regiment, 'gap'
between the 1/39 and 2/39 Garhwal
We
Rifles.
were saluted by the Germans, whose trenches are only about
them
calling out to us in
notice of
at first,
it
good English, 'A happy Christmas
but about
i
.30
pm we
to
sixty yards
you
all'.
away, by
We
took no
heard them calling again.
We looked out of our loopholes, and there they were all standing on top of their We could hardly believe our eyes; we were just about to open fire when one of
trench.
our
gave us the order to unload our
officers
without any their
men
rifles,
shouted out 'Here's some cigars for you.
having any
come over
they started to cheer.
Come and
fetch them.'
We
One
of
were not
we thought it might be a trap for us. The German then told us to They shouted 'Come on, we will not fire on you'. The fellow who then came down off the top of his trench and picked up the box again
at first, as
for them.
threw the cigars
and started
to
walk over towards our trenches. Seeing
of our trench to meet him. said,
Seeing the Germans standing there
rifles.
we stood up and answered them. Then
When we met
'A happy Christmas to you'.
I
in the
knew what
hardly
this
climbed over the parapet
I
middle he handed
with him and wished him the compliments of the season
to
do
at first,
me
the cigars and
but
I
shook hands
also.
As soon as the Germans saw us shake hands they cheered like mad. They then come towards our trench. Our boys, all Indians by the way, started out to
started to
meet them
The
as well.
scene that followed can hardly be described.
To
see our greatest
enemy
shaking hands with our Indian troops and giving them cigars and cigarettes was a sight I shall
As the
never forget.
fraternization began, a
'Captain,
come
men are
The
soldiers
waving
in their trenches, but there
my tunic,
who were
to
company back
be on the
alert;
no
but rushed out and saw a strange unforgettable
not on duty were standing upright on top of their
trenches without their weapons, waving and shouting 'Merry Christmas'. of the
is
doing the same.'
did not even take time to don
picture.
sergeant reported to Stennes in his dugout:
out, the British have started
shooting, and our
I
German
into the trenches, told
them
to
arm and
I
ordered half
reinforce the sentries, and
but there must be no shooting and they were to avoid any menacing
[130]
Christmas
movement. Meanwhile some
soldiers
Day
had advanced into
watched the strange sight as the soldiers met
Then
hands, talked and strolled about.
a
man
of
No Man's Land. No Man's
middle of
in the
my company came
Intensely
we
Land, shook
running back and
reported that a British officer wanted to talk to me.
The
was Lieutenant-Colonel D.H. Drake-Brockman, commanding the at the Battalion HQ, he had that morning been making artillery fire to knock out the German pump which he suspected
British officer
2/39 Garhwal Rifles. Back
arrangements for
was responsible
for the water flowing into the British lines. After
aligning the correct range, and a
think
first effort
had been dropped on the pump's
shells
it
had been
He
had
narrowly missing their
difficulty in
own
parapet,
though Drake-Brockman did not
vicinity,
the flooding was as bad as ever.
been showing around some
Worcesters,
officers of the
them, and was returning to his dugout
to relieve a ruined
hit, as
also
some
at Battalion
farm when he was suddenly approached by
his
HQ
who were
in the orchard of
somewhat breathless adju-
tant.
Captain Berryman came running up with the news that 'the Germans were out of their
'The devil they are!' I replied, and went up with him. Sure enough I found number sitting on the paraper of No. 2 Company's trench, and also out in front of No. I Company. They were trying to converse with our men and giving them cigarettes, biscuits and boxes of cigars. As I could speak German I conversed with them. They all belonged to the i6th Regiment. They seemed very jolly, as if they had had a good dinner. One of them said to me that there must be 'Friede auf der Erde' ['Peace on Earth'] on this day, being Christmas Day. They seemed convinced that they were winning, and one of them said, with a wave of his hand, that the Russians were quite trenches'. a
.
out of
it.
He
gave
me a
.
.
bundle of his newspapers
to corroborate his statement.
Captain Walther Stennes also marched off to the middle of No Man's Land. Here pany;
I
met two English, one Indian and one German officer of the neighbouring Comother a merry Xmas, agreed that both sides would
we shook hands, wished each
abstain from any hostile activity until next day at noon, then
presents like
It
was
all
plum pudding,
cakes, whisky, brandy,
we exchanged some
small
and so did our men.
very strange, as Captain Berryman explained in the letter he wrote
about the event to his mother: For an hour both sides walked about
in the space
[131]
between the two
lines of trenches.
S
'Bon Jour Fritz
A
.
.
.
Salaam Salaam'
cartoon impression of the truce by Captain E.R.P. Berryman, 2/39
letter to his brother, i
talking
and laughing, swapping baccy and
believe that
Garhwal
Rifles,
from a
January 191
we had been
cigarettes, biscuits, etc.
.
.
.
you would never
fighting for weeks.
On this front too there were dead to be buried, as Private Weir reported: Germans came up and asked me
One
of the
that
were lying about their trenches.
dozen of them, All the fed.
One
for
which the Germans thanked
Germans looked very
thing
I
if I
My chum
fit.
would
like to
and
set to
I
bury
a
few dead Indians
work and buried about
a
us.
They were
also very well clothed
and looked well
did notice was that there were Iron Crosses galore amongst them; about
[132]
Christmas
one
man
One
out of every six had one on.*
Day
of their officers, a captain, clasped his hands
together and looked towards heaven and said, let
us
all
'My God, why cannot we have peace and
go home!'
Approved by
officers
on both
sides, the fraternization
between the 2/39 Garspirit and
hwal Rifles and the Westphalians was conducted throughout in a friendly
no unfortunate consequences. In the case of the i/39th battalion on their right, however, the reaction of one of their senior officers produced a somewhat different
led to
result.
Major Kenneth Henderson, the
officer in question,
took a far less sympathetic
view of the Christmas truce than Lieutenant-Colonel Drake-Brockman. Hearing of the fraternization of
No Man's Land crowded
could distinguish
German
I
hastened to the scene to investigate, and found the whole
with our
officers
men and
the
Germans amicably intermixed.
I
and confabbing with them [Captain] Kenny and
Welchman. For a moment I gazed at the curious sight, and then realized wrong and dangerous it was, and decided to stop it. I therefore stood up on the parapet and blew my whistle and signalled and shouted for all to come back. It was amusing to notice that the first to clear off were the Germans. They all bolted like rabbits at the sound of my whistle evidently expecting a ruse, or having a guilty con[Lieutenant]
how
.
.
.
absolutely
science, while our
men
continued to stand irresolutely for a second or two, uncertain of
where the whistle came from and what normal conditions were restored and to go off myself to Battalion
its
meaning was. Within
after scolding
a
few minutes however
Kenny and Welchman
a bit
I
decided
HQ and report the matter.
That same evening Captain W.G.S. Kenny had 'the honour' to submit a report on the meeting with the Germans and on the German trenches to the Acting Adjutant of the 1/39 Garhwal Rifles, Captain J. Limib. He hoped to show that much useful information had been obtained about the enemy's dispositions during his parleys in No Man's Land, but his reports failed to lessen the displeasure he had incurred through Henderson's precipitate action.
The
latter's
account concludes:
Needless to say the news caused the greatest perturbation quarters and for dear old
Kenny
Commander-in-Charge had stopped
when
it
reached higher
the results were tragically serious. leave for
all officers
truce': a truly unnecessarily terrible penalty. It
*The
was
a
who
I
heard the
participated in the
'Xmas
pure error of judgment which
Iron Cross was a decoration only given in wartime. There were two versions during the First for combatants - First Class and for non-combatants - Second Class, of which five million were awarded throughout the war. Already, by Christmas 1914, there were those who deplored their indiscriminate distribution.
World War:
[133]
Christmas
Day
infected a very large stretch of the whole British front and an expression of the
Commander-in-Chiefs displeasure woutd have been any repetition. But
it
is
a safe
and complete deterrent from
too often forgotten that the object of
penalize the offenders for what
Kenny's case and possibly
in
is
all
punishment
is
not to
past and done, but to deter others for the future. In
many
others a terrible cruelty was done by this order
because he was killed before he ever got leave, and his njother amd relations had not seen him for years
.
.
.*
Both Captain Kenny and Lieutenant Welchman were
killed at the Battle of
March 191 5: Lieutenant Welchman as he reached the German Kenny (who was the only British officer of the i/39th to reach the enemy trenches alive), whilst returning, wounded, with some German prisoners. Among the prisoners taken by the Garhwal Rifles at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle were some of the men who had come out on Christmas Day during the informal
Neuve Chapelle on
lo
trenches, and Captain
armistice.
*
*
Elsewhere
mas
in
many
areas fraternization
*
begun
day continued
earlier in the
all
Christ-
afternoon. Rifleman Bernard Brookes had been to church in the morning and
had then been on duty from 12 noon until relatively late that
to 2
pm
at battalion headquarters, so
it
was not
he was able to go out to join his fellow Queen's Westminsters
and meet what he called 'our friends the enemy'. By
this
time fraternization was
beginning to take some rather bizarre forms:
Many
of the
Germs had costumes on which had been
and one facetious fellow had figure caused
Fritz
taken from the houses nearby,
Top Hat and
umbrella, which grotesque
much merriment.
had no monopoly
A
a Blouse, Skirt,
in
such entertainments, as a Royal Artilleryman observed:
couple of bright sparks from the Staffords (i/N. Staffs)
around some ruined houses, appeared
-
one clad
who had been prowling
in a tail-coat, black trousers,
and an
old battered silk hat that had seen better days, the other decked out in blouse and skirt,
an old bonnet and a broken umbrella. They paraded up and down the trenches and were joined by another joker
who had found
a
line of the
broken bicycle with almost
square wheels, which he trundled up and down. *
Henderson's reference to the 'Commander-in-Charge' is confusing. If he meant to imply that the C-in-C of the BEF withdrew leave from fraternizing officers, this is not the case. It appears in fact that the decision to withhold Captain Kenny's leave was a local one, taken at no higher level than that of the battalion commander. See page 169.
[134]
Christmas
The
Day
Germans opposite had earher been
2/Wiltshire Regiment and the friendly
presented with a similar diversion, as a former subaltern of the Wiltshires, E.L. Francis remembered:
My own
platoon Sergeant was a very cheerful reservist in his mid-thirties and well
He added
earned his nickname of Chirpy.
by going out to meet the Germans wearing farmhouse;
this led to
good deal
to the informal
Christmas party
which he had found
in a deserted
some earthy Teutonic byplay and caused plenty of laughs.
There were those, however, on both
some
a
a large skirt
sides,
who saw
the opportunity to
make
While the sergeant of the 2/Wiltshires was performing his drag act to general acclaim, Second Lieutenant Francis was struck by the curious behaviour of one of the enemy: military gain while these cheerful distractions
Both
sides
officer
seemed
who was
to ours.
I
to be
imbued with the Christmas
down between
walking up and
pointed this out to
my
were taking
Spirit until
noticed a
German
the trenches and gradually getting nearer
friend and fellow subaltern, Frank Strawson, and
German officer. We rode him own trenches.
started to walk parallel with the
he returned disgruntled to his
I
place.
A more
successful reconnaissance
My OC
put on a
off in true polo style
we and
was carried out by Major Arbuthnot, officer commanding 24 Battery, 38th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, at La Chapelle d'Armentieres, in the area held by the Queen's Westminster Rifles, as one of his Gunners described:
German uniform and had a good look around the German lines. He German machine-gun post which had given our of trouble; he also saw the German billets in a village called Wez-
spotted what he wanted to find - a infantry a deal
Macquart.
Attempts were often made to keep the wandering soldiery of one nation from approaching too near the trenches and emplacements of the other. In some areas
more or into
less notional
No Man's Land
situation
halfway line was agreed; but, as more and more
and
as the
became increasingly
report, 'strolling about as if in
Hyde
day's holiday', wrote Rifleman G.
Of
course,
mood
of good
humour and camaraderie
difficult to control.
Park'.
Fade of the
we were not allowed
to
a
men crowded held, the
People were, according to one
'We were
like a
3/Rifle Brigade,
crowd of kids with
a
and added
go into their trenches or they into ours, but we met
[135]
Christmas
halfway and in some places even got as
In such circumstances
it
Day
far as their wire
was impossible
entanglements.
to prevent at least
some of the enemy from
peering into forbidden zones or picking up the- kind of random intelligence only
normal times
to a trench raid. However, there were those who r f sweep back the advancing tide, as Rifleman P.H. Jones of the Queen's Westminster Rifles noted in his diary:
accessible
in
attempted,
One
if
vainly, to
little officer,
North
not so be.
You
who
looked about sixteen, amused us very
away from
StaflFords
finally
Henry Williamson,
to get right
come.'
his
We
it
lines
'In
most
some
said. 'It shall
in
him and turned about, but arm with one of our officers.
London
Rifle
but a
German
I
went back and told
officer
my
me and asked And he who ordered me not
came up
field fortifications',
second lieutenant,
I
to
told him.
again.
*
that
clearing
rebuff".
behind their
smiled and saluted and
do
he
gravely saluted
photo taken arm
'What do you do?' 'Admiring your beautiful to
no',
the future novelist, then a rifleman of the
Brigade, met with a similar
wanted
had
much by
machine-gun emplacement. 'No,
shall not so near
he followed us and
I
his
cases',
men were
wrote an
officer of a
*
Glasgow regiment,
'the only reservation
was
not to go into the other side's trenches, but in some instances the
order was not obeyed and groups were entertained in the hostile dugouts.' Stories of
such episodes soon circulated. with two
officers
Two
Germans,
it
of the Scots Guards, while six
was believed, took Christmas dinner
men
of the Worcestershire Regiment
had lunch with the Germans. 'Some of our people', wrote an
officer of the
RAMC
hand but with considerable confidence), 'actually went into their trenches and stayed there for some time, being entertained by the enemy! All joined together in a sing-song, each taking it in turn to sing a song, and finally they ended up with "God Save the King", in which the Saxons sang most heartily!! This is absolutely true. One of our men was given a bottle of wine in which to drink the King's health.' A less florid - and perhaps more reliable - reference occurs in the (reporting at second
War Diary
of the
nth
Infantry Brigade:
Several officers visited
German
trenches - most of which well
[136]
made but
partly full of
Christmas
enemy wore gum
water, and a lot of
or 2 yards in places.
Much
boots.
Day
Trenches
thickly
v.
manned,
i
man
per yard
valuable information gained regarding enemy's wire en-
tanglements.
men were invited into enemy trenches for a more serious purpose. Day Second Lieutenant R.D. Gillespie of 2/Gordon Highwas taken into German lines to be shown a grave with the inscription: 'To
But sometimes
Quite early on Christmas landers a
Brave British
Yet
who
Officer'.
visits to
Some men
the other side's trenches did not always end happily.
got too close for the enemy's comfort found themselves, as in the case of the
riflemen of the Queen's Westminster Rifles the previous night, taken prisoners of
war.
One such was
a
German who, according
account by former Lance-
to the
Corporal George Ashurst, proposed an armistice to the 2/Lancashire Fusiliers.
Coming
German
across from the
trenches was a solitary
German, carrying
white flag
a
high above his head. Having come about halfway to our lines he suddenly stopped and waited. lines
made
Then one
men was
of our
seen to go out and meet him, to bring
Unfortunately [he] had not been blindfolded a prisoner of war.
He
the position behind our lines
.
.
.
him
in to
and consequently he had
protested and was awfully upset about
and that must be kept from the enemy
it,
our
to be
but he had seen
at all costs.
Lieutenant William Tyrrell, the medical officer of Ashurst's battalion,
commented
angrily in his diary:
Germans send in party and white flag. Our B. F~l of a sentry brings one blindfolding him and of course he had to be made prisoner. Elsewhere two Germans of a Landsturm Regiment* lines in friendly
mood were
who came
came
brave British soldier Sir, a
along.
'What
in the
who was guarding
a
I
nabbed them,
more fortunate out-
world have you got there?' said he to the
his shivering treasures. 'Beggin'
couple of landstreamers, by the look of them. Said they'd
happy returns; so
across to British
arrested by an 'extra-officious soldier' and held in the
dampest corner of the trench. For them, however, there was come. Presently an officer
in without
come
to
your pardon, wish us
many
Sir.'
Regiments, made up of Reservists over 40, were intended to serve at home or on lines of communication; but high casualties in the Regular and Reserve regiments in the early months of war had brought many of them to the front.
* Landsturm
[137]
Andrew and Grigg posing with Saxons of the io6th and 104th Regiments. Photographed by Rifleman TurRiflemen
ner,
LRB
Rifleman Turner,
LRB
goatskin coat) with two
{centre,
wearing
German
officers,
at Ploegsteert.
'A crowd of some 100 Tommies of each holding a regular mother's meeting between the trenches' nationality
Photographed
by
Rifleman
Turner,
LRB
These photographs were sent by Rifleman London newspapers for
J. Selby Grigg to publication
Christmas
Day
Realizing that this was hardly playing the game, the officer read the sentry a
homily on the amenities of the
depart, with the compliments of the season, to their
While
all
this
many men
byplay was going on,
the armistice to better their living conditions. truce to improve
my
own
to
lines.
seized the opportunity presented by 'I
have been taking advantage of the
"dugout"', wrote Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater to his
mother on Christmas Day. 'We put on got a tiled fireplace and
a
morning and now we have Sometimes implements of the i/Leicesters remembered that the
proper roof
this
brushwood and straw on the
were shared with the enemy: Harold Startin
Germans
little
and asked the plump 'landstreamers'
festive season
'willingly lent us
some of
floor.'
The
their tools to carry out our improvements'.
ruined buildings nearby were raided for coal, firewood, furniture and whatever other
comforts might be found. Lieutenant J.D. Wyatt, of 2/Yorks, commenting some days later on the fact that his dugout was more or final flourish: full
'we have also 2 easy chairs -
view of enemy
Christmas
lines,
Day was
loot'.
- for
rainproof at
unthinkable before, became almost
out. In
some
areas, indeed, this
nature and to go on for a considerable time, and to
major pretext
less
last,
added
as a
In addition, working on trenches in
was
common
to
practice before
become almost second
become the major reason
continuing the truce well into the
- or the
New Year.
*
There was much taking of photographs on Christmas Day 19 14, enemy photographing enemy, enemy standing cheerfully side by side with enemy as the cameras clicked. At this stage of the war there were still many private cameras at the front, British and German, officers and men having tucked their Kodaks into their baggage as they marched away much as if they were going on a prolonged and exciting holiday. Nor was there anything particularly underhand about this. There was indeed a general regulation against the taking of photographs by soldiers on active service, and a crack down on cameras began soon after Christmas 19 14; yet the fact remains that newspapers such as the Daily Mail were
off'ering substantial payments war photographs throughout much of 19 15. However, with the arrival of official war photographers the heyday of the amateur passed. But that moment had not yet arrived. Thus Captain Armes, referring in his
for
letter to his
a
German
write:
'I
wife to pictures taken on Christmas
officer
and myself, and
a
hope the photos come out
paper.' Indeed, a
number
Day
('a
group of German
group of British and German all right.
Probably you
of such photographs did find their
[
139]
soldiers')
will see
way
officers,
them
into the
in
could
some
columns
Christmas
Day
some of them to be much reproduced elsewhere, with the result become minor classics among the images of the Great War. The Germans were aware of this possibility too, and were eager to offer their
of the British press, that they have
own
contributions for editorial consideration by British publications.
altern, in a letter written
on
New
Year's
Day and published
in
A
British sub-
many newspapers,
wrote:
The [German] officers were amusing themselves by taking photographs of mixed groups. The Germans brought us copies to send to the English illustrated newspapers, as they received
It
them
regularly.
should be added that perhaps the most widely distributed of
all
the photographs
of the truce, which appeared in such newspapers as the Daily Mirror* and the Daily
may
Mail,
well have reached Fleet Street as a result of an approach of this kind,
Mail described it as being probably taken by a German officer. Far more photographs, however, were 'snapped' during the Christmas truce
since the
than have survived
and accounts
- or at
refer to
any rate have appeared
domain.
Many
letters
photographs being taken; and there seems to have been
concern for rank or status as
men
in the public
men photographed
officers
and
officers
little
photographed
no doubt enthusiasm and the novelty of the occasion overbore normal conmany, a member of the London Rifle Brigade reported that 'a German officer took a photo of English and German soldiers arm in arm with exchanged caps and helmets'. Other accounts suggest that whole groups of friendly enemies were rounded up before the camera like guests at a wedding. 'My captain, with another officer and two German officers, surrounded by swarms of English and German "Tommies", had their photographs taken.' 'Some Uhlan officers, who had been transferred to the Infantry, came out and posed for their photograph in the -
siderations. Typical of
centre of a group of British and
and
clean,
officers
and Germans stood together
- and,
Rifles,
We
soldiery.
which unfortunately the British
British
hwal
German
They were were
magnificently polished
not.'
on the front occupied by the GarIndians and Germans stood together, as Private Weir described:
German who was the proud possessor of a There were Indians and Germans shaking hands when he pulled the camera. He also took a photograph of three of our officers and three of
then had our photographs taken by a
small camera. shutter of his their officers;
our
officers
were placed between
* See photograph, page 179.
[140]
theirs.
A
Christmas group
in
No Man's Land, showing officers and men fraternizing
together (location uncertain)
Second Lieutenant Bruce Bairnsfather also found himself being photographed out in No Man's Land surrounded by British and Germans; he later described the event in characteristic
style.
Suddenly one of the Boches ran back camera. I
I
posed
in a
mixed group
had fixed up some arrangement
photograph are reposing on some to
admiring strafers
Christmas
Day
how
a
to his trench
and presently appeared with
for several photographs, for getting a copy.
Hun
No
a large
and have ever since wished
doubt framed editions of
this
mantelpiece, showing clearly and unmistakeably
group of perfidious English surrendered unconditionally on
to the brave Deutschers.
In other instances, arrangements were
made on
might have the opportunity to study the
the spot so that the participants
results, as
Chater, 2/Gordon Highlanders reported following
Second Lieutenant Dougan
more photography on Boxing
Day.
Some any
of our officers were taking groups of English and
rate
having another truce on
New
German soldiers. Germans want to .
.
Year's Day, as the
photos come out. *
*
*
[141]
*
.
We
see
are at
how
the
To many
people
truce of
1
it
has
come
to be accepted that the central feature of the
Christmas
9 14 was a game, or possibly games, of football in which British and
Germans took
part. Indeed, to
'the football match'. It
is,
some the whole event
is
not so
much
of course, an attractive idea, carrying as
it
'the truce' as
does not only
the heart-warming thought of enemies at friendly play, but also the appealing
if
would be far better employed in settling their differences on the fields of sport rather than on the field of war. Yet there are those, including some veterans of 19 14, who doubt if any football match took place politically naive implication that nations
at all.
no question that
if the fraternizing soldiers had found occasion to play would have been football - or 'footer' as it was frequently called. It was an immensely popular sport at the time and the natural recreation of thousands of men when out on rest. Matches between platoons, companies, battalions were constantly taking place. There are even stories of games being played 'while in billets a few yards from the enemy, shells whistling over'. Another contemporary
There
each other
is
at
any game
it
[
142]
2l Scots Guards with Westphalians and Jdgers Photographed on Christmas Day by Lieutenant Alan Swinton, with camera'
his
'pocket-
and German officers on Christmas Day, near Rue Petillon. The British Second Lieutenant The Hon. Harold B.Robson and a fellow officer of Northumberland Hussars, yth Division
Left: British
(Jar right) are
the
report refers to 'footballs which so
many
privates carry tied to their knapsacks'
it should be added that many old soldiers pooh-pooh the idea that footballs would be carried into the trenches). Nor was football only enjoyed by the ordinary Tommy. For example, on 22 December, Major John Charteris, staff officer to General Sir Douglas Haig, having nothing much to do 'turned out to play football .'. for the Staff against a team of Cavalry. The Prince of Wales was playing The Germans were enthusiasts too. When Lieutenant Stewart of 2/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was given the photograph of the 133rd Saxon Regiment's pre-war football team,* this was plainly intended as a signal honour. On Christmas Day itself an officer of a Highland Regiment found himself deep in conversation with a keen German sportsman - a 'great big sergeant' - whose main regret seemed to be that the war had spoilt his football.
(though
.
*
See photograph, page 107.
[143]
.
Day
Christmas
He
toured Britain
we walked that
it
to
and
year with the Leipzig team and beat Glasgow Celtic i-o. All day
last
newspapers and our
fro with
was our duty
to
little
photographs, and parted regretting
go for each other.
But he continued:
We
arranged
... to
have
a
This
Day from 2-4 pm HQ.
2-hour interval on Boxing
match. This, however, was prevented by our superiors
for a football
at
one definite fact: there is no question that football was discussed between British and Germans and the idea of playing a game was seriously canvassed -
letter points to
and not only
one point of the
at
line.
Most
frequently, as in the letter already
Tapp
quoted, the proposal was to play on Boxing Day. Private to arrange a football
match with them
for
'We
wrote:
tomorrow, Boxing Day';
are trying
this plan failed
owing
to the
Rowe
of i/Grenadier Guards wrote on 27 December: 'They [the Germans] wanted
resumption of artillery
Kiddies [the 2/Scots Guards]
to play the
couldn't supply the
said
if
football
letter
was quoted
down
New
Year's
at 3
pm
would turn out
a
New
Year's Day.
I
said
if
no hint
that this
I
wonder
if it will
match happened
They were
they would
team and play them among the
on another attack before then.
is
play
them
at
our doctor thought he would go and see the Germans so
like
shellholes,
Germans come off?
keen. Happily, there won't be any obstacles like dead
There
Day we would
the road to the trenches and talked to them.
the football idea of mine on I
details as to his identity
lines.
In the afternoon
try
no
came from the Com-
South Wales Echo on 2 January 191 5:
in the
they would have an armistice on
between our
boldly walked
then
initiative in this context
Officer of an Infantry Battalion (unfortunately
were supplied) whose
I
yesterday but the Kiddies
at football
ball'.
Perhaps the most determined
manding
the next morning. Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher-
fire
very
full
of
another armistice
and they were quite
lying about unless they
from any other would have made it virtually
either; indeed, apart
considerations, the break in the weather on the 27th
impossible.
Yet there are a place for
it
sufficient
number
of references to games which allegedly took
to be difficult to believe that this
ingly enough,
most of the
likely
is all
smoke without
fire;
and, interest-
contenders happened on Christmas
Day
Lieutenant Charles Brewer of 2/Bedfordshires wrote in a contemporary 'Higher up in the line - you would scarcely believe
[144]
it
itself.
letter:
- they are playing a football
Christmas
Day
Gunner C.L.B. Burrows, of 104 Battery, played a football match with them [the Saxons
match'. In a brief contemporary diary,
22nd Brigade, noted: 'Our infantry
opposite] and exchanged cigarettes etc. in
two were hearsay reports, but
that these
No Man's
land'. It
in his account, the
might well be argued
German Hugo Klemm
wrote: 'Everywhere you looked the occupants from the trenches stood around talking
and even playing football'. Similarly Lieutenant Johannes Niemann same regiment, implies first-hand experience in his account:
to each other
the
Suddenly began
a
As
it
Tommy
came with a football, kicking already and making fun, and then We marked the goals with our caps. Teams were quickly estabmatch on the frozen mud, and the Fritzes beat the Tommies 3-2.
a football
lished for a
happens
match.
this score coincides precisely
references to a football
game
in
by an anonymous major of the
The It
.
.
.
Regiment
must be admitted
actually
RAMC quoted in
had
a football
that this reference
to
whom
Man's Land was always incredible. In 6/Gordon Highlanders, stated: Some
- in a
The Times on
Christmas Day
New Year's Day.
match with the Saxons, who beat them
this
is
is
to fly in the face of vigorous statements
the idea of any kind of football a
in
No
match was played
in
not the case as the shellholes, ditch, barbed wire, and churned-up
Stories of kick-abouts with
Guardian from
game
post-war memoir Private Alexander Runcie,
condition of this part of the ground rendered
dulity of old soldiers
3-2!!!
would be more satisfactory if The Times's of the major and the regiment.
chroniclers of the truce incident have claimed that a football
no man's land;
first
letter
name
accept this evidence, however,
from impressive witnesses
with that to be found in one of the
contemporary newspapers
sub-editors had been less coy with the
To
in
somewhat
made-up less.
it
impossible to do
so.
footballs have tended to strain the cre-
A New
Year's
Day
letter in the
Manchester
match with a bully-beef tin; and the History of the Lancashire Fusiliers records that '"A" Company played a football match against the enemy with an old tin for a ball: they won 3-2!'* Lance-
*The
fact that
a British officer referred to a football
two scores of 3-2 occur
in the accounts of
either to a curious coincidence or to mistaken
Christmas
Day
football
memory. The two matches
must be assigned
referred to could not
have been the same one, in that the units concerned were separated not only by geographical distance but also by the river Lys.
[145]
Day
Christmas
Corporal George Ashurst was with the Lancashire Fusiliers in the line his
'some of our boys tied up a sandbag and used
Germans enjoyed themselves
on
sliding
it
Christmas;
as a football, while a party of
a little frozen
pond
just in rear of their
A former member of the Kensingtons, on the other hand. G.
trench'.
m
at
account mentions no game with the Germans, however, though he records that
Gilbert, writing
1963, wrote:
Soon there were dozens of us football about in
Yet
No Man's
fraternizing even to the extent of kicking a
made-up
Land.
stories of actual footballs in the line do
occur in convincing contemporary
accounts and there seems no reason to doubt their evidence more than that in the other letters from the front which were rushed into print over the weeks following
A
Christmas.
both
rifleman of the Queen's Westminster Rifles wrote, in a letter printed
London and New York
in
on the truce
On
to
before the end of the year (in fact the earliest letter
be published):
Christmas
Day we had
a football out in front of the trenches
and asked the Germans
send a team to play us but either they considered the ground too hard, as
to
freezing
all
it
had been
night and was a ploughed field or their officers put the bar up.
This story coincides well with Rifleman Leslie Walkinton's Boxing Day
letter, in
which he wrote:
Some
of them were trying to arrange a football match, but
Given least
all
of language
-
if,
given
Man's Land, arguably the most eleven
men
1914 in
frost), the
all this,
crowds of
a football
men
in as
much
or as
little
An
milling about, the
a
in
No
formal game with
as they
wanted
a television interview.
No Man's Land was ball
Williams was
at
not as broken up by shell
appeared from somewhere,
I
one diversion among
to -
account along these lines emerged in 1983, his story of
former Territorial of 6/Cheshires, Ernie Williams, told
The
off.
had suddenly appeared
outcome would not be
likely
the others rather than a major event. a
come
neatly attacking opposing goals, but a disorganized, untidy affair with
everybody joining
when
didn't
the circumstances - the uneven, shell-pocked ground (which had at
been hardened by the recent
difficulties
it
don't
[146]
Wulverghem, where, it was elsewhere:
as
Christmas
he
recalls
it,
fire as
know where, but
it
came from
their side -
.
Christmas
it
wasn't from our side that the ball came.
went a
in goal
and then
it
was
Day
They made up some
just a general kickabout.
couple of hundred taking part.
I
had
go
a
I
the ball.
at
goals
and one fellow
should think there were about I
was pretty good then,
at
There was no sort of ill-will between There was no referee, and no score, no tally at all. It was simply a melee - nothus. ing like the soccer you see on television. The boots we wore were a menace - those great big boots we had on - and in those days the balls were made of leather and they 19.
Everybody seemed .
.
.
soon got very soggy
There
is
.
.
which precisely confirms Williams's account - pubCheshire newspaper and written by Sergeant-Major Naden of the
contemporary
a
lished in a local
same
to be enjoying themselves.
battalion,
We had a
it
letter
states:
rare old jollification,
which included
football, in
which the Germans took
part.
*
*
As the daylight began to fade there was a general exodus from No Man's Land. In the area occupied by the Queen's Westminsters an officer fired a Very light - a pre-arranged signal that men should return to their posts. 'Altogether we had a great day with our enemies', wrote Rifleman P.H. Jones of the Queen's Westminster Rifles in his diary, 'and parted with much handshaking and mutual goodwill.' Sergeant Lovell of 3/Rifle Brigade, back in his trenches describe
all
Even a
that
as
I
had happened
write
I
in a letter to his parents.
can scarcely credit what
I
at
dusk, hastened to
He concluded:
have seen and done. This has indeed been
wonderful day.
Rifleman Eade of the same battalion returned to his versation which he a time in
had
just
London and spoke good
Today we have
peace.
lines
much
struck with a con-
who had German said:
concluded with a German bombadier English.
Tomorrow you
As they parted the
fight for
your country;
I
fight for
lived for
mine
-
good
luck.
Captain Armes, i/North
I left
our friends on
Staffs,
was thoughtful
Xmas Day
in a quiet
as
mood.
look round and not a shot was fired.
[147]
he returned to his trenches: I
stood upon the parapet
&
had
a final
Christmas
Day
At the end of the day there was a friendly gesture from the Germans who had collaborated with the Scots Guards and other battalions in the joint burial service in No Man's Land. Earlier, George Paynter, the 2/Scots Guards' CO, had presented one German officer with a scarf as a token of gratitude for his care of the wounded. 'That same evening', wrote Hulse, 'a German orderly came to the halfway line, and brought a pair of warm, woolly gloves as a present in retuA for Cjeorge.'
There was
a burst of singing
from the Germans opposite 2/Border Regiment
when they struck up with 'God Save the The Tommies gave three cheers in return. So we
all
had
our lookout as
a I
good sing-song
King', in
'as
good English
that night in our trenches.
do not think we became
as they could'.
But we did not forget
to
have
friends.
In some areas there was a swift return to normality.
The 2/Devons had had
a
very relaxed Christmas Day, they had been 'walking about on top of the trenches', as Sergeant
William Williamson recorded,
'as if
no War was
When
darkness came on,
we had
man
the night, and each
stood
during the night, and that was
The Germans had mood changed.
on'.
'played the game' and there had been no firing. But suddenly the
the order, Strictest discipline to be carried out during
at his post, in
at a
dead
German who
silence.
We
only fired 24 rounds
got as far as our barbed wire,
I
fancy
he must have been under the influence of drink.
Rifleman Bernard Brookes, of the Queen's Westminster of Christmas
Day on an even more sombre
The Germs wanted
Rifles,
concluded his account
note:
to continue a partial truce until
New
Year, for as some of them said,
they were heartily sick of the war, and did not want to fight; but as trenches next morning, and naturally did not want
them
to
we were
know, we
to leave the
insisted
on the
them four shells of would wonder, whole World at which the small calibre to let them know that the truce, reign supreme. would once more and Bloodshed was ended, and in its place, Death
truce ending at Midnight, at which time our artillery sent over to
Fortunately, over
was not the only sector
much
of the line the truce had a long
way yet to run, but this booming of the guns.
to hear that night the all too familiar
*
*
*
Rifleman A.E. Watts, also of the Queen's Westminster [148]
Rifles, in the
same
letter in
Day
Christmas
which he enthusiastically described on a more reflective note: It
Christmas lunch
his
in the trenches,
concluded
sounds hardly feasible that one day you go and shake hands with the enemy, and the
next,
if
he shows his head above the trench, you try and pierce him with a bullet.
Perhaps
seemed
it
was
just as well
to alter the feelings of
the French and Belgians.
I
very
Somehow
our battalion came out the next morning.
We
one towards the Germans.
much doubt
if
have no bitter feelings
it
like
they would have done such a thing as
we
did.
A
similar thought
You would the
was expressed by Private George Martin, 4/Seaforth Highlanders:
not find French and
Germans exchanging
morning of Judgment Day. You have only
to learn that all the hatred
to
cigarettes, I think,
mention 'allemands'*
even
to a
if it
were
Frenchman
not confined to Germany.
is
Yet, as has already been shown, there were a ntimber of incidents of seasonal friendliness involving the
true of Christmas
Day
French and Belgians on Christmas Eve, and the same was
itself.
Likewise there were also outbreaks of bitter and un-
seasonal violence.
For the Belgian gunfire, there
soldier
who had
celebrated midnight mass to the sound of
was an astonishing change by the following morning:
Now
I am going to tell you something which you will think incredible, but I give you my word that it is true. At dawn the Germans displayed a placard over the trenches on
which was written 'Happy Christmas' and then, leaving
their trenches,
No
advanced towards us singing and shouting 'Comrades!'
one
fired.
unarmed, they
We
also
had
left
our trenches and, separated from each other only by the half-frozen Yser, we exchanged
They gave us cigars, and we threw them some we passed all the morning.
presents.
nizing
Unlikely, indeed, but true. to
spend Christmas without
8 o'clock in the
I
saw
firing,
it,
but thought
I
chocolate.
Thus almost
frater-
was dreaming. They asked us
and the whole day passed without any
fighting.
At
evening we were relieved by other soldiers and returned to the rear
without being disturbed.
Was here;
it
then,
why
is
it
not splendid? Think you that
said that kill
* 'Allemands' -
we ought
to
have
one another on such a
Germans
-
fired.
festival
we were wrong? But would
it
We
have been criticized
not have been dastardly?
day?
was one of Tommy's most popular names for the enemy.
[149]
And
Franco-German fraternization from The Graphic, so January igi S :
Robert de Wilde, Captain Commandant of Belgian midnight mass
in a
barn
at
Artillery,
who had
Pervyse, within sight of the flares fired by the
attended
Germans
on Christmas Day on his front but memorable fraternization at nearby Dixmude, where the Germans and the Belgians were dug in on opposite banks of the river Yser. Sixty unarmed Germans emerged from their lines and sang carols, asked for a one day's truce, and threw across the river one of the treasures from the collegiate church of Dixmude which they had previously purloined - as a pledge of good faith. 'They have also thrown chocolate to us', wrote de Wilde, 'we have responded with cigars, and the festival of Christmas has momentarily united in the same emotion enemies of yesterday and tomorrow.' from
their trenches, witnessed nothing unusual
recorded
a
[150]
Christmas
As for were 'much
Day
the French front, that the Bavarians of inclined to fraternize with the French'
I
Corps
found
its
in the vicinity of Arras
way
into the journal of
Commander-in-Chief, while the war diary of the French 139th Infantry
the British
Brigade then stationed near Ablain, St Nazaire in Artois, recorded another example
No activity at all on
friendly relations. Its Christmas
up
of Bavarians and poilus striking
Day
entry read:
the part of the enemy.
During the night and
in the course of today, the 25th,
communications,
strictly
frowned upon by the authorities, have been established between the French and the Bavarians and from trench to trench (with conversations, the sending by the friendly messages, cigarettes, etc.
.
.
There have even been
.
visits
to
the
enemy of German
trenches).
For the 56th Infantry Brigade, however, near Foucaucourt began
in peace,
in Picardy the
day
but ended with a particularly harsh return to the normality of trench
warfare.
A
calm day;
a
completely spontaneous truce
sector, notably at the
and there from the trenches
However
is
established along the whole front in this
two extremities, where French and German to
the General
exchange newspapers and
Commanding our
underground attack so our sappers proceed
soldiers
come out here
cigarettes.
Division decides to ward off an expected
to place a charge of
800 kilos of powder
under the German advanced trench.
At 23.00 hours everything
is
ready for the explosion, the order to light the fuse
given, but, there being a misfire, the operation
is
recommenced and the explosion
is
takes
place at 23.45.
Immediately
a
detachment rushes forward to take possession of the crater and
exploit the incident, but the
hand grenades and above
enemy being on
all rifle fire.
detachment withdraws with some
Another account
tells
difficulty,
in similar episodes
The meeting was an awkward Germans brought cigars. After salutes silence,
and and
cigars in the
them with rocket flares, and our
using the bayonet.
of a joint burial in which the French 29th Regiment was
involved, but which was characterized by a
which prevailed
the alert, greets
Finally they execute a counter-attack
much
on the British
less cordial
atmosphere than that
front.
came out with shovels while the a German, were exchanged, the bodies collected and buried, the men returned in one, as the French a
French corporal had shaken hands with
evening firing began again.
[151]
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WAR Instriictioiis [ct;.iul.ii2 ;5iimi:iaric.> a;
and the will
Stall'
War
DiAii-j.^
and
in
Hour, Date, Place.
manuscript.
DIARY
latulli^'eace
e coiiUinfJ in I-', ^i. Ki-^'d., Part II, Title pages .M:uiuui respectively.
be prepared
'taziiL^
HMTELLIGF,NCE SUMMARY. (iVasc hcaditnj not required.)
.Simuiiary of EvcTits
nml Intormation
;i>^«Jcut4
Christmas
Instances of
Germans emerging from
Day
their trenches to
propose a Christmas
met by a hail of bullets, as took place at certain points in the British sector, occurred on the French front too. La Gazette de France of lo January reported an event on the Rheims-Verdun sector: ceasefire only to be
On
Christmas Day the Germans
their trenches
left
Almost
days' truce!' Their ruse did not succeed.
immediate
on Christmas Day shouting 'Two
all
of
them were shot down by an
fusillade.
Yet there were also friendlier episodes. The German 1st Garde-Grenadier Regiment was stationed near Puisieux, in the region which would become famous a year and
Somme
a half later as the battlefield of the
- at this stage
untroubled sector. Grenadier Thimian of No. 2
Up
to the afternoon of
happened which
I
shall
Christmas
Day
never forget.
climbing out of his trench.
I
had
I
it
of the war a relatively
Company wrote
in his diary:
was remarkably quiet and then something
was on guard duty when
just taken
aim when
I
I
saw a Frenchman
suddenly noticed that someone
had climbed out from our side too. The two of them walked slowly and stealthily towards each other and shook hands. They were followed by several others from their side and ours. The French looked ill-fed and poorly clothed and almost all of them were
They begged
old.
We
for tobacco.
chatted for about 45 minutes and then everybody
went quietly back to their trenches.
One it.
other incident of Franco-German fraternization had an unusual twist to
A Mannheim
newspaper published a postcard from a German soldier
in
Flanders
in the New York Herald under the headline: FRENCH AND GERMANS AGREE TO TRUCE IN TRENCHES: BAR BRITONS. Fol-
which was subsequently printed
lowing a suggestion from the French that some trenches should be buried,
German
officer,
gathered in
German dead
some twenty men of both No Man's Land.
There was general handshaking; the dead were buried; were exchanged and
we
a general celebration ensued.
cigars, cigarettes
Then
the
French and
and newspapers
Frenchmen suggested
that
shoot no longer, promised that they themselves would not resume hostilities in that
event. But they added: 'Beat those Britishers.
agreed to
this.
We have no use
for them.' Well,
we
gladly
Again there was handshaking, arms were resumed, and everybody crawled
back to his trench.
It
lying between the
sides, including a
It
was peace
in the
midst of war.
should be added that this story was not published in Britain. Opposite: Extracts from French and British
War
Diaries of 2S December 1914
[153]
Boxing Day
T
the front
Day
still
men woke
with the memories of their unusual Christmas
fresh in their minds.
'I
wouldn't have missed the experi-
ence of yesterday', wrote one soldier on Boxing Day,
gorgeous Christmas dinner in England.'
'for the most was an attitude shared by
It
many. But the story was by no means over. Boxing Day too was have
its
to
range of curious incidents as the two armies began the
process - brief in some sectors, remarkably long-lasting in others - of going back to war. Private 'as
Tapp was up
late, at 7.40:
'had
to be called too',
A
the officer was waiting for his breakfast'.
showed I
that things
am
were much
surprised to see the
lous for words,
we
are
all
8.40
am
Germans and our
safer'.
first
one of our Officers
This
at
fellows
still
walking on top.
tells
them
to get
back
9 am. Some of them say 'we
will stop the football
way from
us,
same
It's
too ridicu-
hint of a return to routine warfare.
in their trenches as
our
artillery are
your trenches we
shall
be
match. Shells are exchanged for a few hours but we
all
will get in
stand up at intervals, no fear of being shot with a bullet. long
No Man's Land
had been.
mixing up again.
Soon, however, there was the
going to shell them
as they
he noted in his diary,
glance towards
as theirs
is
Of
course our artillery are a
from them, so they know nothing about our
little
holiday.
By
the river Lys, the senior officers of the 2/Royal
decided that the time had come to recommence hasty recourse to machine-gun or
rifle fire.
corum. At 8.30 am Captain Stockwell
hostilities.
Welch Fusiliers had also There was, however, no
Everything was done with studied de-
fired three shots in the air,
[154]
had a
'flag',
as
he
Boxing
called
Day
put up with 'Merry Christmas' on
it,
it,
and climbed on
Germans responded with a sheet with 'Thank you' on
after
it,
to the parapet.
The
which the German
The two officers bowed, saluted, German captain fired two shots in
down
captain also emerged into full view.
then got
into their respective trenches; the
the air and the
war was on In
again.
fact, hostilities
described
were only notionally resumed. As Private Frank Richards
it:
During the whole of Boxing Day we never seemed
to
be waiting for the other to
across in English
him
it
fired a shot,
and they the same, each side
set the ball a-rolling.
and inquired how we had enjoyed the
One
of their
men
shouted
We shouted back and told We were conversing off and
beer.
was very weak but that we were very grateful for
it.
on during the whole of the day.
There was much uncertainty in both camps on Boxing Day as to the other It was plain that there was a widespread if only half-admitted reluctance to begin fighting again. It was also clear that many had no desire to harm the men with whom they had been on such good terms. In the case of the i/North Staffs, when the 107th Saxon Regiment opposite gave formal notice of their intention to discontinue the truce they accompanied it with a friendly warning so that nobody should actually get hurt. As the British regiment's official history recorded: side's intentions.
Shortly after 'Stand down' next morning a
German
officer
wished to speak to him
'C Company Commander was informed in
No Man's
Land.
On
that
going out he found a
very polite and spotless individual awaiting him, who, after an exchange of compliments,
informed him that his Colonel had given orders for a renewal of
and might the men be warned the
German
replied,
you.'
'We
The
to
keep down, please?
officer for his courtesy,
are Saxons;
hostilities at
mid-day
'C Company Commander thanked
whereupon, saluting and bowing from the waist, he
you are Anglo Saxons; word of
a
gentleman
is
for us as for
troops were duly warned to keep down, but just before hostilities were due
to re-open a tin
was thrown
the inscription,
'We shoot
Company's lines with a piece of paper in it bearing and sure enough at the appointed hour a few vague trenches. Then all was quiet again and the unofficial truce
into 'A'
to the air'
shots were fired high over the
continued.
The almost a
Lange
107th was in
XIX
Saxon Corps, mutiny when the order was given
told the story to the Australian Ethel
she recorded
it
in a letter to her sister.
[155]
in
one of whose regiments there was
to resume hostilities. Vize-Feldwebel Cooper when on leave in Leipzig and
Boxing
The
difficulty
began on the 26th, when the order to
Herr Lange says officers
Day
indulged
that in the in,
fire
was given,
for the
men
struck.
accumulated years he had never heard such language
as the
while they stormed up and down, and got, as the only result, the
answer, 'We can't - they are good fellows, and
we
turned on Not a shot had come from the other side, but at last they fired, and an answering fire came bacU, but not a man fell. 'We spent that day and the next', said Herr Lange, 'wasting ammunition in trying to the
men
with, 'Fire, or
shoot the stars
we do
down from
-
and not
at
can't.' Finally, the officers
the enemyV
the sky.'
As agreed, the i/Royal Irish Rifles near Laventie had ended their truce with Germans the at midnight on Christmas Day with the firing of a single revolver shot. A party of Germans who had come across towards 'B' Company's trench just before midnight had been peremptorily ordered back. But Boxing Day found the atmosphere on the front very relaxed. As their battalion War Diary noted: 'the Germans throughout the morning appeared to have no intention of opening
Some had
their first experience of the
fire
on
us'.
Christmas truce on Boxing Day. Second
Lieutenant Cyril Drummond, Royal Field Artillery, had been out on rest until late on Christmas evening. Shortly after breakfast, he and his telephonist set off from their artillery lines to take up their duties in an observation post which they had established in a ruined house at St Yvon, just to the north of Ploegsteert Wood. As they walked down the road towards the front they were confronted by an amazing sight.
Looking down towards the trenches
it
was
just like Earls
Court Exhibition. There were
the two sets of front trenches only a few yards apart, and yet there were soldiers, both British
and German, standing on top of them, digging or repairing the trench
way, without ever shooting telephonist and
I
at
each other.
It
was an extraordinary
walked down the sunken road
in full
situation.
view of everybody
in
And
in
some so
my
Germany,
with no one taking any notice of us.
Within minutes
Drummond was
out in
No Man's Land
souvenirs. After a while, having brought his
group of friendly enemies and took
conversing and exchanging
camera with him, he rounded up
a
a photograph.
Another newcomer to the truce on Boxing Day was Second Lieutenant John Wedderburn-Maxwell, also of the Royal Field Artillery, who had come up to the front near Fauquissart
from the
artillery lines the
proceedings were over. His fellow
officers'
previous evening
when
account of what had taken place
the day's left
him,
as he said in a letter to his father, 'terribly jealous of having missed such an experi-
[156]
and Germans photographed Drummond, R FA
British
Cyril
'They were very nice fellows
you don't want
to kill us.
in
No Man's Land
to look at
So why shoot?"
.
.
.
Day
by Second Lieutenant
& one of them said "we don't want
.
.
on Boxing
.
I lined
them
all
to kill
you and
up and took a photograph.'
and determined to make up for it at the earliest opportunity. A first foray beyond the wire ended when a heavy battery of British artillery, after shooting into some building some way behind the German lines, suddenly reduced the range and
ence',
dropped I
a
round into
thought
this
a
German
would
stir
trench not far away.
them
all
rabbit, but the 'Allemands' didn't
minutes and appeared again
About midday he walked Royal Irish
Rifles, to
up and made a dash for our trench and into it seem to mind tho' they went to ground for
like a
a
few
later.
across
open ground
to the battalion headquarters of the
have lunch with the Colonel, noting as he did so that 'our [157]
^
''^^-"^^S^^^i^i^^^^
-^/
^
'^-^
^c^:
7
«
r.
Boxing
people and theirs
mind
Taking
seemed quite
still
possible
if at all
'to
to
friendly'.
So
I
set
in front to
later.
One was
and was given
be up here and wanted to come badly).
his
I
made my way through
the
about halfway across waved to some of
our trenches and when come over, upon which two came to meet us and four more German-American who could talk fair English. I gave them
a a
made up
out along our trenches with a corporal from the Battery
in front of
barbed wire
them
afternoon he
in the
hold a conversation with a Boche'.
a tin of cigarettes
(who happened
Day
box of tobacco which
I
send
will
the most extraordinary event of the whole war
home
as a souvenir of
- a soldier's truce
what
rolled
up
cigarettes
is
probably
without any higher
sanction by officers and generals, with firing going on to the right and rather further
away
to the
left.
We
up and down
strolled
for about i hour,
shook hands, said good-
bye, saluted and returned to our lines.
Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater was Day. There was another parley
and
cigarettes.
also out in
Photographs were taken; and
it
was on
and the Germans made provisional arrangements
Day
'as
Germans wanted
the
how
to see
No Man's Land
on Boxing
middle, and more exchanging of autographs
in the
this
occasion that the Gordons
for another truce
the photographs
came
out'.
on
New
Year's
Chater also took
advantage of the truce and the beautiful weather to take several walks along the 'It is difficult to realize
way
there
Tapp
am
too was out walking.
of our
army
knives.
I
don't want to
rounds of ammunition,
for the coal, a
was only
cottage
...
where neither
side dare go at ordinary
Germans on the way, they have come sell mine so we exchange coins, I have
out after coal, meet a few
I
five
line.
means', he wrote, 'but of course in the ordinary
take a stroll to a cottage near their trenches
times.
it
this
not a sign of life above ground.'
is
Private
I
what
I
German comes
to
buy one
got 3, also
give one pkt of cigarettes get cigars in return, then in with a
bag to get some too, he helps
me
fill
my
I
go
bag so
him fill his, it didn't take long to clear all the coal out of that we could not have done that last time we were here, one fire would have polite to help
caused vollies to be sent over.
Even was
in areas
where there had been hard fighting up to Christmas Boxing Day When to the north of Givenchy, two platoons of the Cameron
relatively peaceful.
Highlanders came under sniper
fire
while digging support trenches well out of sight
of the Germans, the cause was traced to the fact that the Berkshires to their front
were amusing themselves holding up caps
Opposite: Letters
Home
as targets for
about 'the most wonderful day on record'
[159]
German marksmen
to fire
Boxing
Day
Here and there, however, more hostile gunfire claimed its victims. The 2/Seahad one man wounded on Boxing Day - the same Corporal Ferguson, 'Fergie', who had been a ringleader in the fraternization of Christmas Eve. Boxing Day, in fact, was to be his last day as a fighting soldier. He-described what happened: at.
forths
26 December - They have not fired
yet,
but the artillery have been^ busy, and they have
the range of our trench; they have started shelling on the right;
our section to
retire to reserve trenches.
order; the last shell didn't
I
know was going
Result:
had
just left
word
my mud
is
passed along for
hut to carry out the
noticed had smashed our telephone wires, and the next shell to strike
arm amputated
me
- but
friends the Bavarians
it
who
I
did!
elbow and shrapnel wound
at
pieces of shrapnel and two bullets
made
I
removed from me; but
I
in thigh.
know
it
In
all
I
had
six
was not our new-
shot me, but the artillery of the Prussians - 'The
dogs.'*
*
On the evening of Boxing Day, General Smith-Dorrien went down to the trenches. He had already issued, on Christmas Day itself, a stern document signed by his Chief of Staff pointing out that his instruction of
maintenance of the offensive
spirit
received sufficient attention'.! So
it
5
December on
the subject of the
and the avoidance of military lethargy, had 'not
must be presumed
that he
was not expecting
be overly impressed when only the next day he made his random checks
The subsequent
points in the line.
of
1 1
'confidential
memorandum'
speaking, was struck by the apathy of everything
of the Royal Engineers
- 'for
was perhaps fortunate
fraternizing; but
hear that such
morandum
when he
strictly
whom
I
I
affairs I
to
two
commanders
Corps was signed by Smith-Dorrien himself and pulled no punches.
he wrote, 'considerably disappointed with the state of
It
to all the
at
He
was,
found' and, 'generally
saw'; only the Field
Companies
have nothing but praise' - escaped castigation.
for the units he visited that they
were not engaged
in
got back to his headquarters he was further incensed to
forbidden activities had indeed been taking place. His me-
ended:
was dictated in hospital in Nottingham soon after his return home. 'I am at present in [Derbyshire Royal Infirmary]', he wrote, in the final paragraph of his remarkable story, 'and words fail me in trying to express my appreciation of the attentions and kindness of our Sister and nurses.' He later married the nurse to whom he dictated his story. It says much for the quality of Corporal Ferguson's account that it was published (unedited, and with only 'a few corrections in punctuation') in the distinguished London journal The Saturday Review on Christ-
* Ferguson's account
DRI
mas Day 191 5. t See pages 38-40.
[160]
.
Boxing Day
would add
I
that,
my
on
return,
I
was shown a report from one section of how, on
Christmas Day, a friendly gathering had taken place of Germans and British on the neutral ground between the two lines, recounting that
This
it.
from
is
only illustrative of the apathetic state
illustrating that
troops.
any orders
I
issue
orders that on no account
strictest
To
finish this
we
many
officers
had taken part
in
are gradually sinking into, apart also
on the subject are
useless, for
I
have issued the
intercourse to be allowed between the opposing
is
war quickly, we must keep up the fighting
spirit
and do
all
we can
to discourage friendly intercourse. I
am
calling for particulars as to
names of
officers
and units who took part
in this
Christmas gathering, with a view to disciplinary action.
News
The 2/Royal Welch we have seen, drinking looted French beer, were relieved on the evening of Boxing Day by the 2/Durham Light Infantry. According to Frank Richards they told the Welshmen that the French 'had heard how we had spent Christmas day and were saying all manner of nasty things of the truce had spread in other directions as well.
Fusiliers, after fraternizing with the
enemy and,
as
about the British Army'.
some of the French women were standing in the soldiers, you boko kamerade cursed them back until we were blue in the nose
Going through Armentieres doors spitting and shouting
AUemange.'
We
'You no bon, you English
.
There was one more
A German
that night
at us:
.
flurry of excitement at the front before
Boxing Day ended.
news
deserter crossed to the trenches of the Kensingtons with the
there was to be an attack that night at 12.15 am.
The Kensingtons were
that
in process
of pulling out to their billets at Laventie, but had to return immediately to the front
War
where, as their happened'. the area
The
beyond
Diary put
artillery in the at
1
1.15
pm
it,
'we lay in a
field
most of the night, but nothing
whole area opened up on the enemy's trenches and
and many units found themselves on
full alert,
but there
was no response or movement of any kind on the part of the Germans. The anger
which
this
episode aroused
among
the British was reflected strongly in the accounts
some of those who found their Boxing Day peace thus brusquely disturbed. Second Lieutenant J.D. Wyatt, of 2/Yorks, had been attempting to cut a ditch with
of
a
working party
all
day.
Saturday Dec. 26th .
.
.
to!'
Back
after a long
Ready
at a
day
moment's
at this pursuit,
notice.
and turned out soon
No end of guns firing. [161]
after got into bed. 'Stand
Perhaps Germans attack.
Boxing
Day
Sunday Dec. 27th After messing about 3 hours were told to stay in billets ready dressed, so lay
Had
was.
I
very uncomfortable night
a
&
down
as
hear the whole thing was 'wind up' pure
&
simple. Sickening! Last night in billets spoilt.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lothian Nicholson, commanding
officer of the 2/East
Lanes,
down in a wet ploughed field for an hour 3 am. Commenting later on what he called 'this
reacted with similar asperity, having lain
and only got
his
It
cover at
was never ascertained whether there was ever any
man was
the
behind the
It
men under
he wrote:
fuss',
sent over purposely so that the
lines
real intention
Hun Command,
could find out what steps we took to reinforce the
was perhaps fortunate
for the
German who had sparked
of attack. Possibly
by means of
their spies
line.
off all this^activity, that
he was picked up by the Kensingtons and not by the more volatile soldiers of
Royal Irish Rifles next
to
had taken most unkindly never came. Their
The
deserter
War who
them. They too had been on their way out to to a dismal night in the
open waiting
billets
1/
and
for an attack that
Diary commented caustically:
caused the alarm on the night 26th-27th unfortunately did not
fall
into the Battn's hands.
In
fact, the anticipated
of the
men
German
onslaught on the British lines appears to have been a figment
deserter's imagination.
The
next morning Hulse, seeing some of his
laughing with a group of Germans, went out to find what was amusing them
and found that they were discussing the too, he discovered,
were preparing artillery,
German attack
false
had spent many long, dark hours on
to attack but because of the furious
which convinced them that the lines.
and
I
alarm of the previous night.
British
them, as
it is
not because they
cannonade from the British
were about
to
advance against the
had heard nothing of an inconceivable that they would have allowed
'They assured me', wrote Hulse,
fully believed
full alert,
The enemy
us to put up the formidable obstacles which
we had
they had contemplated an offensive movement.'
[162]
'that they
[on the two previous nights]
if
IH E bracing weather which had provided
so appropriate a setting for
now began to change. A sprinkhng of snow on Boxing Day itself but after dark it turned to sleet and
the events of Christmas
had
fallen
by the morning of the 27th the front was back in the grip of the usual, soaking Flanders rain. After their dreary night alert the 1/
.Royal Irish Rifles, in the line making
up
billets in
Laventie, spent their
for lost sleep
and scraping
mud
first
from
day out of
their boots,
uniforms and guns.
Major Buchanan-Dunlop,
still
Last night turned very wet and unpleasant. look formidable
when
.
.
.
The mud was
written down, but in reality
high, stuck so fast that he
Once
wrote that day to his wife:
in the line,
had
to be pulled out
by
it's
his
awful, 'knee-deep' doesn't
pretty bad.
My
subaltern, six feet
men.
it continued. A violent storm with thunder, hail and very on the Western Front on the night of 28-9 December. The trenches be in worse condition. Early in the New Year Hulse would be inform-
the rain returned,
high winds
fell
were never
to
ing his mother, not without
some
glee:
In one of our communication trenches which has
now
is
deeper than most,
1 1 ft
6 in, the water
attained the astounding and almost comic depth of nine feet!
But flooding,
as ever,
produced
mud
and
mud
was never a laughing matter.
The ghastly conditions of the Third Battle of Ypres, when drowning in mud became a common occurrence, were almost three years ahead, but even in this first winter of the war
it
claimed
its
victims. In
mid- January 191 5 General Smith-Dorrien noted
his diary:
[163]
in
East Lanes trench south of Ploegsieeri Wood: during the truce
LRB men strengthening the
trench with sandbags
much rain, the ground was almost liquid mud, which would cling to the shovel so men would be needed to fill each bag - one to hold the bag open, a second one to fill,
'Often, after that three
and
the third to scrape the glutinous mess off the shovel!'
{Rifleman
Two
unfortunate
Cameron Highlanders disappeared
and the other died on being recovered. also
been
lost in the
I
am
in a
afraid that a
Graham
Williams,
LRB)
morass, one was never found
young
officer
of the
RFA
has
same way.
So the weather was back to 'business as usual' and so too in many areas was the war. There would not be a great deal of activity on the British front for some time, and no large-scale fighting until the battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 19 15, but for many units the truce was now behind them, beginning its process of slipping back into history. Yet
in certain sectors the
mood inspired by the events of Christmas Some German regiments continued to
lingered on with incredible stubbornness.
show themselves remarkably eager
to maintain their friendly
British, while the British for their part
were prepared
to
relations with the
go along with them, either
arguing military advantage (as in the matter of improving trenches) or openly ad-
[164]
'
The Long Truce
is
Broken'
random
mitting that they were happy to have the threat of snipers' bullets and artillery fire
temporarily withdrawn.
There were two main areas where the truce took root. To the north of the British line, Ploegsteert Wood was already beginning to confirm its reputation as a relatively 'cushy' sector. It was during this period that much work was carried out on constructing a line of breastworks in the wood, which was dubbed the 'Tourist Line' because region of
it
was
Rue du
a safe
show piece
To
for visitors.
the south of Armentieres, the
Bois, Fleurbaix and Laventie - also to have a benign reputation
throughout the war - continued extremely quiet. There were friendly episodes in other areas, and occasional casualties in these areas but, by and large, in spite of
some
stern attempts to
tell
the
enemy
the truce could not continue, there was to be
peace and goodwill here for some considerable time - in some cases well into January, in
one notable case until the beginning of February. *
That
it
was possible
*
*
for the truce to continue openly in this
way
inevitably raises an
important question not yet discussed: what was the attitude of the High (in particular the British It
was
a
common
High Command)
assumption of the
to the
men
soldiering that later,
you don't
Leslie Walkinton over sixty years
adding, in relation to Christmas 19 14, that
to think of the generals
going purple in the face'
'it
made us
at the
all
thought of
roar with laughter
Tommy
meeting together between their trenches. Writing on Christmas Day
Tapp
confided to his diary:
about
this'.
don't
know what our General would
Bruce Bairnsfather wrote of
feeling that the authorities
ternizing
'I
seemed
on both
sides
his parleys with the
the terms that most ordinary soldiers
Tommy have quarrelled with after expressing his great
And
annoyance
say
Germans:
certainly this
if
Private
he knew
'a
sort of
this fra-
was the attitude
who condemned the whole affair in precisely would have expected. Nor would the average
Smith-Dorrien's statement at the truce,
only way to carry on a campaign of this
and Fritz
itself
were not very enthusiastic about
to creep across the gathering'.
of General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien,
- or, indeed,
one of the fundamental rules of
'It is
commented
fraternize',
would
at the front that the 'top brass'
be automatically against any gesture of friendship towards the enemy
any accommodation with him of any kind.
Command
Christmas truce?
in his personal diary
where,
he wrote: 'War to the knife
is
the
sort'.
Field Marshal Sir John French reacted with similar exasperation but, ruminating on the event later, called to question his
book J914: [165]
own
initial
response.
He
wrote in his
.
*
The Long Truce
Broken'
is
When this [i.e. the fraternization] was reported to me I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the local commanders to strict account, which resulted in a good deal of trouble.
have since often thought deeply over the principle involved
I
of such sentiments between hostile armies in the
field.
am
I
in the manifestation
not sure that, had the
question of the agreement upon an armistice for the day b^en submitted to me,
have dissented from
in
this
country has been engaged.
he went on to describe his I
should
I have always attached the utmost importance to the maintenance of that chivalry war which has almost invariably characterized every campaign of modern times in
which
And
I
it.
was
own
experience
at
Christmas
Boer War:
charge of the operations against General Beyers in the Western Transvaal
in
during the
latter part
of
December
On
1900.
the afternoon of Christmas
truce - that symbol of civilization and chivalry in
known during
this
war with Germany
was brought
officer
in the
to
my
-
appeared
Headquarters carrying
war which has been at
a
our outposts, and
Eve
a flag of
practically un-
young Dutch
a
request from Beyers regarding the
burial of his dead.
Some important movements were then necessity detain
him
there
till
as comfortable as possible. I
in progress,
the next day, but
When
I
and
I
told
him we must of to make him
hoped we would be able
he started back to his General on Christmas morning,
gave him a small box of cigars and
a bottle
of whisky, asking
him
to present
them
to
Beyers as a Christmas offering from me. I
had forgotten the incident when
a
few days
later,
two cavalry
soldiers
who had
been taken prisoners by the enemy marched back into camp with horses, arms and
equipment complete. They brought me Christmas Day and return, he gift.
.
hoped
I
telling
me
that,
would regard
note from Beyers, thanking
me
my
gift
on
although he had no whisky or cigars to offer
in
a
his liberation of these
men
for
in the light of a
Christmas
.
In the swift and kaleidoscopic changes which occur in world politics, the friend
may be
enemy of tomorrow. Soldiers should have no politics, but should own and, emulating the knights of old, should honour brave enemy only second to a comrade, and like them rejoice to split a friendly lance
of today
the
cultivate a freemasonry of their a
today and ride boot to boot in the charge tomorrow.
If
any comment was made by General Sir Douglas Haig
survived - though
it
is
important to add that there was very
it
appears not to have
little
fraternization at
Christmas on the front held by his I Corps. (He would be much more concerned with such fraternizations as occurred at Christmas 1915, by which time he would be Commander-in-Chief.) However, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Rawlinson in com[166]
'
mand
IV Corps made
of
which are
privately,
report on operations
On
a
far less
in his
The Long Truce
number
is
of references to the truce, both officially and
condemnatory than might have been anticipated. In
Corps area between 22 and 31 December he
the occasion of Christmas overtures were
armistice.
Broken'
made on
the
German
side for an informal
These were not entertained on the section held by the 8th Division.*
An
GOC,
7th
informal armistice on the 26th and 27th was, however, agreed to by the Division, both in order to bury the large as a
a
stated:
numbers of dead
still
lying
between the
lines
consequence of the attacks of the i8th December, and also to make better progress
with the urgent task of clearing the riviere des Layes and the drainage ditches.
true that in this official
It is
document
his
comments were only about
aspects of the armistice, but he also noted the events of Christmas
the military
Day
in his
personal diary without anything approaching Smith-Dorrien's rancour.
Merville Dec. 27lh
There has been -
a certain friendliness
Xmas day was
between our men and the Germans
in the trenches
looked on mutually as a peace day and both sides went out freely in
front of their trenches
and buried the dead which were
still
lying out in the fire-swept
zone - Germans looked very clean and smart - Put on their best clean clothes for the occasion
fancy -
I
picious of
them
and anxious
The
-
to get
They conversed freely and exchanged cigarettes - I am But many of them expressed themselves as heartily sick home to their wives and families.
rather sus-
of the war
only action he took, in fact, was to send one of his staff officers to collect the
details of
what had happened on the front occupied by 7th Division. More,
noteworthy that Rawlinson was friendly relations as 10
still
it
is
writing in his diary about the continuance of
between the Germans and some of the units of 7th Division
as late
January 1915 and doing so without any hint of disapproval.
Major-General Thomas Capper, commanding 7th Division, was plainly
at
one
with Rawlinson in taking a pragmatic attitude. In his report on operations in
IV
Corps during the period 22-9 December, he commented: Recently, at close
I
have purposely kept things rather quiet, as so
range from the enemy, that
I
could only carry
much work it
has had to be done
out by exercising a certain
amount of forbearance.
*
Rawlinson was wrong in stating that fraternization had not occurred in front of 8th Division. Of twelve battalions in the line in this division six actively fraternized, and five observed some sort of truce.
[167]
'The Long Truce
At the lower
is
Broken'
some sectors: no conniving at fraternization, but a realistic use of the lull to improve what all commanders knew were very inadequate lines of defence. On 28 December nth Brigade signalled to the i/Somerset Light Infantry, the i/East Lanes and the i/Rifle Brigade
It
level of brigadier-general, a similar
view prevailed
in
at Ploegsteert:
appears that there
[General Officer to strengthen
is still
cessation of hostilities in
Commanding]
our defences.
He
trusts that
wishes
me
some
parts of our line.
The
GOC
you are availing yourself of any opportunity again to remind you not to allow the
enemy
near our defences.
There were German commanders who took the same view. In the Rue du Bois where at one point the lines were merely twenty-eight yards apart any necessary labour would obviously be far better carried out with the enemy in tolerant rather than aggressive mood. It was here that the 107th Saxon Regiment had declared its intention to return to war only to resume the unofficial peace after a flurry of token fire. Honour satisfied, they then proceeded to get on with the task of trench improvements. This action was openly justified in the official history of one of the sector
other regiments in this corps:
Because of heavy rain the conditions were intolerable and the position untenable.
High Command were keen not an informal truce in
mas
to allow the position to deteriorate,
this sector, so
Army
and therefore allowed
work could be carried on without hindrance.
That the generals grasped the practical advantages to be gained by the Christis the conclusion drawn by John Buchan in his History of the Great War:
truce,
Possibly it was connived at by the commanders on both sides, for some of our trenches were nearly flooded, and the Germans had much timbering to do.
This view thought
is
much
endorsed by
Graham
Williams,
who was
there at the time and has
about the event since.
Contrary to reports
I
have read regarding
maintained by the rank and
file
this truce,
which
state that
it
was only
of both sides, and that the officers were dead against
the reverse was the case in our sector, where
not by Division, and even higher.
It
it
was encouraged, by Brigade
it,
at least, if
enabled necessary work on our defences to be
carried out in daylight, uninterrupted by
machine-gun
[168]
fire.
'
The hesitation
The Long Truce
is
Broken'
ambivalent attitude of the generals to the truce inevitably led to some
and lack of
clarity in the
manner
in
which
it
were more forthright than the British, and the sooner 29 December,
fraternization
all
was forbidden,
in the trenches; all acts contrary to the
as
was dealt with. The Germans to react.
were
all
By an army order
of
approaches to the enemy
order were to be punished as high treason.
in the German and the Allied press. on the British side was given such publicity and, indeed, no written order emanating from appears to have been preserved. The nearest surviving equivalent from a British source is an order of i January 19 15 stating: 'Commander Second Army directs that informal understandings with enemy
This strongly worded edict was publicized both
By
contrast,
no
parallel order
GHQ
and
are to cease. Officers martial.'
NCOs
allowing them are to be brought before a court
This was, however, once again the inevitable Smith-Dorrien, now striding
the wider stage of an a routine order
with
In the event
it
army
little
as
opposed
to a corps.
The
instruction
was passed on
as
sense of urgency on 2 January.*
appears no one was penalized and no one court-martialled.
The
which Smith-Dorrien proposed to take subsequent to the reports of fraternizing which he heard on Boxing Day was not brought into effect. French's disciplinary action
reference to calling the local
was
'a
commanders
good deal of trouble' seems
have survived of
COs
to
to 'strict account' as a result of
which there
have been an exaggeration, in that no stories
reprimanded, demoted, or sent home. Only the unfortunate
Kenny and Welchman of the 1/39 Garhwal Rifles seem to have suffered stoppage of leave; while by contrast the Commanding Officer of the 2/39th, Lieutenant-Colonel Drake-Brockman, and the Adjutant, Captain Berryman, were soon the sight of 'Blighty' so dear to their long separation
all
from home.
the British
On
members of
to
be enjoying
the Indian Corps after
the whole, in fact, the fraternization
markably few victims of official displeasure
at
any
left re-
level.
There remains the tradition, widely believed, that certain units were punished in some way for their participation by, for example, being taken out of the line as untrustworthy. There appears to be no evidence of this. The tradition is perhaps stronger still on the German side; but a specific story to the effect that certain Saxon *
The fact that so few orders relating to the Christmas truce have survived should So many orders and signals were despatched to all units by all staffs at all times
not cause surprise.
that it was rare for them to be carefully preserved for the enlightenment of future historians. Indeed, since the majority of them were written or typed on small pieces of flimsy paper, they tended to finish their brief career pressed into further service to the nation in that most humble but vital of areas, the trench latrine. Who knows what fascinating fragments of history were, as one might put it, 'wiped' in this way? As corroboration of the potential value of such documents, it is worth citing the experience of Colonel Richard Meinerzhagen in the East African campaign, who arranged that paper used by German officers in their necessary moments should be salvaged for the assistance it might give to his intelligence reports.
[169]
'
The Long Truce
Broken'
is
regiments were sent to the Russian front for fraternizing has proved to be without foundation. Weeks later, according to their regimental histories, they were still in the
same area of the Western Front; and at certain times during the next months they would find themselves opposite their 'friends' from Christmas Day. But this is to anticipate. *
*
which lashed down on 27 December, restoring the front to its usual dismal colours and its usual air of soaking desolation, failed to keep the Saxons who had
The
rain
been fraternizing with the i/Leicesters
in their
own
lines, as
Major Buchanan-Dun-
lop told his wife:
Such
a curious situation has arisen
their trenches
and had
four shots a day.
tea with our
Our men were
on our
men
left.
The Saxons
today have been out of
all
halfway between the trenches.
rather non-plussed, as
owing
They
only
between the two parties they couldn't very well take them prisoner, when two of officers
fire
to the friendly relations
and 70 men came into our trenches and have refused to return. They
their
insist
on
staying.
Opposite the Scottish regiments of the 20th Brigade the Germans showed a similar enthusiasm for the truce to continue on the 27th.
The Germans
come over and enjoy another day's so-called in their trenches. They seemed to be they wouldn't fire if we didn't, but if we had orders to fire to tried to
'armistice' but
were
informed that they must keep
quite indignant and
said
signal to
three volleys
the
first fired in
But there was no
firing
and the quiescent mood lingered on. Lieutenant-Colonel
Fisher-Rowe, whose i/Grenadier Guards had been out of the
and had now returned
them with
air.
to this sector, relieving the 2/Scots
line
over Christmas
Guards, wrote to
his wife
on the 27th:
We
are
New
all
very peaceful.
Year and
I
am
sure
.
.
I
.
[The Germans] say they want the truce have no objection.
A
rest
from
to
go on
till
after
bullets will be distinctly a
change.
On
the 28th Hulse in the comfort of his farm billet behind the line,
by the continuance of the
ceasefire to analyse
[170]
what was happening,
set
prompted
down
his
'
The Long Truce
explanation in a long letter to his mother. sick of fighting
and found the truce
a
going was shown by the fact that 'they talk'. It
was
also significant that 'they
is
Broken'
The Germans
welcome
made
were, he thought, 'pretty
keenness to keep
it
by continually coming
to
respite'; their
us prolong
it
were the troops we had attacked, and some of
them expressed admiration for us, etc. and they had also suffered a good deal by it and, one way and another, they were quite ready to have a respite and to improve their own comforts and trenches like us'. In addition, he detected what he called 'a deeper and also overall
German
fairly
obvious reason', in that he saw the present
the Western Front lately
that they are
still
and Belgium, while Such attacks as the Germans had 'have only been bluff, in order to make us believe
two months, and an absence of shrapnel
three weeks. 'However', he concluded,
Tapp
I
'it is all
fire
over the previous
very curious.'
of the i/Royal Warwicks at Ploegsteert was also puzzled by what
was taking place and sought
for explanations:
can't understand the friendship
are short of
east.
trying to advance here'. In support of this he cited a falling-off of
artillery fire in the past
Private
part of an
strategy to hold the present situation in France
deciding the main issue of the war in the
made on
lull as
ammunition,
Others saw simpler and
between our fellows and the Germans.
if so, it is
less subtle causes.
Brigade spent part of the 28th in what was
On the
may be
they
Lance-Corporal Bell of the London Rifle left
sniper-duty, 'but owing to the truce there fraternization going on'.
It
a clever trick of theirs.
is
of the roof of a
nothing to do.
bombarded house on
We
can see
all
the
30th he commented in his diary:
Truce continues; most amazing. Starting with the 'peace and goodwill' idea on Christmas Day, it was found so mutually pleasant and convenient that neither side, though keeping close watch,
It
was
also,
fires a shot.
some thought,
practical
common
sense. Captain
Maurice Mascall, of the
Royal Garrison Artillery, wrote on 28 December: There is no sniping, and the men of both sides stand up and repair their parapets, and wave to each other, and sometimes make each other tea, and it is all most gentlemanly! Also
it is
very sensible, as this useless and annoying sniping can have no real effect on
the progress of the campaign.
%
Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher-Rowe shared the same attitude:
[171]
January floods
in the
Bois Grenier trenches
The parapets have fallen dangerously low, and the men are confined to their posts which are Both ive and the Germans are far too busy trying to improve conditions to bother each other much; so the front is quiet and the shell fire trivial.' {Captain Jack, l/Cameronians, j January 191 S)
'
like islands in a morass.
I
don't think that they want to start
more than we do
as
it
only means a few of each side
being hit and does not affect the end of the war.
The war had become
On
have evaporated. lines to
so friendly at Ploegsteert that
all
warlike spirit seemed to
29 December Captain Mascall came down from
the artillery
do some drawing.
Having the
said in
same
my
tree this
German appeared in his hand.
last letter that
morning. at the
He was
I
there were no birds in the wood,
was sketching
window of
a ruined
in front of
our
I
line,
saw
house opposite to me, waving
followed by several others, and then several of our
trenches, and the two parties advanced and
five sitting in
when suddenly
met halfway. There was
a cigar
men
a
box
left their
great saluting
and
bowing, and then an interchange of cigarettes, and then they separated with every mark of admiration.
[172]
2l Argyll
& Sutherland Highlanders constructing a breastwork of mud and hurdles. Rue du Bois
trenches near
Grande Flamengrie Farm, January 1915. The German trench
line
is
in
front of
the trees on the left.
'There was a certain amount of friendly backchat with the Saxons opposite, mostly about being made to work so hard by our bosses' Sutherland Highlanders) (Lieutenant Ian Stewart, 2/ Argyll
&
Isn't this
day, and
On
an extraordinary
Heaven knows how they
state of affairs!
They seem
to get
more
friendly every
will ever start fighting again.
occasions the truce had to be temporarily broken
when
the appearance of
some high-ranking commander on the German side required a token display of firing. True to the friendly spirit which prevailed the Germans informed the British in advance. Lance-Corporal Bell wrote in his diary on 30 December: The
other day the
would be opening
German
fire
CO
between
1 1
opposite expected a
and
There was a similar event on the 30th 2/Yorks commented:
12,
visit
from
a general,
and
said he
and we had better keep our heads down.
itself,
as
[173]
Second Lieutenant J.D. Wyatt of the
.
The Long Truce
'
is
Broken'
no war! At about lunchtime however a message came down the line to Germans had sent across te say that their General was coming along in the afternoon, so we had better keep down, as they might have to do a little shooting to make things look right!!! And this is war!! A few shots came over about 3.30pm.* Dec. 30th.
Still
say that the
Indeed in these days following Christmas, in the majn trucing areas, it became commonplace to walk and work freely in the open, unworried by the prospect of sniper fire. There was an incredible sense of relief, after weeks of crouching below ground level, at being able to stand upright and see beyond the horizon of a sandbagged parapet. As Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher-Rowe put it: 'It makes such a lot of a
having your eyes
diflference
few inches above the
feet instead of a
5
level of the
ground'.
Fisher-Rowe near to
And
us'.
also wrote:
'Walking about on top brings the Germans curiously
indeed Germans as well as British were fascinated by what was
No Man's Land. The following Saxon regimental history refers to the part of the line near Rue du Bois where both sides were working simultaneously on their defences. going on just
from
a
few yards away on the other side of
a
During the following days we saw among our neighbours strange sights. Every morning on the other side brown figures and on our side grey figures crept up from their holes in the
with
ground scarcely 60 metres away from each other, and began
wood and It
down
was fascinating
to
watch how when the
their pickaxes, spades
and
trenches, and half an hour later
of their parapets
.
tools
bell
and take
on the Sergeant's
rang the English soldiers would lay
their breakfasts in protection of their
whistle, to stream again over the tops
.
This relaxation
in
sectors of our regiment, lines
and work
to build
wire on trench fortification.
Rue du Bois
sector naturally spread to neighbouring
where there were the same intolerable conditions
were further apart. Firing didn't cease altogether
company
- only the
in these particular sectors.
There were, however, further examples at this time of the risks of fraternizaIn some areas 'visiting' the enemy's lines was getting rather out of hand, and measures were taken to curtail it. The War Diary of 20th Brigade reported on 27 December that four Scots Guardsmen were 'enticed' into the German trenches, tion.
*News of this reached the Corps Commander Sir Henry Rawhnson who noted in his diary: 'A German shouted out to our men the other day "Look out - we have a General coming down to the trenches so we must fire for an hour".' No doubt he found some pleasure in reporting the deception played on one of his opposites in the German military hierarchy.
[174]
.
'The Long Truce
among them
the scout, Murker,
Eve
the truce on Christmas
immediate
were kept
retaliation; forty
is
who had gone
Broken'
out into
- 'needless to say they
Germans who paid
No Man's Land
to arrange
have not returned'. There was
2/Border
a visit to the trenches of
as prisoners!
Such occurrences were rare, however. Indeed, it was more common for dealings between the two sides to be conducted with the utmost politeness, as in the case of nth Brigade on the edge of Ploegsteert Wood, who received a series of signals from the Saxons opposite in the week following Christmas. Late on Boxing Day, the i/ Hants had taken a message from them announcing: Gentlemen, our automatic at
midnight, we take
it
fire
honour
has been ordered from the Colonel to begin the to
award you of this
fire
again
fact.
In the event there had been no firing and, apart from a flurry of shots on the 28th,
which wounded three men and was immediately followed by an apology, this stretch of front had been extremely quiet. On the 29th, however, there came the antifraternization order
from German Headquarters which presumably led
to the follow-
ing signal at 4 pm on the 30th:
beg
to
inform you that
remain your comrades.
If
we
Dear Camarades,
if
I
shall
is
forbidden us to go out to you, but we will
be forced to
fire
you are English or Irishmen. Offering you some
we
will fire too high. Please tell us
cigars, I remain,
yours truly
.
.
company commander of the Hampshires presented Germans with a box of chocolates. In fact, some sniping did take place on the 31st. Two men of the i/Somerset Light Infantry were killed, while the i/Rifle Brigade next to them lost one man killed and one wounded. But this was on New Year's Eve and, once again, as at
As
a token of his appreciation a
the
Christmas there was the urge to celebrate.
on
The German Karl Aldag
described events
his sector:
On New
Year's Eve
we
at 12. It
was a cold
night.
apart);
we played
the
called across to
We
tell
each other the time and agreed to
fire a
salvo
sang songs, and they clapped (we were only 60-70 yards
mouth-organ and they sang and we clapped. Then
I
asked
if
they
hadn't got any musical instruments, and they produced some bagpipes (they are the Scots Guards, with the short petticoats and bare legs*) and they played
*
some of
their
Aldag was no doubt confusing the Scots Guards with the Gordon Highlanders in the matter of the 'short petticoats and bare legs'. The Scots Guards have never been a kilted regiment.
[175]
'The Long Truce
beautiful elegies on them, and sang, too.
there were a few shots from our guns
Then
(I
Broken'
is
we all fired salvos into the air\ Then know what they were firing at) and the like fireworks, and we waved torches and at 12
don't
usually so dangerous Very lights crackled
cheered.
We It
was
had brewed some grog and drank the loast of the Kaiser and the good 'Sylvester', just like peace-time!
For the Germans
Hogmanay
We
it
was Sylvester, and
with Hulse, as usual,
is
Patriotic Songs.
as they
were
settling
We
They
New
Year's Eve. Punctually at
German
had warned
down
for the night again, our
I
fired a star-shell,
as to
how
which was the
1 1
pm (German
I
lit
a
New
few bonfires as
Year
well. Just
own midnight hour approached, and
intended to receive the
and the whole
signal,
war
trenches were illuminated at
shouted, and then began singing their
watched them quietly, and they
my company
I
all
was
of events:
an hour ahead of ours), the whole of the
intervals of 15 or 20 yards.
and
Year.
for the Scots opposite the celebration
at the centre
had another comic episode on
time
New
a real
New
Year. At midnight
line fired a volley
and then
another star-shell and three hearty cheers, yet another star-shell, and the whole of us, led
by myself and the Platoon Sergeant nearest
sang
it
to
me, broke into 'Auld Lang Syne'.
We
who
At
three times, and were materially assisted by the enemy,
also joined in.
more hearty cheers and then silence. It was extraordinary hearing 'Auld Lang Syne' gradually dying away right down the line into the 8th Division. I fired three more star-shells in different directions, to see that none of the enemy were crawling the end, three
about near our wire and, finding
all clear, I
retired to
my
leaking bug-hutch.
But the night was not yet over: there was another curious episode I
had warned
when
sleep,
all
sentries as usual,
and informed me, most I
laconically,
little
in
and
average German The minute he saw
fairly superior to the
and pushed between two
fixed bayonets.
he came up, saluted, covered in smiles, and awfully pleased with himself, said, 'Nach
London, Nach London?'
I
replied, 'No,
escort burst in loud guffaws!
Year',
The
about | of an hour's
(my Platoon number from 9-12) burst to see you. Sir!'
fellow, fairly clean
private, being well hustled
*
'German
in getting
come:
struck a light, tumbled out, and heard a voice outside saying, 'Ojfizier? Haupt-
mann?' and found a
me
and had succeeded
the Platoon Sergeant of No. 12
to
He
which he kept on wishing
Isle of
Man was
well
known
my
lad,
Nach
the Isle of Man',*
on which the
could not talk a word of English except 'Happy us.
He was
a
as a detention centre for aliens in
[176]
New
genuine deserter, and had come in
both world wars.
'The Long Truce
absolutely unarmed. side,
I
is
went rapidly through
Broken'
which were bulging on every
his pockets,
and found no papers or anything of any value, but an incredible amount of every
He had come
kind of food and comestibles.
provided for the journey, and was
in fully
annoyingly pleased with himself. ordered him to be marched up to Battalion Headquarters under escort, and
I
telephoned up to George and had him woken to Year's present. bit of
I
him
tell
enclose receipt for prisoner, which
is
that
I
a
New
the
first
was sending him
rather interesting as
it is
work, or writing, which 19 15 brought me, and was considered by the ultra-
superstitious private soldier, of
which there are many,
my
as of
good augury.
them on the 25th that any of them who wished to report themselves at my barbed wire after dark would be fed and given a free passage to England! From what I could make out about a lot of talk from him, about 'three camaraden', I gathered that three of his pals were going to come in and give themselves up at 3 am, but they disappointed us and did not show up. He told me that he had a wife and two children, and never wished to see a rifle again - at least, that is what I gathered from a few words which I could understand. It
may have been
The London
Rifle Brigade
an extremely inebriated
mined to
the result of
to see in the
had
German
New
a similar
and should therefore be able
that in practice he
him back
moned
visitor
his English friends. as in theory
to his lines.
Two
on
New Year's Eve,
to report
There was much debate
riflemen, one of
on them. But since
were detailed to see him
whom
as
he had seen the British dispo-
was incapable of apprehending anything
to interpret -
We
unexpected
clutching a bottle of beer in each hand and deter-
Year with
whether he should be taken prisoner,
sitions
telling
it
it
was quite
was decided
to
clear
despatch
was Graham Williams
-
sum-
off":
him up on to the parapet, then we each took hold of one of his No Man's Land. And there he was between us, staggering along singing a very bawdy song at the top of his voice until we reached the German wire where there was a gap which he had obviously come through. I said to the other chap: 'I don't think we'll go any further; if we get into their trench they might want to keep us there'. So we headed the German in the right direction, wished him a Happy New Year and left him to it. managed
to heave
arms and led him back across
*
But where there had been no truce at Christmas, New Year was characterized by a similarly bellicose mood. 3rd Division, at the northern end of the line, reported on New Year's Day:
[
177]
.
'The Long Truce
Enemy exposed
&
was
fired
Broken'
is
&
himself above parapet singing
on by Lincolns with
cheering night of 31st Dec.
rapid-fire. Artillery
made
ist Jan.
very good shooting against
the enemy's trenches this day.
In the southern sector the 2/Grenadier Guards were back in the same trenches in a Christmas Eve. '^;he of the battahon,
CO
which they had spent so wretched
Lieutenant-Colonel Wilfrid Smith, wrote home:
I
saw the
New
Year
in last night in the
most depressing way, wet,
The Germans sung carols, Never was warfare made more diflScult. and
rockets.
Where
now the
shot at
them
cold, slush to
and
bullets
keep them quiet.
.
.
the Indians had fraternized with the Westphalians, the 2/Worcesters
held the
New
men
so our
line.
Year.
As
There was
a
thunder of defiant gunfire from both sides to greet
enemy, the Worcesters added
a gesture of hostility to the
general salvo with the firing of a newly devised trench mortar
to the
made from an
iron
named 'Archibald'. The Tickler's jam-tin bombs it launched towards Germans were now to be filled with nails instead of plum and apple.
drain pipe and the
*
*
The end
of the year saw the publication in
telling of 'the
many newspapers
Wonderful Day'. This was the
start
continue in the daily and weekly press until
late
of letters from soldiers
of a steady stream which was to
January. The
New York
Times,
London Daily News, broke the story across the Eve under the breezy headline foes in trenches swap
sharing the same source as the Atlantic on
New
Year's
PIES FOR WINE. The news took longer
to reach Australia, appearing as late as 9
February. Shortly photographs began to appear.
One
in particular, of a
crowd of some
No Man's Land, was given wide currency in popular press, appearing as tommy's truce between the trenches in Daily Sketch and an historic group in the Daily Mirror. twenty-five British and
That qualms.
and
all
Now
Germans
in
this ran
counter to the prevailing
editors
who had found such
his frightfulness coined phrases like
ians',
in the
Time
rich
of anti-Germanism caused few
column inches
in berating the
Hun
'Amiable Germans', 'Good-hearted Bavar-
'Chat and Chaff with the Germans',
'The Power of Peace
mood
the the
'How
the
Enemy
Joked' or, more grandly,
of War'. Moreover, the same edition might carry
cheerful yarns of fraternizing on one page while publishing the latest horror stories
on another.
On
9 January, for example,
when
[178]
the Daily Graphic published the
5
The photograph which appeared
in several British
newspapers on 8 January 191
photograph of British and Germans described above, they also ran
TORTURING PRIESTS VOLTING DEEDS. What
-
a story headed:
GERMAN CRUELTY TO DESOLATED BELGIUM
-
RE-
letters and their accompanying Such comments as there were, however, were remarkably benign. When the news broke the first reaction was not to condemn but to be amazed that the truce had happened at all. On i January, in one of the very first editorial references, the South Wales Echo wrote:
principally kept the story going
was the
headlines: there were relatively few editorials.
When upon
the history of the war as
one of
its
is
written one of the episodes which chroniclers will seize
most surprising features
the foes celebrated Christmas.
How
football, rode races, held sing-songs, will certainly
go down
as
will
undoubtedly be the manner
in
which
they fraternized in each other's trenches, played
and scrupulously adhered
to their unofficial truce
one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war.
[179]
'Talkers truce.
The
and Fighters' an American comment on York Evening Sun, 22 January 1915 :
the
its
nature
keep up the gospel of hate when chance throws
toil
'to
The human
Daily Mirror gave the truce a column-length leader on the 2nd.
burden of of
Christmas
New
thoughtful, indeed challenging message was that
men
it
was hard
into a
for
companionship
and danger'.
The
soldier's heart has rarely
job.
What came
him
little.
are to be
He
any hatred
in
it.
He
goes out to fight because that
before - the causes for the war and the
fights for his
why and wherefore
-
is
his
bother
country and against his country's enemies. Collectively, they
condemned and blown
to pieces. Individually,
[180]
he knows they're not bad
sorts.
.
'
The Long Truce
is
Broken'
Hatred, the writer added, was to be found 'mainly
The
diplomats and counts and Kaisers and
and
loafers in cafes, the people
The
in hatred.
at
Crown
home'.
Princes, the journahsts and statesmen
growing apoplectic-red
solder has other things to think about.
in Berlin streets - these mobilize
He
has to work and win. Conse-
quently he has not time for rage, and blind furies only overwhelm him is
up over
is
apparent to him.
Warming
to his
He
sees the absurdity
.
when
the blood
At other times the insane childishness
fierce tussles in the heat of the thing. .
theme, the writer cited a story from the Eastern Front, of Austrians
and Russians playing leapfrog together. Not bad His
final
sorts again!
How
unpatriotic!
An
Austrian liking a Russian!
thoughts were, however, gloomy and
The war would, and must,
fatalistic.
go on. But now an end to the truce. The news, bad and good, begins again. 19 15 darkens over.
Again we who watch have to mourn many of our
finest
men. The
lull is finished.
The
absurdity and the tragedy renew themselves.
Five days
later,
with the story supported by a positive explosion of
the front, the Daily Telegraph featured a long article by E.
Ashmead
letters
from
Bartlett, a
seasoned war correspondent in earlier campaigns, which began: Probably no news since the war began has made a greater sensation, and certainly none has
made
better reading than the accounts
which have come through from the trenches
of the unofficial armistice established between certain sections of the
our
own on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
the ferocity of the combatants during
German soldier
atrocities
is
and
trickery. It
.
.
.
All this
German
seems incredible
in
months past and of the authenticated
line
and
view of tales
of
seems to prove the assertion of many that the German
a good-hearted peace-loving individual once he
is
outside the influence of the
Prussian military machine.
Reserving his particular animus for the Prussians and Prussian militarism, he seized
on the
which identified the Saxons and Bavarians as the principal fraternizers, them possible evidence of a desire on the part of the non-Prussian states of the German Empire to make a separate peace with the Allies. He also reminded his stories
seeing in
readers that these incidents 'which have caused profound interest and have given rise to
much divergent comment' were
'no
new feature
[181]
of warfare'.
.
'The Long Truce
is
Broken'
In fact, it seems to be a common phenomenon of war, however bitter the struggle and however much the two nations may hate one another, that after a time a feeUng of friendship will spring
up between the troops
in the front ranks if they are kept for
any
length of time opposite one another. This arises from a growing feeling of respect for
your adversary and, sharing national feeling gives is
not responsible for
common
way before the war and
Whatever happens
hardships and
common
the fellow-feeling for is
th^man
only obeying orders
in the future let
and Saxons exchanged greetings and
gifts
it
.
dangers as they do, the opposite, who, after
all,
.
not be forgotten that the brave Bavarians
and the dead whilst the author of all Europe's
miseries was publicly announcing 'that to the
enemy
I
send bullets and bayonets'.
The Scotsman echoed the same sentiments the following day, when the Manchester
Guardian printed an even more emotional mediaeval concept of the 'truce of God'
[Now] there comes the proof not a
was
Harking back
to the
long-outdated
pause in fighting to observe the sacred
church - the writer commented:
feasts of the
dead.
article.
- a
that this oldest
and most wonderful
sort of truce
is
not
From its occasion, of course, it can be claimed as a truce of God, but it was truce of God in the sense that it was authorized and enjoined by the Church. It
.
.
.
a thing
more hopeful than even such
a truce as that
would have been.
It
was the
human souls, drawn together in the face of a common and desperate plight. Those of us who are left at home may well think of that Christmas truce with wonder and thankfulness. For the men who kept it proved, as men will always prove when the challenge is given with sufficient directness for the little catchwords and calculations to slip away for a moment, that the human soul stands out simple and unexamined impulse of .
.
.
a quite simple thing
The Times made
.
.
.
and of infinite goodwill.
a small
but significant reference to
it
en passant in a leader of
4 January:
We
cherish no anger against the masses of our enemies.
We
pity
them
for the ease with
which they have suffered themselves to be blinded and misled; but, as the wonderful scenes in the trenches showed, there is no malice on our side, and none in many of those
who have been marshalled
against us.*
*A
further item in The Times - the letter from a German lieutenant quoted on page 112 - plainly provoked discussion in at least one distinguished household. On 28 January Mrs Thomas Hardy wrote to Alda, Lady Hoare, who had written disapprovingly of the truce to the Hardys: 'My husband (& I too) agree with what you say about the hobnobbing of the Germans and English at Christmas. In today's Times there is a letter from a German lieutenant to an English battalion refusing the Christmas truce. Although the arguments he uses against England are quite futile & founded on lies, yet the spirit is the right one.'
[182]
'The Long Truce
The German harder
at least
DEUTSCH-ENGLISCHE
it commented on the truce at all, generally took a far one newspaper, the Berliner Tageblatt, under the headline W E I H N A C H T S FE I E RN IM FELDE (German-English
Christmas Celebrations in the Field) reprinted a
Broken'
press, if
though
line,
is
Highland regiment which had been published
by an
in translation a letter
in
officer of
The Times. The Tdgliche Rundschau
of Berlin printed a long article pointing out the dangers of fraternization with this as its
central message:
War
is
part in
no sport and we are sorry
them did not
clearly
to say that those
who made
these overtures or took
understand the gravity of their situation.
Leipzig* printed two
The magazine Reclams Universum of soldiers who had fraternized and also
from German
letters
reprinted drawings from British illustrated
magazines depicting various aspects of the truce.
Its
comments were
sarcastic
and
scathing: these pictures of 'English gentlemen' celebrating their friendship with the
'German barbarians' were it
was admitted
a great exaggeration of
that, 'impressed
by the
spirit
what had taken place and though
of peace at Christmas', both sides did
meet between the trenches, there were none of the
'orgies of brotherly love' of the
by the British press. The Times History of the War - published at the time, not written with postwar hindsight - was as reproachful of the German press, and of German official attitudes generally, as Reclams Universum was of the British: sort publicized
This wonderful Christmas outburst
might be preached, and the reader will
occur to him
is
that,
[i.e.
the truce]
will doubtless
from the German
is
draw
a text
his
be imagined, no support from the
Among
side, this exhibition of
badly with the enemy's avowed policy of 'frightfulness'. easily
from which many morals
own.
It
the
first
which
goodwill consorted
may German news-
received, therefore, as
German Higher Command.
.
.
.
paper writers, composing their lucubrations in the reposeful atmosphere of their
offices,
drew from it, doubtless by order, many lugubrious deductions. In their safe places it was evident that making or countenancing these Christmas overtures showed that the soldiers responsible for
them mistook
sliders in the policy of 'frightfulness'
Army' shared
the seriousness of the situation, and these back-
were reminded that
'the
Highest authority of the
the opinion. But as both the 'Higher authority' and the writers had taken
particular care never to expose themselves to any personal danger, the value of their
* Leipzig being one of the principal cities of Saxony, it must be deduced that whatever pro-AngloSaxon attitudes were held by the Saxon soldiers at the front, they were not necessarily shared by the guardians of public opinion back home.
[183]
'
The Long Truce
views as to the desirability of a
ued residence with
a little
in the trenches,
little
is
relaxation
may be
Broken'
from the nerve-trying
unmixed
contempt.
*
*
* f
One
stress of a contin-
disregarded, perhaps with feelings not
»
of the earliest pictures to appear in the press in connection with the truce was
5 January. Under the headline major who sang CAROLS BETWEEN THE TRENCHES was a photograph of Major Buchanan-Dunlop. He was described as 'one of the moving spirits of the Christmas truce' and 'the
printed in the Daily Sketch on
leading chorister' in the Christmas festivities in his sector.
The
story had, in fact, broken
lished a letter by
had given
his
Buchanan-Dunlop
on the previous day when The Scotsman pubto a
member
of the staff of Loretto School, and
account added authority by reporting a sermon preached
at St Paul's
Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, by the Rev. G.N. Price, Headmaster of Loretto Preparatory School, and Buchanan-Dunlop's personal friend. Price had become very
emotional in describing the events of Christmas on the Western Front: During the past few days you may have read in your papers, or in letters that have come from the trenches, as I have done, of the marvel of the Christmas Day
actually
just past -
how
in
many
God; how friend and
parts of the firing line there was, by mutual consent, a truce of
met
foe
to
exchange some small luxury; how they sang one
another the old Christmas carols and hymns.
... Is
it
merely fanciful
to say that,
on
to
that
anniversary of the birth of God's Son, there must have been some gracious influence of the spirit of Christ brooding over the combatants and suggesting, though but for a brief
moment,
the brotherhood of
man
in the great family of the
Father?
Also on the 4th, the Daily Mail - without giving Buchanan-Dunlop's name - had
him which included
printed a paragraph about
a list of the carols,
taken from the
Loretto Christmas concert programme, in which he had led the singing on Christmas Eve. It
was, however, the publicity following the photograph and headline in the
Daily Sketch that caused the furore which followed.
On
6 January
Buchanan-Dunlop
wrote to his wife:
The General what
is
he'll say
and now
-
on leave
in
England, but comes back Friday. I'm rather apprehensive of
when he does come. He
my
photo
is
in the
is
upset at the informal truce on Christmas Day,
Daily Sketch as 'one of the leaders in arranging the
[184]
.
.
DAILY SKETCH.
ihwn ihrwigh |h«
'
OaMi
tlttli
MAJOR WHO SANO CAROLS BHTWHUN THL TRHNCHES
The headline which caused Major Buchanan-Dunlop '/ shall
now
be
known
so
much
trouble
as "the leading chorister" - luckily I've
.
.
grown a beard
so
no one will
recognize me.'
Christmas Truce'. arranged
On
it,
It isn't
7 January he
had
explanation - 'apparently a
true of course, but there
but he won't think
a
memo
Army
nuisance altogether, however
in the post 'letters
is, it
it
from
commanding
his
officer requesting a full
Headquarters are moving in the matter. I
shall doubtless survive
from any number of
folk
.
.
.
it'.
On
It's
rather
the 8th he received
and four copies of the Daily Sketch,
underlined and blue-pencilled. Sir H. Smith-Dorrien
The
was another Regiment that
so.
is
awfully angry about
it.
.
.
Brigadier-General came hurrying to our Headquarters to investigate directly he
heard about
it.
However,
I
have no military career to [185]
blast, for certainly I shouldn't
'The Long Truce
dream of staying again. Also
The General
Sconnie* wants
me
and
afraid of them.'
in the service if
mind
don't
I
generals,
Broken'
is
arh not at
all
back and
can get to Loretto
I
matter was to grumble on with some acrimony for most of January.
The
Brigadier-General Ingouville-Williams - vented his anger and frustration
-
by accusing Buchanan-Dunlop of having disobeyed orders, not in relation to the singing which had started the whole story, but because lie had left his trenches to fraternize
on Christmas Day
in spite of explicit instructions
from the General himself
requiring that 'the sentries were to be extra-vigilant'. Buchanan-Dunlop argued that
he had not disobeyed orders, in that he had made sure the trenches were securely
guarded before he
left
He
them.
nothing
- a fact
He at
ought then and
there, if
he considered
once to the Colonel, and said
so. It's
No,
in the
cheap press, and he's determined to
There was no
just that
talk of
he
is
annoyed
the General had said
had done anything wrong,
I
not as
time.
it's
had told the
also felt greatly aggrieved in that he
Day precisely what he had done and which now he 'rather conveniently forgot'.
General on Christmas
if
he had heard of
at seeing his
'take
it
it
just
to
have written
now
for the first
beloved Brigade practically ridiculed
out' of
somebody.
reprimands or courts martial, but the unhappy major was
left
with the stain of disobedience against his name.
So when
I
met
[the General] alone
- he said the incident
about
it
about
it;
but
I
stuck to
occasion to think that ished as
when
There was
my
guns and said
had disobeyed
heard he considered
my own. He said that I
A
I
I
I
man
quite like the
one morning
in the trenches,
was closed and he didn't want
had now really,
I
I
'redeem
but he
is
so;
but that
I
I
him more had given him
began
regretted extremely that
his orders, but that
had done
to
I
to talk to
to hear anything I
had been genuinely aston-
saw
his
point of view as well
my character'.
odd, altho'
a
good
soldier.
to be a curious little postscript to the affair a day or so later.
general staff officer from
trenches.
Colonel
I
Army
was showing the
'Who
is
that officer?'
Major B-D' and with
Headquarters came down with the General to see our
latter a barricade I
When
had made, and the former said
to
our
the Colonel told him, he said 'Oh, the notorious
that he screwed an eyeglass into his eye
and had
*A.R. Smith, Headmaster of Loretto Senior School. Buchanan-Dunlop was with a Regular battalion - hence his reference to his military career not being
[i86]
a
good look
at
a Territorial serving
at risk.
'
CO
me. This the
The Long Truce
Broken'
is
(He was an Indian Cavalry
told me.
officer, so
what could he know
about trenches?)* *
*
Meanwhile, one by one, the trucing areas were going back
On officer,
3
to war.
January the 6/Gordon Highlanders had been approached by a
accompanied by an orderly acting
as interpreter.
They asked
German
to speak to a
Dawson, of 'D' Company, left the British trench and adopen to meet them. The two officers gravely saluted, then the
British officer. Captain
vanced into the
German
officer
informed Dawson that instructions had been received that the ordi-
nary conditions of warfare must be resumed. scribed the
A
moment of the resumption
muzzles well
right along the front, 'Pass
late as 5
it
in the air.
Immediately
along - the Kaiser's dead.'
January Hulse was
still
The
study the
German
lines,
German
Day. 'Every morning he has had four
fired a shot since Christmas. In fact, a tree
officer to
men
are.'
he
with his glasses
whom
he had talked on Christmas
scooping the water out just round his
dugout and, judging by the amount of pumping which they do,
we
being
having found to his pleasure that he was opposite 'the
heavy-jowled brute' of a
are worse off than
rifles
message passed
truce was over.
had been amusing himself over several days by climbing up fat,
after, a
writing to the effect that the Westphalian
Regiment opposite them, the 158th, had not to
regimental history de-
passed from the 2nd Gordons through the 6th to the Guards,
'feu de joie'
in the proper position,
As
The Gordons'
of hostilities:
But he was writing
this in billets
I
should say they
and when Lieutenant-
Colonel Fisher-Rowe's i/Grenadier Guards returned to the line on this sector that
same day they found
that
it
was 'business
as usual'.
'There
is
a
German Maxim
having a good go', he wrote to his wife, 'and our guns also are busy.' day: 'Our guns are
now
firing
And
the next
hard and making a beast of a row and the enemy are
also shelling over us feeling for
our guns.' However, things
still
remained
DSO
relatively
is believed in his family that Buchanan-Dunlop failed to receive a that he should have been awarded because of his involvement in the Christmas truce. However, he recovered from the event sufficiently to become, in due course, commanding officer of his battalion with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He survived this war and the next one (winning the OBE for his work in the Home Guard and as Army Welfare Officer in the Lothians) and died in 1947 aged 73. Ingouville-Williams commanded 34th Division with the rank of Major-General during the Battle of the Somme. He comes out less than gloriously in this present story but his reputation was that of a popular general who shared the dangers of his men. He was killed by shell fire on 22 July
*It
1916.
[187]
'The Long Truce
quiet,
on
is
Broken'
and Sir Henry Rawlinson was writing of the continuance of friendly
relations
this front as late as lo January. It
enemy
was on the loth that the 2/Leinsters received orders to open fire on the them from carrying on their .work on their trenches in daylight.
to prevent
This also stopped the Leinsters from working on theirs: 'this will mean considerable delay in completion of new breastwork', commented theft- War'Oiary. The enemy did not
On
fire
back. Indeed, there was very
apparently wearing
little firing
during the
'Some enemy were seen today
the 19th, the Diary noted
rest of the
in front of
month. our
line
kilts!!!'
At Ploegsteert on
1 1
January the Somerset Light Infantry recorded their return
to war:
The
The
truce
came
to
an abrupt end today and sniping started again in earnest.
i/Royal Warwicks were entrenched not far to the north, where Corporal Samuel
Judd had written 'War declared' in his diary the previous day, following some busy sniper fire in which a comrade of his had been hit. However, on the 12th Private Tapp was noting 'a quiet time in trenches this time, very little sniping' adding that 'we can fetch water now without being sniped at'. Yet a fellow Warwicks who stepped outside a ruined house which they had been using as sleeping quarters with his cigarette alight had a dozen shots fired at him. 'He won't smoke a cigarette there again',
Tapp commented
wryly.
But the war was claiming
its
victims, as
it
times and 'cushy' sectors. Karl Aldag wrote
always did, even in relatively peaceful
home on
10 January describing the
death of a comrade.
There was
a fellow
with
whom
I
was on sentry duty yesterday morning; he sang
chorale and then one of those old, slow, rather melancholy
had gone through he was his face in the
This was Aldag's
still
a cheerful country lad.
army songs;
One hour
later
in spite of all
a
he
he was dead, with
mud.
last letter: five
days
later
he was himself
killed.
The
circumstances
of his death are not known.
On in billets.
23 January the i/Royal Warwicks went back to the front after a few days
There was
a different
atmosphere now. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers had
been 'shelled pretty heavy', noted Tapp, and over the next few days the German artillery viciously probed their line. The infantry opposite were also in aggressive mood: 'we catch them at our barbed wire again they have left 3 dead behind, I .
[188]
.
.
'
The Long Truce
Broken'
is
do not know how long they will stay there as it is dangerous to fetch them in, the shells shake the whole trench and the jar nearly puts the candle out'. On the 26th the shelling was very severe.
I
my
thought
as a cellar.
.
.
.
time had come as one dropped a few yards away
My Of came along to see if I
was
.
.
.
making
a hole as big
alright.
Later the shelling stopped for about five minutes, with unfortunate consequences for
some of Tapp's comrades: Our
fellows thought they
had sent
their limit over so they started getting out, stood
came and killed a corporal and wounded 2 sergeants and one happened six yards away they went down like logs without a get out of the way of these shells, they are no sooner fired than
talking in a bunch, a shell
colour sergeant, this
murmur, no time
to
they are at their destination, they are
way of them
out of the
Thus William Tapp's
He
not
diary
came
known where he was
lost their identification or
whose names
are
rifle
grenades over but
to its
were destroyed by
commemorated on
i/Leicesters, having lost
Just a
On
3
little
ourselves
is
get
abrupt end in the middle of a sentence.
He
a
left
widow and one child, many graves
the
two men
men
on Christmas Day, had only one
fatal
Menin Gate *
He
one of the 54,896
shellfire. at
is
Ypres.
*
killed
casualty in the whole of January. in earnest.
we can
buried, but in four years of war
*
The
sending the
described as having died of wounds.
is officially
a son. It is
still
as the shot goes
But even on this front the war February 1915 Major Buchanan-Dunlop wrote to
note before
I
go off
broken, and there
is
to the trenches.
The
at last
began again
his wife:
long truce between the Saxons and
brisk fighting there now.
*
There were truce.
to be other notable deaths within
weeks of the end of the Christmas
Captain Sir Edward Hulse* went into action with the 2/Scots Guards in the
*Hulse had been promoted temporary captain on promoted major on 28 January.
2 January, while his
[189J
CO George Paynter had been
'
Battle of
land the
The Long Truce
is
Broken'
Neuve Chapelle on 12 March. As they were advancing across open ploughCommanding Officer Major George Paynter fell wounded. Hulse, who had
gained cover, unhesitatingly went to see so doing he was shot and killed.
He was
if
he could give Paynter any assistance. In
buried
in'
the
Rue David
Military Cemetery
nearby. His mother published his remarkable correspondence and later his account
Day was included by Lord Birkenhead in fiis farnous anthology Five Hundred Best English Letters. There is a tablet to his memory in Salisbury Cathedral. He was 25. Yet another participant in this story died on the day after Hulse, having taken part in the same attack. This was Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence Fisher-Rowe, Commanding Officer of the i/Grenadier Guards. Towards evening on 12 March, Lieutenant J.D. Wyatt of 2/Yorks, after being wounded, was attempting to make his way back to a dressing station when he came upon '4 huge Grenadiers carrying a stretcher. I was told to follow them to the Doctor. They were carrying Col. Fisher-Rowe, I gathered.' Fisher-Rowe died of wounds on 13 March. He was buried of Christmas
in the military enclave of the
He was
communal cemetery
of the
little
township of Estaires.
same cemetery lies another participant in the truce, Second Lieutenant Arthur Pelham-Burn of the 6/Gordon Highlanders, who had been so moved by the joint burial service in No Man's Land on Christmas Day. He was 48. Also in the
killed in action
on
2
May
1915, aged 19.
*
One was
*
*
question remains to be asked: was the Christmas truce a significant event, or it
simply an agreeable irrelevance, a sentimental aside in the dialogue of war?
For some men, undoubtedly,
it
prank, a bit of fun, a dormitory feast contrast, took
it
meant
when
little.
Taking part
in
it
was
a boyish
the masters weren't looking. Others, by
very seriously. However, the idea that
fighting - bring the warring nations to their senses, as
it
it
might somehow stop the
were
-
was never more than
pipedream. There was no chance that this could have happened. But the possibility did occur to people at the time. An editorial paragraph in the Herald on 2 January a
1
91 5 stated:
The
picture
is
gladdening in one respect, saddening in others.
It is especially
to think that such soldiers are not in charge of the affairs of
diplomats and potentates. If they were
we would have
[190]
a natural
saddening
Europe instead of the
and human Europe.
'The Long Truce
is
Broken'
At the front Captain Jack, whose battalion, the i/Cameronians, had not been involved in the truce, speculated in his diary on 13 January (having only just realized
had taken
that the truce
place):
the close of a campaign owing to the opposing armies -
It is interesting to visualize
neither of
Putting
them
defeated -
having become too friendly to continue the
at its simplest, the
it
German
whom
captain with
Private
'clapped his hands together and looked towards heaven and said
cannot we have peace and
Such an in
1 98 1 Albert
let
us
all
go home?"
If the truce
some men who took
part.
Speaking
said:
had gone on and on, there's no
have meant the end of the war. After
and
Weir conversed "My God, why
'
idea remained ever afterwards with
Moren
fight.
all
telling
what could have happened.
they didn't want war, and
we
didn't
It
could
want war
could have ended up by finishing the war altogether.
it
The
not dissimilar thought that
was
to
if
the soldiers had had their
come might have been avoided underlay
way the awfulness that comment of
the highly emotional
Josef Sewald in 1964:
It is
wonderful to think that the thought of Bethlehem brought these
They heard went on
the voice of 2000 years back, but the rulers did not hear,
for four years
and millions of young men had
Perhaps the most eloquent statement of
this
men
together.
and so the war
to die.
view was made in the House of
Commons in 1930 by the Liberal MP for Banff, Major Murdoch MacKenzie Wood, who had been at the front in 19 14 with the Gordon Highlanders. In a debate on the rights of conscientious objectors, he rebutted the claim of another member that men only entered the army in order to
kill,
up
stating that he joined
early in order to
prevent killing; indeed, during the whole of the war he had never had the slightest
animosity against anyone, 'even against those
who were opposed
In the early stages of the War, at Christmas 1914, part in
what was well known
at the
time as truce.
I
was
We
we is
did something that was degrading.
that
I
in the front trenches,
went over
and shook hands with many of our German enemies.
A
to us'.
great
and took
in front of the trenches,
number of people think moment. The fact
will not discuss that at the
we did it, and I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another
since, that if
[191]
ever shot
'
fired.
For
a fortnight that truce
was only the
fact that
to start trying to shoot
The
The Long Truce
went on.
we were being
Broken'
is
We
were on the most friendly terms, and
controlled by others that
made
it
it
necessary for us
one another again.
notion that such an abrupt end to hostilities might conceivably have taken
minds of some participants ofrthe Sfcond World War.
place even lodged in the
Describing the truce as 'the most significant
moment
in history',
an
RAF
flying
officer wrote:
There remains for all time an enormous 'if from that date. If only all the soldiers along the whole of the Western Front had come out and refused to go back to the slaughter. If only this precious peace had spread, the whole of history would be different. There would never have risen to power a mad Dictator and [other] dictators in Europe, no .
more
.
.
millions of lives lost, no concentration
women would
supposed to give them.
and the
camps and most important of
all
men and
have exerted the power on their politicians which so-called democracy .
.
.
Politicians
do not
is
whom they claim to represent
listen to those
failure to take notice of the fragile peace declared for that brief precious period
led to the anti-government revolution throughout Europe.
Yet
it
has to be said that such thoughts were veritable will o' the wisps in the
political climate of
Europe
was the determination not only of governments
in 1914. It
but also of peoples that the war should be fought, and most soldiers, even while
enemy and exchanging souvenirs, accepted without question would resume sooner or later. When Bruce Bairnsfather wrote of there was 'not an atom of hate on either side that day', he added:
shaking hands with the that the killing
Christmas that
And
yet,
on our
relaxed. It
Most
was
side, not for a
moment was
just like the interval
Asked
survivors take this view.
the will to war and the will to beat
them
between the rounds of a friendly boxing match.
in 1981
whether,
if
the soldiers had had their
way, they would have stopped fighting and gone home, Graham Williams replied: I'm quite sure that wouldn't have been the case
wanted
to
win the war and
to see the
truce and meeting the
Germans, but
question. In any case
we
certain that
would
all
finish the
Germans
as for
-
I'm quite
beaten.
It
definite
was
about
We
all
ending the war, no, that was quite out of the
expected the war would end next spring -
war
that.
alright just having the
off.
Leslie Walkinton expressed a similar attitude:
[192]
we were
quite
.
'
If
it
had been
because
if it
at
Broken'
is
the soldiers? But of course
left to
it
couldn't have been
the soldiers,
left to
were they would have started arguing amongst themselves, wouldn't they,
before very long.
thought
The Long Truce
It's just a
school
if
happy dream.
suppose
I
only the masters would
everything would be perfect.
.
.
.
No,
let
my
didn't affect
it
like a lot
of schoolboys one often
us get on with this that or the other,
Even the Manchester Guardian' % commentator
attitude to the
who had
in the least.
in January 191 5 - after
izing over the restoration of the ancient concept of the 'truce of
admit that the soldiers
war
God'
-
rhapsod-
went on
and get on with the war: there was,
after all,
much unfinished
business.
'But they went back into their trenches', a perfectly enlightened and quite
now hard
observer from another planet would perhaps say, 'and are
and being
slain.
to
fraternized were quite right to return to their lines
at
it
inhuman
again, slaying
Evidently their glimpses of the wiser and better way was interesting
but of no very great practical importance.' great reason that there
was very much
upon
the hideous yoke that has been thrust
Culture cannot be carried by the sword
.
To
which, of course,
be done yet
to
- that
her, that
we might
reply with
Belgium must be freed from
Germany must be
taught that
.
Nevertheless, the truce of Christmas 19 14 cannot be dismissed as an event of
no importance. insight they
It
halted however briefly the juggernaut of war, gave
were never
to forget,
made some men
some men an
think twice about the nationally
inspired animosities to which they were expected to subscribe. Second Lieutenant
A. P. Sinkinson wrote of Christmas Day:
As
I
walked slowly back
to
our
own
trenches
I
thought of
Mr
Asquith's sentence about
enemy be finally crushed. It is all very well for home to talk in flowing periods, but when you are out
not sheathing the sword until the
Englishmen
living comfortably at
here you begin to realize that sustained hatred
It
impossible.
should be added, however, that such insights could lead to unfortunate conse-
quences.
Henry Williamson,
in the truce
and thereafter
like all his generation,
for
is
all
things
the novelist,
was profoundly moved by
had been subjected
German. This
his participation
- in reaction to the conditioning of hatred to
led
him
-
came
to conceive a
an ordinary soldier
which
he,
to hold an uncritical admiration
profound fellow-feeling for Hitler
at the time of the truce) and even to toy with the met Hitler in No Man's Land in 1914. In fact the future Chancellor of Germany was not far off, but his i6th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment was out of the line over the Christmas period. From such Damascus-Road (like himself,
fantasy that he had actually
[193]
'The Long Truce
is
Broken'
discoveries Williamson went
on to support Hitler's political creed and to try to which fascist tendencies he was never quite forgiven. Happily, he will be remembered more for such classics as Tarka the Otter than for his well-intentioned but misguided philandering, with totalitarian politics. implant
But excess,
in Britain - for
it
if
some men
the insights inspired by the Christmas truce could drive
could also make even dedicated professional soldiers' see,
it
the whole idea of war in a
might not be
as natural to
new
light - or at
if
to
only briefly,
any rate glimpse the thought that war
an intelligent species as had always been assumed. Captain
Jack of the i/Cameronians wrote on 13 January 191 5.
These incidents seem grievance, educated
to suggest that, except in the
men have no
desire to
aggressive National Policies, or the fear of
would seldom take
kill
temper of
one another; and
them by
others,
battle or that,
war between
some
were
it
great
not for
civilized peoples
place.
Events, indeed, are more than just the
sum
of what happened at a particular
time and place, they are also what people subsequently make of them. So this transient episode of peace in a long
temporary
unofficial celebration in
and brutal war has become
No Man's
Land.
It
can
far
now be
more than
a
seen as a small
but significant gesture against the tide of international rivalry and hatred which was flowing strongly in 19 14 and flows strongly - and even more dangerously - in the 1980s.
No
doubt the claim of an Old Contemptible who took part
in the truce that
'perhaps never before and probably never again will the world see such a stration of the
Brotherhood of
Man
between opposing warring
considered overstated and over-sentimental. of the time, just
G.H.
one year
many
a
Perris
later,
who,
in a
The same might
demon-
forces' could
be
be said of a historian
weighty volume on the 1914 campaigns published
wrote: 'The vision of these hours of reconciliation will last
when
day of dear-bought but necessary victory has sunk into oblivion'. But
it is
these interpretations of the truce which attract people today and will doubtless
continue to do
so.
comment, which sums up the pressures and insights of Christmas 1914, might be left to Private William Tapp, who chronicled the truce day by day in his diary and at times almost hour by hour. On Christmas Day itself he wrote: Perhaps a
final
we
They
say they are not going to
but
doesn't seem right to be killing each other at
it
fire
again
if
[194]
don't but of course
Xmas
time.
we must and
shall do,
Postscript
Christmas 1915
HE
year that followed was one of few achievements and
much
dis-
appointment. 1915 did not provide the decisive breakthrough which the soldiers in France expected.
By
were virtually where they had been difference
more
the end of at the
was that they were greater
it
the trench lines
beginning; the principal
more
in depth,
sophisticated,
Also more extensive, behind the
difficult to attack.
lines,
were
the military cemeteries. A.J. P. Taylor has called 1915 a year of 'battles
which have no meaning except
small in scale
compared with the great
as
names on
a
war memorial'. They were
set-pieces of later years
point of view, they were almost totally disastrous.
They
and from the Allied
created the track-record of
brave but melancholy failure which has become the brand-image of the Western Front.
They
killed
and wounded thousands of men.
19 1 5 also has the distinction of being the year gas, the start of the
marine warfare. In
which saw the
first
use of poison
Zeppelin bombing raids on Britain and the launching of sub-
May
a
U-boat sank the Lusitania, with the
loss of nearly
two
thousand passengers and crew, including over a hundred Americans, and the world gasped
at a
stunning example of
German
frightfulness. It
was not
a
good year
for
the furtherance of friendly relations between opposing forces.
There were, however, some attempts at breaking the prevailing hostile mood. Good Friday, was exceptionally quiet in some sectors. The London Rifle Brigade were still at Ploegsteert Wood - their first real blooding, in the 2nd Battle of Ypres, yet to come. After dark some lights were put up on the German trenches opposite. The Germans had a band in their lines, which played 'Deutschland uber Alles' followed by 'God Save the King', and both sides sent up several flares amid cheers. But, as Rifleman J.C. Abery wrote in his diary, 'after a bit they sent over two grenades and laid out a number of our fellows so we promptly replied and that put the lid on: the night was a series of explosions'. I
April, the day before
[195]
Postscript
up
a
On Easter Day, 4 April, the Germans in front of the 8/Sherwood Foresters put white flag and walked out of their trenches. It was obvious that their intentions
were friendly but they were promptly ordered by the British
to get
back or take the
consequences. Reporting the event in his diary, a sergeant in Smith-Dorrien's
Second Army Staff wrote: 'They evidently wanted another Xmas gathering'. In August a Frenchman took to singing at night in tfie trenches near Evricourt in Picardy.
Herbert Sulzbach, a gunner with the 63rd (Frankfurt) Field Artillery
Regiment, was
when
the
We
at the artillery observation post in the
Frenchman suddenly
struck
up on the other
German
side of
front line one night
No Man's
stepped out of the dugout into the trench and, quite incredibly, there was a mar-
vellous tenor voice ringing out through the night with an aria
company were standing
in the trench listening to the
from
Rigoletto.
have been moved by singing.
What an
then
of a sudden a
all
extraordinary contrast!
Frenchman
whole war: music seems experience
much more
November
some way or other
in
it
to
You
much
as
fire
The whole
'enemy' and, when he had finished,
applauding so loud that the good Frenchman must certainly have heard
In
Land.
as
it
we were by
on each other, you
kill
and his
sure to
is
wonderful
each other, and
and the music makes us forget the
starts to sing,
overcome every kind of
difference.
Anyway,
that
was an
splendid than anything you can express in words.
there was a prolonged
if
small-scale fraternization at St Eloi, a
point to the south of Ypres not occupied at Christmas 1914, where British and
Germans were about two hundred yards enough
crater - 'big
to
drop
a
house
apart on opposite sides of a huge
into', as
one
Tommy
described
Liverpool Scottish relieved a Northumberland battalion in the line
When
Private
Edmund Herd and
told
it
them
that the
mine i/io
four others were detailed to take over a listening-
who had been
Saxons opposite were distinctly friendly and that
they heard a low whistle that would the Liverpools should respond
The
on 22 November.
post in advance of the main British trenches, the Northumberlands
occupying
it.
if
mean
that the
if
Saxons were coming out and that
they intended to meet them halfway.
Herd de-
scribed what then took place:
Our
post discussed the matter which appealed to us as an adventure, although a risky
one, and whistle
it
was agreed that
and responded.
I
should go. Sometime
A German
later in the night
appeared over his parapet and out
I
we heard
the
got over our low
When we were both about 8 or 9 yards away from our respective posts, another German followed the first and his appearance brought Jack out of our post immediately. The situation was very exciting. I could see that the Germans had no rifles. Neither had we, but I had my bayonet and I had taken the precaution of placing a Mills bomb in my pocket. I think Jack was similarly armed. Anyway, we met our opposites about halfway parapet.
across and talked in English for perhaps five or ten minutes, then returned to our posts.
[196]
Postscript
Herd went out
several times during the
week
in
which
his
battahon was in the
line.
Bully beef and jam were exchanged for cigars and cigarettes on one occasion, on
another the Saxons brought out wine, and on a third Private
Herd returned with
cap badge, a trench knife and the photograph of one of the Saxons,
have been a waiter
to
Hotel Cecil in London.
at the
One
colleague of Herd's a letter to be posted to a girl in
response to this was destroyed
And
less
generous than
it
who turned
night the ex-waiter gave a
London, but the Tommies'
might have been the previous
year.
They
it.
so Christmas
came around
again, with a
much
larger British
army manning
considerably longer stretch of line and with Sir Douglas Haig as
a
a
out
its
newly
appointed Commander-in-Chief - Sir John French having followed the deposed
Smith-Dorrien into
England. There was no repetition of the Christmas card
exile in
weather which had provided so appropriate a backcloth to the events of 19 14; instead
was
wet and mild. And,
if there was any urge to re-stage the Christmas December, there were now firm instructions on hand making it plain that such excesses were strictly prohibited. There are numerous accounts of orders forbidding fraternization being passed on to British troops at Christmas 1915. Private H.E. Dickson of the Royal Scots was in billets at Bouzincourt on the Somme and remembered such an order being read to the battalion by its commanding officer. Colonel Gemmel - 'and that was it. No it
dull,
celebrations of the previous
truce this time.'
The
Eve digging trenches at Aveluy in by 'whizz-bangs'. Lieutenant Gordon Barber of the
battalion spent Christmas
the Ancre Valley being strafed
GHQ
Own Cameron Highlanders recorded in his diary 'an order from was hoped that there would be no repetition of the regrettable occurrences Christmas Day, and that any German who ventured to show himself was to
i/Queen's saying of
last
it
be shot
at once'.
He
regretted the prohibition because his trenches were at
Loos and
the ground in front of them, three hundred yards across, was littered with the dead -
mostly British - of the disastrous battle fought there
reason
why
I
last
September. 'That
is
one
should, in a way, like to see a truce on Christmas Day, just to bury the
No Man's Land, a terrible tribute to the patriotism war has taught us to know. Another reason is that the
poor fellows who are lying out in
and
self-sacrifice that this
sight of so many of our dead must, to a certain degree, tell on the morale of our men.' G.A. Leonard, then a sixteen year old Pioneer of 25th Division, recalled the
shock of being warned, death penalty
if
at a
parade before going up the line
the truce of the previous Christmas
* It appears that there
at Ploegsteert,
of the
happened again.* Lieutenant
were no official orders of such severity; possibly the idea that the ultimate sanction for fraternization might be the firing squad was the interpretation of some local commander.
[197]
Postscript
Wyn
Griffiths of the 15/Royal Welch Fusihers wrote of 'strict orders ... that we must confine our goodwill not only to fellow Christians, but to Christians of allied nationality. We were to remain throughout possessed by the spirit of hate, answering any advances with lead.' However, at least in one area, there was a restriction in the amount of practical animosity to be directed at the enemy at Christmas. Billy Con-
now Brigade Major of 76th Brigade, had worked oat 'a gdrgeous Boche strafe Xmas Day - just to show how much we can really hate'. But in the event this did not come to pass. He wrote in his diary on 24 December: greve, for
Awful
Was
wire came from the division this morning, saying: 'No action
rot; a
by us on
Xmas Day which
is
likely to
provoke
ever such an order given before?
trousers and putting on skirts.
am
I
retaliation
expect the corps
I
is
be taken
to
on the part of the Germans.'
especially annoyed, as
I
commander
is
leaving off
had taken some trouble
in
organizing our 'hate'.
As
for the
relations with the
Germans, there was an unambiguous order forbidding
enemy and threatening
Any attempt
at fraternization
exchange of news,
with the enemy (agreement not to
such as occurred
etc.)
points on the Western Front,
last
strictly
is
friendly
the direst consequences.
year at Christmas and
fire,
New
mutual Year
visits,
at several
forbidden; this crime will be considered as
verging on high treason.
General will
HQ
have issued instructions, dated the 12th
be opened on every
enemy without that he
is
man who
leaves the trench
inst
and moves
orders, as well as on every French soldier
who
[December], that
fire
in the direction of the
does not make
it
clear
a deserter.
For many, perhaps most, there was no impulse to show a friendly Christmas enemy. A young officer of the Queen's Westminster Rifles, Roland Bull,
face to the
who had
We
not been in France in 1914, wrote from 'front-line trenches' to his uncle:
had a pseudo-merry Christmas
year - people
in the front line - there
remembered the Lusitania
wished us a merry
Xmas
but
all
a bit,
I
was no fraternizing
think, but the
they got from us
&
Huns shouted
like last
across and
the heavies was two hours of 9.2
howitzer in their front parapet.
The Canadians were now Germans showed stopped
this.
in the line
and they reported that on Christmas Day the
a desire to fraternize, but a
There was
few rounds from their
also an attempt to erect a
[198]
artillery batteries
Christmas tree opposite British
Postscript
trenches near Roulers, but the party involved was fired on and one
From
the
German
side an officer of the 73rd
Jiinger, recorded a gesture
We in
by the British which produced
spent Christmas Eve in the
carols that
No.
line.
The men
3 platoon
by
a flanking shot
hit.
a similarly violent response:
mud
stood in the
were drowned by the enemy machine guns.
man was
Hanoverian Regiment, Ernst
On
and sang Christmas
Christmas Day we
through the head. Immediately
lost a
after, the
man
English
attempted a friendly overture and put up a Christmas tree on their parapet. But our
and knocked
fellows were so embittered that they fired
answered with
rifle
grenades. In this miserable fashion
it
we
over.
And
this in turn
was
celebrated Christmas Day.
Lieutenant Gordon Barber noted the peculiar behaviour of the French to the
the
Own Cameron
Queen's
right of his
Highlanders
at
Loos,
who exchanged
carols with
most of the night, subsequently went out to meet them 'for about and then, the moment they got back to their trenches, 'put over covey covey of rifle grenades. A true conception of the Christmas spirit!'
Germans
for
three minutes' after
Yet
in places there
was an echo of the mood and atmosphere of 1914.
Zeck was
Fritz
a nineteen year old gefreiter (lance-corporal) of the
serve Infantry Regiment.
He and
his brother
235th Re-
had joined the colours on the outbreak
many of Germany's young volunteers marched singing into battle only to be slaughtered in their hundreds. Zeck's brother was killed and he himself was severely wounded so that he was not in the line at Christmas 19 14 - indeed, he did not complete his convalescence of war and within weeks were in action at Langemarck, where so
until the
tion
from
summer of 191 5. Shortly afterwards he received an his Company Commander - to prepare a soldiers'
extraordinary instrucchoir to sing carols in
the front line the following Christmas, the carols to be also heard opposite.
He
had been chosen for
this task
the violin and his ability to speak carol
by the English
because he had a modest knowledge of
Dutch helped
in the matter of obtaining music,
books and, appropriately enough, a violin to help in leading the singing. About 50 men who could began.
.
.
loud and
.
The
result
'sing'
at least the carols
were heard,
clear.
Shortly before Christmas
with
were chosen from the battalion and the practice
was perhaps not very pleasing, but
little artillery
activity
and
we were
ready. In the trench
isolated rifle
[199]
it
was comparatively quiet
and machine-gun
fire
We
assembled
Postscript
about two thirds of the rehearsed singers into the front trench as twilight only about 60-80 metres away from the English positions.
We climbed out of the trench and When
the sound had faded away,
on the top of
we could
so that finally a large
we had sung
all
first
"to
us.
As
We
were
some
flares
some English more and
the carols went on,
group stood listening
our carols we could hear a few
not quite comprehend.
We
carol 'Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht'.
see in. the light of
their trench breastworks listening
more joined them, After
sang our
we could
fell.
in the open. calls
from opposite which
too called something across and both parties dis-
appeared into their trenches.
During
The
this night
no shot
fell.
event at Langemarck did not involve actual fraternization: singers and listeners
stayed strictly on their
own
side of
No
Man's Land. But near Laventie, on the old
trucing ground of 19 14, several battalions were involved in a memorable
meeting between the trenches which caused a small sensation
two
The
at the
if
brief
time and resulted
units concerned were
from the newly formed Guards Division under Major-General Lord Cavan and included the i and 2/Scots Guards, the i/Coldstream Guards and some men of the 4/Coldstreams; also the 14 and 15/Royal Welch Fusiliers, new to the line and attached to the Guards for in
officers
being court-martialled.
instruction.
This was familiar
territory to the
men
of 19 14 and, indeed, only a
little
to the
Gordon Highlanders had had their long peace with the Germans the previous winter. Though the lines had shifted somewhat, the same willow-lined ditch ran through the middle of No Man's Land, south of the point where Hulse's Scots Guards and the
with the difference that, a year
Now
later,
the willows were grotesquely twisted and bent
on the night of Christmas Eve
it was beginning to happen all over merrymaking and singing came from the German trenches and shouts of 'Merry Christmas, Tommy' and 'Merry Christmas, Fritz' were exchanged between the lines. Former Private Felstead of the 15/Royal Welch Fusiliers recalled that the Germans, no doubt acknowledging the nationality of the new arrivals on the British side, sang 'All through the Night', to which the Welshmen replied with 'Good King Wenceslas' and other carols. Then at dawn 'both sides poked their heads up and started to climb out of their respective trenches and we met halfway'. Wyn Griffiths, witnessing this scene, wrote of 'a rush of men from both sides, carrying tins of meat, biscuits and other commodities for barter', and added: 'This was the first time I had seen No Man's Land, and it was now Every Man's Land, or nearly so'. Wilfred Ewart of the i /Scots Guards also described this remarkable and moving event which, as in the case of Christmas 1914, was not without its minor
by
shellfire.
again, as the sounds of
tragedies.
[200]
.
Postscript
A
British sergeant
this
makes no
is
shot dead almost at the outset, as he stands on the parapet. But
must be an accident. The supreme craving of humanity, the
difference. It
common
spontaneous impulse born of a
irresistible,
and
faith
common
a
fear, fully
triumph.
And
so the grey
movement has sentries
started
and khaki figures surge towards each other
on the
right.
and a few non-commissioned and
talk
gesticulate,
remain
officers
the willow-lined stream; they even cross
They
in
our trench.
and mingle together
it
in a
haphazard throng.
and shake hands over and over again. They pat each other on
the shoulder and laugh like schoolboys, and leap across the
when an Englishman
one man. The we officers, the The men meet at as
spreads like contagion. Only
It
falls in
and
a
little
Boche helps him out there
is
stream for fun.
And
a shout of laughter that
echoes back to the trenches.
The Germans exchange trated coffee for cigarettes
cigars
mutual admiration by pointing and that attract their attention; ours.
We
like,
signs. It
biscuits
their trench overalls,
it is
and tobacco. They express
our leather waistcoats and trench coats
is
made of coarse
canvas, that attract
shout 'Hullo, Fritz!' 'Good Morning, Fritz!' 'Merry Christmas!' 'Happy
Christmas!' 'How's your father?' the
and pieces of sausage, and sauerkraut and concen-
and bully beef and ration
amid roars of laughter
Then from officers in black
.
'Come over and
call!'
'Come and have
breakfast',
and
.
the trenches of the 95th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment two
accoutrements and shiny
boots
field
come
out, wishing to take photo-
graphs of our Tommies, and offering them cigars. Their request
is
refused,
and presently
they say: 'You will have five minutes to get back to your trenches before our artillery will
open
fire'.
And
it
does.
And two
or three
men
four hours not a shot [from the trenches]
of suffering - or
and Bavarians
is it
an act of God, or
this grey
wounded almost
are
fired
is
just
on
human
at once.
But
for twenty-
A common
brotherhood
curiosity? - has united
Englishmen
either side.
Christmas morning which no one on either side
who
has taken
part in this quaint scene will ever forget.
It
was the same
seventy years
story,
and the same cause. As ex-Private Bertie Felstead put
The Germans were men
Human from
it
nearly
later:
nature being what
of their it is
fatherland and we
their front-line trenches to
meet halfway
This time, however, unlike the previous year
in
it
of our
up overnight and No Man's Land.
the Feelings built
was
all
motherland
up
over very quickly. Ex-Private
Harold Diffey of the 15/Royal Welch Fusiliers described what happened: [201]
and
so both sides got
Postscript
After about 20 to 30 minutes a Staff Officer with red tabs, a Major and a vociferous
Sgt-Major appeared yelling 'you came out
Huns, not
to fight the
to
make
friends with
them'. So our lads reluctantly returned followed by a salvo from our i8-pounders which
ended
But
this episode.
in fact the episode
follow, at the centre of
Barnes, in temporary
was not quite over. There
which were two
command, and Captain
mander, who had allowed the truce
a coasiderable fracas to
Guards, Captain Miles Colquhoun, a company com-
officers of the i/Scots
Sir Iain
to take place
on
his front.
Colquhoun's personal
diary records the events of Christmas day as he saw them:
When
having breakfast about 9
am
a sentry reported to
me
that the
standing up on their parapets and walking towards our barbed wire. Firing Trenches and saw our
our barbed wire. replied that this
A German
men
officer
was impossible.
looking over the parapet and the
came forward and asked me
He
Germans were ran out to our
I
Germans
then asked for | hr to bury his dead.
I
outside
Xmas.
for a truce for
agreed.
I
The
Germans then started burying their dead and we did the same. This was finished in i hr's time. Our men and the Germans then talked and exchanged cigars, cigarettes etc for i of an hour and, when the time was up, I blew a whistle and both sides returned to their trenches. For the rest of the day the Germans walked about and sat on their parapets. Our men did much the same, but remained in their trenches. Not a shot was fired.
By the next morning the matter was beginning Colquhoun wrote: Went
at
10 am to Winchester
Christmas Day.
The
House
came round
was over) doesn't mind
a bit, but the
into a
Court of Inquiry
to explain to a
Brigadier (who
blow up
to
my
minor scandal.
my
conduct on
trenches lomins after
Major-General [Cavan]
is
my
furious about
it.
truce
The
Coldstream and our 2nd Batt. are also implicated.
Indeed, Lord Cavan was very furious about the
Day
itself,
forwarded a report to his Corps
'regretted the incident
searching enquiry as to
more than
how 'my
I
afTair,
and had already, on Christmas
Commander,
in
which he stated
can say' and that he had ordered a
implicit orders
came
that he
full
and
to be disobeyed'.
In the event, Barnes and Colquhoun were placed under close arrest on 4 Janbillets while awaiting court martial; the other
uary and ordered not to leave their officers
involved were not to be proceeded against. However, the next day Colquhoun
received a letter from his wife,
Dinah
-
who was no
[202]
other than the niece of Margot
Postscript
Asquith, wife of the Prime Minister - informing him that the baby she was expecting
was
starting
He was promptly
and would he please come quickly home.
given five
He returned to find that the Prime Minister's distinguished and brilliant Raymond Asquith, then serving as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, had been appointed Prisoner's Friend.* The two men had not met, but Asquith immediately days' leave. son,
took a liking to Colquhoun - 'arrogant, independent and brave. ent about his case and hardly interested
found Barnes
'terribly depressed'
could be got off with
The
'a
and
enough
'pretty
to talk about
He
is
it.'
quite indiffer-
By
contrast he
mopy', though Asquith was sure they
lightish punishment'.
court martial took place on i8 January. Asquith called his
own
part in
it
'a pretty bloody and exhausting struggle', adding that he became 'much attached to His deportment was quite faultless, both Colquhoun in the course of the case. and there is no doubt that he is a man of before and during the proceedings exceptional dash and courage.' In the outcome, it was Colquhoun's excellent military record that proved the best defence. Barnes was acquitted, while Colquhoun was sentenced to be 'reprimanded'; but on the day that the sentence was announced the Commander-in-Chief, Haig, confirmed the proceedings but remitted the sentence .
.
.
.
.
.
'because of Sir Iain's distinguished conduct in the
"the retreat" and was
wounded
at the Battle of
*
*
There was no Christmas truce
in 19 16.
Day ensured
field.
Ypres
in
He
has been with
me
since
end of October 1914.'!
*
Steady bombardment of the enemy lines
would be no attempts at fraternization. As one infantryman described it: 'the slow vindictive Christmas cheer went on all day until midnight'. There was no immediate response from the Germans but they throughout Christmas
that there
on New Year's Day. 'Only if one believed that attrition would win the war', wrote the same Tommy, 'was there the slightest reason for the childish but fatal game of the Christmas hate and the German New Year retaliation.' replied in similar style
*
t
Barnes was eventually promoted major but was killed in 1917 when a damaged British aeroplane accidentally released a bomb on the British lines. Sir Iain Colquhoun of Luss, to give him his full title, became a brigadier-general and survived the war. Raymond Asquith was killed in the Guards' attack on the Somme on 15 September 191 6.
The relationship between Colquhoun and Raymond Asquith was not as close as it might seem, Raymond Asquith being the son of the Prime Minister's first marriage to Helen Melland, who died in 1891.
[203]
Postscript
There was no Christmas truce squalor and destruction, too
much
in 19 17.
There had been altogether too much
desperate glory, for friendly meetings in
No
Man's Land. As a fashion truces were played out - except for those rare occasions when, in some brief, spontaneous pause, the wounded were brought in or the dead retrieved for burial. When such minor armistices did take place they tended to result in harsher edicts and angrier prohibitions. Now it was arwar w»ithout quarter and with
chivalry, the sing-songs in the trenches, the exchanges of bully-beef
little
cigars, the
Anglo-German
Bisleys
all
there was a sudden upsurge of the old spirit
i/Hampshires, their
and
When, against expectations, on New Year's Day 19 18 opposite the
long forgotten.
CO recorded the event in his diary in dismissive terms:
Enemy attempted
to fraternize
on our
left,
but were shot
at
by
us, otherwise a quiet
day.
No
Christmas truce was necessary
in
19 18.
armistice of indefinite duration had taken
its
place.
a
temporary truce
would march
in the great
wars of
this
The
fighting
was over and an
But even that would prove only
century and a generation
again.
[204]
later the
armies
Appendix
A
British Infantry Brigades in the line at Christmas 19 14 ('Attached' units listed only
Battalions of
CAPITAL
which members are known
if
participated in the truce)
to have truced are
shown
in
CAPITAL
and small
letters
Battalions of which
members
are
known
to have truced
and fraternized are shown
TAL and SMALL CAPITAL letters and bold type (TF: Territorial Force battalion, with
arrival date at front)
II
CORPS
(General Sir H.L. Smith-Dorrien gcb dso)
3RD Division
Kemmel facing Spanbroek Mill 7th Brigade
9th Brigade
3/Worcestershire
4/Royal Fus.
i/Wiltshire
i/Lincolnshire
2/R. Irish Rifles
i/Hon. Art. Coy
i/R. Scots Fus.
lo/King's (Liverpool)
(Inf.)
(TF
(TF9.11.14) 8th Brigade
i/Northumberland Fus.
2/S. Lancashire
(in
2/R. Scots (rl'd
3/Worcs
&
2/RIR 27.12) 2/Suffolk (rl'd
i/HAC
27.12)
4/Middlesex
(rl'd
i/Wilts 27.12)
i/Gordon Highlanders
[205]
25. II. 14)
Bde
reserve)
in
CAPI-
Appendix
A
5TH Division Wulverghem Messmes Road 14th Brigade
i/Devonshire i/E.
15th Brigade
I
Surrey
/Bedfordshire
6/Cheshire
(billets until 29.12)
i/D. of Cornwall's LI
(TF
(billets until 28.12)
I
2/MANCHESTER
II. 12. 14)
/Cheshire
(o\it
of
trenches)
III
I
/Dorsetshire
I
/Norfolk
CORPS
(Maj-Gen W.P. Pulteney CB Dso)
4TH Division
Wood
Ploegsteert
loth Brigade
i/R.
WARWICK-
1
2th Brigade
SHIRE 2/R.
Dublin Fus.
(rl'd i/R.
(rl'd
Warwicks 28.12)
Brigade
8.30pm)
2/MONMOUTHSHIRE (TF 21. 12. 14)
i/R. Irish Fus.
1 1
2/M0NS
25.12,
2/Seaforth Highlanders (rl'd
2/Lancashire Fus. 2/ESSEX
(rl'd
2/Seaforths 27.12)
by 2/EssEX
25.12,
/Hampshire I /Rifle Brigade l/SOMERSET LI i/E. Lancashire 5/L0NDON (London Rifle Brigade) (TF 19. II. 14)
i/King's
i
8.30pm)
Own
(out of trenches)
2/Irmiskilling Fus.
(Bde reserve)
XXXII Bde RFA 135 Bty 31 Heavy Bty RGA
6th division FrelinghienI Houplines
19th Brigade
2/R.
Welch
2/ Argyll
Fus.
1
8th Brigade
& Sutherland
(billets
Highlanders 5/Cameronl\ns
until 26.12)
1
9. II.
1
(rl'd
4)
i/Cameronians
(rl'd
(Scottish Rifles)
i/Middlesex (billets
(rl'd
i/Cameronians eve. 26.12)
i/W. Yorkshire 2/Leinster 26.12)
2/Sherwood Foresters (rl'd 2/A& SH. 26.12) 2/Durham LI
(Scottish Rifles)
(TF
i/E. Yorkshire
— Div. reserve) [206]
2/RWF
eve. 26.12)
Appendix
A
Rue du Bois
L'Epinette
17th Brigade
2/Leinster 3/R1FLE Brigade 16/L0NDON (Queen's
i6th Brigade
2/Y0RK
Westminster Rifles) (TF 1 1. 1 1. 1 4) (rejoined 18 Bde 26.12.14)
i/N.
Grande Flamengrie
& Lancaster
i/K. Shropshire LI (rl'd Buffs 26.12)
XXXVIII Bde RFA 24 Bty XII (How.) Bde RFA 87 Bty
i/Royal Fus. (rl'd
to
i/Leicestershire i/The Buffs (E. Kent)
QWR 26.12)
Staffordshire
IV
CORPS
(Lieut-Gen Sir H.S. RawHnson Bt cvo cb)
7TH Division Bois Grenier
22nd Brigade
Sailly-Fromelles
2/QUEEN'S (Royal West Surrey)
20th Brigade
Scots (TF II. II. 14)
8/R.
Welch Fus.
(billets)
i/S. Staffordshire (billets until
2 1 St Brigade
La
2/B0RDER 2/G0RDON Highlanders 6/GoRDON Highlanders (TF 512. 14) 2/ScOTS GdS i/Grenadier Gds (rl'd 2/Scots Gds
2/R. Warwickshire (billets) i/R.
Road
27.12)
Northumberland Hussars
28.12)
(A
& B Squadrons)
Boutillerie
XXII Bde RFA 104 Bty XIV Bde RHA F & T Bty
2/w1ltshire
2/BedfordSHIRE
III
2/YORKSHIRE (rl'd
Heavy Bde RGA & 112 Bty
III
2/Beds 27.12)
2/R. Scots Fus. (rl'd
2/Wilts 27.12)
8th Division Chapigny
PicantinI Fauquissart
25th Brigade
13/L0NDON (Kensington) i/R. Irish Rifles (TF
23rd Brigade
2/W. Yorkshire
2/Cameronians
13. II. 14)
2/Lincolnshire (rl'd i/RIR 26.12)
(Scottish Rifles)
Berkshire 2/R1FLE Brigade 2/R.
(rl'd
2/DEVONSHIRE
(rl'd 24. 12
by 2/Devons)
2/Middlesex
2/R. Berks 26.12)
(rl'd 24.
[207]
1
2
by
W.
Yorks)
Appendix
A
La Bassee Rd, Neuve Chapetle 24th Brigade
Lancashire 2/N0RTHAMPTONSHIRE /Sherwood Foresters 2/E.
I
(rl'd 2/E.
Lanes
eve. 25.12)
I/WORCESTERSHIRE (rl'd
2/Northants eve. 25.12)
5/Black
(Coys
Watch (TF
1
3
.
1 1
.
4)
1
in billets or reserve)
2/F1ELD Coy re XLV Bde RFA 5 Bty
INDIAN CORPS (Lieut-Gen Sir
J.
Willcocks kcb kcsi
kcmg
dso)
Meerut Division Richebourg L'Avoue
Garhwal Brigade
Garhwal Rifles 1/39 Garhwal Rifles
2/39 2/3
Gurkha
Rifles
2/Leicestershire (billets)
i8/HussARS
att.
4/Cavalry
MG
I
CORPS
(General Sir D. Haig kcb kcie kcvo adc Gen.)
2ND Division Le TouretiRue de L'Epinette 4th (Guards)
Brigade
i
/Hertfordshire
(TF
19. 11. 14)
2/Coldstream Gds 2/Grenadier
Gds
3/Coldstream Gds (rl'd
2/Gren.
Gds
eve. 25.12)
i/Irish
Gds
[208]
Appendix
A
1ST Division
N. Givenchy
Le Touret/Rue de L'Epinette
2nd Brigade
2/R. Sussex I
1st
/Northamptonshire
2/KRRC
(Guards)
Brigade
/Coldstream Gds
i/King's
(rl'd
Loyal N. Lanes
Watch Gds
(rl'd Bl.
i/Scots
26.12) 1/
i
i/Cameron Highlanders eve. 25.12)
(i billets/5 into trenches
(billets)
eve. 25.12)
3rd Brigade
5. Festubert
4/R.
Welch Fus.
(TF 2/R. i/S. I
Watch London (London Scottish) (TF 7. II. 14) (Reserve
i/Black 14
7-12. 14)
Munster Fus. Wales Bord. (billets)
att.
2/Bde 28.12.14)
/Gloucestershire
2/Welch 4/Seaforth
Highlanders
(billets)
2ND Division N.E. Cuinchy 6th Brigade
to
Canal
2/S. StaflFordshire (rl'd
R. Berks 25.12)
i/R. Berkshire (rl'd 25.12,
I
pm)
I
pm)
i/KRRC (rl'd 25.12,
i/King's (Liverpool) (rl'd
KRRC 25.12)
26 December 1914 FIRST ARMY under General Sir I Corps IV Corps Indian Corps
BEF reorganized into two Armies: SECOND ARMY
D
Haig
under General II Corps III
Corps
27th Division
[209]
Sir
H.L. Smith-Dorrien
Appendix B German
Infantry Regiments opposite the
CEF at
Christmas
I9I4
Regiments of which some members are known to have truced are shown in CAPITAL and SMALL CAPITAL letters. Regiments of which some members are known to have truced and fraternized are shown in CAPITAL and small capital letters and bold type.
SIXTH ARMY (Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria)
XIV RESERVE CORPS
(General von Loden) 6th Bavarian Reserve Division
Kemmel 14th
2ist Bavarian Res. Regt
I2th
Bavarian
20th Bavarian Res. Regt
Bavarian
Res Bde
in billets)
Regt
split)
40TH Division
24TH Division
Wulverghem
Railway Armentieres-Lille
134th Inf.
133rd Inf. Ploegsteert
Regt Regt
47th Brigade
139th Inf.
Regt
48th Brigade
107th Inf.
47th Brigade
179th Inf.
Regt Regt
Wood
Regt Regt 8 1st Inf. Regt 134th Inf. Regt
48th Brigade
io6th Inf.
88th Brigade
104th Inf. 1
Frelinghien
104th Inf.
Regt Regt
6th JAger
Bn
133rd Inf. 88th Brigade
(some
(General von Laffert)
(Brigades and Regiments are
89th Brigade
6th Bavarian Res. Regt
17th Bavarian Res.
Res Bde
XIX (SAXON) CORPS
89th Brigade
1
[210]
VII
(WESTPHALIAN) CORPS
(General von Claer)
13TH Division
Rue 26th Brigade
Fromelles
des Bois Blancs
55th Inf. iSth Inf.
Regt Regt
25th Brigade
is8th Inf. Regt 13th Inf. Regt
iith JAger
Bn
14TH Division
North of Festubert
Aubers 27th Brigade
53rd 1
Inf.
6th Inf.
Regt
79th Brigade
Regt
57th Inf. Regt 56th Inf. Regt
[211]
to
canal
:
Notes and References
war
All British unit
PREFACE
:
diaries
quoted are from the Public Record
'One human episode amid Soldiers'
p. ix
mous
comments:
all the atrocities
Office,
file
reference
.' .
.
Tilley, Sinkinson - See Index of Soldiers;
soldier's letter
quoted
WO 95.
in Vorwdrts, Berlin, translated
German
participant - anony-
and reproduced
in Daily Tele-
pp. x-xi
graph, 9 January 191 5. Fraternizations in other wars: various sources, including 'Fraternizing on the Battlefield',
p. xii
from The War, Nelson's Picture Weekly, No. 24, 30 January 1915; 'Unofficial Armistice', E. Ashmead Bartlelt, Daily Telegraph, 7 January 1915; Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade, John O. Casler, Morningside Press, Dayton, Ohio, 1971, originally published 1893. Kilvert reference: Kilverr's Diary, A Selection edited and introduced by William Plomer, Cape, 1944, Penguin, 1977. Hall Caine's The Drama of 36; Days, Heinemann, 1915.
Conan Doyle ton,
CHAPTER p.
i:
A
1
history:
The British Campaign
&
Stough-
Background of Hatred
which began in 1914). C.E. Montague quotation: from Windus, 1922. Material on Anglo-German attitudes and propaganda, German atrocities, etc: from Keep the Home Fires Burning, Cate Haste, Allen Lane, 1977; The Smoke and the Fire, John Terraine, reference
I
France and Flanders 191 4, Hodder
Richard Aldington quotation: from Death of a Hero, Chatto & Windus, 1928. Thomas Hardy quotation: from In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations' (written in 1915, but the
I
is
plainly to the cataclysm
Disenchantment, Chatto p.
in
91 6.
ff
Sidgwick p. 2
pp. 6, 8
p. 8
& Jackson,
H.G. Wells
1980.
quotation: from 1921 Introduction to The World Set Free,
first
published 1914.
Harold Macmillan quotations: from The Winds of Change, Macmillan, 1966. Fire, anti-English document: from album in the Regimental Museum of the Seaforth Highlanders, Inverness; also reproduced in contemporary newspapers. Letter by Caroline Ethel Cooper: from Behind the Lines, One Woman's War 1914-18, edited by Decie Denholm,
CHAPTER 2 p. 12
&
'
Two Huge Armies
Jill
Norman & Hobhouse,
sitting
1982.
and watching each other' to King George V: quoted
John French's despatch Holmes, Cape, 198 1. Sir
A
in
The
Little Field
Marshal, Richard
Captain of the Grenadier Guards: Captain E.J.L. Pike, quoted in 'Fifteen Rounds a (ed.), Macmillan, 1976.
Minute' : The Grenadiers at War, 1914, J.M. Craster
[212]
Notes and References
p. 13
by Captain H.M. Dillon, 2/Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, The Old Contempribles, Keith Simpson, Allen & Unwin, 1981.
British officer's account: letter
quoted
in
CHAPTER 3: 'Pals by Xmas' p. 31 ff
material, other than from sources indicated: from Trench Warfare 191 4and Let Live System, Tony Ashworth, Macmillan, 1980. See Bibliography. Liddell Hart quotation: from The Memoirs of Captain Liddell Hart, Vol. I, Cassell, 1965. A Trooper of the Scots Greys: quoted in South Wales Echo, 4 January 1915. Official History of 6/Gordon Highlanders: The Sixth Gordons in France and Flanders, Cap-
'Live and
let live'
18: The Live
p.
32
p.
33
p.
34
tain
D. Mackenzie, 1921.
'Nocturnal serenades': from Twice in a Lifetime, Leslie Walkinton - see Index of Soldiers. 'Better entertainment':
from
by Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater
letter
- see
Index of
Soldiers. p.
Bavarian prince story: from Vossische Zeitung, quoted The Times, 8 January 19 15.
37
pp. 37-8
Visit of
French President, hoax
story:
from Diary of General
Horace Smith-Dorrien -
Sir
see Index of Soldiers,
pp. 38-40
CHAPTER 4 p.
41
Document G. :
PRO
507:
WO 95/1560.
Pre-Christmas Initiatives
Papal
initiative:
New York
1896-1914, Allen
Times,
& Unwin,
1966;
December
BBC
1914; Leslie Baily's
BBC
Scrapbooks Vol.
Radio, Scrapbook for 1914; Benedict
XV:
I
The Pope
H.E.G. Rope, Gifford, 1941. .': from newspaper advertisement by Hope Brothers 'The added comfort and protection Complete Outfitters, Birmingham and London - see illustration, p. 43.
of Peace, by Father
.
p.
43
An artillery officer:
p.
46
Newspaper report
p.
47
Churchill quotation: from a
p.
48
Comment on
Churchill,
CHAPTER 5: p.
54
pp. 59-60 p. 61
p.
62
letter in
.
The Times,
5
January 1915.
memorandum
New York
Times, 26 December, 1916. December 1914, quoted in Winston S. (Documents) to Volume III, Heinemann, 1972.
(originating in Rotterdam):
of 29
Martin Gilbert, Companion Part I Sir John French: from The Little Field Marshal, Richard Holmes, op.
cit.
Christmas Eve
Material on coastal bombardments: from
From
the
Dreadnought
to
Scapa Flow, Arthur
J.
Marder, Oxford University Press, 1965. Commentator in Illustrated London News: Charles Lowe, 26 December 1914. Account by Vize-Feldwebel Lange: from Behind the Lines, C.E. Cooper, op. cit. First air-raid on Dover: Glasgow Herald, 26 December 1914; The First Battle of Britain, Major Raymond H. Fredetie USAF, Cassell, 1966. 2/R. Welch Fusiliers' Christmas Eve: from The War the Infantry Knew - see Index of Soldiers under Captain C.I. Stockwell; unpublished letter by
Richardson (loose
An
artillery officer: letter in
p.
63
Order from
p.
66
German
Second Lieutenant M.S.
MS in battalion war diary, PRO WO 95/1365.
GHQ: PRO
soldier's letter:
The Times,
i
January 1915.
WO 95/1440 and elsewhere. from Reclams Universum
(illustrated magazine), Leipzig, 21
January
1915.
pp. 72-3
Material on the Kensingtons (13/London): from The Kensingtons, O.F. Bailey and Hollier, Regimental
H.M.
Old Comrades Association, 1936.
p.
76
Urmamed
p.
79
2/Bedfordshire story: Battalion
p.
80
The Times, 2 January 1915. Diary; The Spice of Variety, Charles Brewer - see Index
officer of Rifle Brigade: letter in
War
of Soldiers.
,
Belgian soldier's account: The Times, 2 January 1915.
[213]
Notes and References
pp. 80-1 p. 81
Account by Robert de Wilde: from Aion Journal de Campagne, published Paris, 19 18. Account by Capitaine L. Rimbault: from Journal de Campagne d'un Officier de la Ligne, Librairie Militaire Berger-Lenroult, 1916.
p.
82
ff
pp. 85-6
German
regimental accounts: from appropriate Regimental Histories. See Bibliography,
Material on French attitudes: from
monograph by
the late
Anthony Brett-James.
CHAPTER 6: Christmas Day p.
Officer of Queen's
87
pp. 87-8
Westminster
Rifles: letter in
Norfolk News, 9 January 1915. in France Flanders,
&
Chaplain's account of Christmas service: from With French
Owen
Spencer Watkins, Charles A. Kelly, 1915. p.
89
2
Devons
by R. Loman, ex-soldier 2/Devons, Daily Chronicle, 24 November 1926. Startin - see Index of Soldiers.
story: letter
I/Leicester
Tommy: Harold
2 Border story: Diary of
Queen's Westminster p.
90
p. 91
pp. 92-5
unknown
story:
Soldier of the Border Regiment - see p. 50 and footnote. from Leslie Walkinton - see Index of Soldiers,
2 Wiltshire story: from E. L. Francis - see Index of Soldiers. Another subaltern: A. P. Sinkinson - see Index of Soldiers. Old Contemptible: Harold Startin, i/Leicester, as above - see Index of Soldiers. German soldiers' letters: from Vorwdrts, Berlin, January 1915, quoted the Daily Telegraph, 9 January I9l5;and Reclams t/wiWriuw, Leipzig, 21 January 1915. Officer of the Rifle Brigade (as p 76): letter in The Times, 2 January 1915. A subaltern: letter in Manchester Guardian, 6 January 191 5. Material on joint burial service, etc: from The 6th Gordons in France Flanders, op. cit.;
&
Letters by Sir
Edward Hulse
- see
Index of Soldiers; 20th Brigade
War
Diary; 2/Scots
Guards War Diary, p.
97
p.
98
p.
99
p.
102
ff
German
A A
soldiers' letters:
from Reclams Universum, op.
piper in the Scots Guards: letter in The Times, junior officer of the 6th Cheshires: letter
cit.
January 1915. in Cornish Guardian, 8 January 191 5.
Material on the Kensingtons: as pp. 72-3 An LRB man: from 'Christmas 1914', Frank
1 1
&
Maurice Wray, The Army Quarterly,
October 1968. p.
104
p. 105
'Soldier
A
from the same
battalion': letter in
Officer of the Queen's
Westminster
Border account: anonymous diary, see footnote
106
2
p.
108
Rifleman of the Queen's Westminster
p.
1
I
16
pp.
1
pp.
1
18-19 19-20
p. 121
Lieutenant of Landwehr:
December
Rifles: letter in
p.
p. II
Birkenhead News, 4 January 1915.
British subaltern: letter in Daily Telegraph, 31
19 14.
Norfolk News, 9 January 191 5.
p. 50.
Rifles: letter in
Daily News, 30 December 1914.
The Times, 28 January, 1915. from 'The Last Days of Chivalry',
letter in
Barber from Holborn story:
J.
A. Maxtone Graham, The
Kiwanis Magazine, December 1964-January 1965. Christmas menu of soldiers of Honourable Artillery Company: Evening News, 4 January 1915. Account by former transport driver: C. W. Howe, 1963 letter, Imperial War Museum, Material on Berlin and Germany: New York Times, 26 December 1914; The Times, 30 January 1915; C.E. Cooper, Behind the Lines, op. cit. English resident in Paris: from Pans Waits, M.E. Clarke, Smith Elder, 1915. British correspondent in Paris: The Graphic, 2 January 1915.
pp. 12 1-2
London
material:
New York
Michael MacDonagh, Eyre
&
Times, 26
December
1914; In London during the Great War,
Spottiswoode, 1935; Dear Old Blighty, E.S. Turner, Michael
Joseph, 1980. p.
122
Sandringham menu:
24 December December 1914.
Dcji/y 5/;erc^,
Kaiser's speech: The Times, 30
[214]
1914.
5
Notes and References
pp. 124, 126 Material on gifts from Princess Mary's Fund: from
May p.
134
HRH
The Princess Mary's Fund Report,
1920.
Royal Artilleryman: from account by Chelsea pensioner
printed in The Gunner, re-
first
printed The Stafford Knor, April 1980. p.
136
An An
officer of a officer
Glasgow Regiment:
of the
RAMC:
letter in
Glasgow Herald,
letter in
The Times,
1
January 1915.
1
January 1915.
pp. 137, 139 Landstiirmers, visit to British trenches: from report by Harold Ashton, Special Correspondent
of Daily News, 31 p.
140
December
A British subaltern:
1914.
Daily Telegraph, 6 January 191 5. 'My Captain etc .': letter by a junior officer, Cornish Guardian, 8 January 1915. .': from History 'Some Uhlan officers of The ist and 2nd Battalions The North Staffordshire .
letter in
.
.
.
Regiment (The Prince of Wales's) 1914-1923, Hughes and Harper, Longton, p.
142
p.
143
Staffs,
1932-3.
The Queen's Regimental Museum, Clan-
Football games in billets: soldier's letter, courtesy
don Park. Footballs tied to knapsacks: The Sphere, 9 January 19 15. Officer of a p.
149
p.
150
p. 151
Highland Regiment:
Belgian soldier's
letter in
Morning
Post, 2 January 1915.
p 80. Account by Robert de Wilde: as p. 80. letter: as
French Infantry Brigade 56''
Brigades
French
d' Infanterie,
joint burial:
War
Diaries: Journals des
Marches
et
Operations de
la
139'
et
de la
courtesy Service Historique de I'Armee de Terre, Vincennes.
account by Emile Barraud of 39th Regiment in The Graphic, 30 January
1915.
CHAPTER 154
p.
PP- I55~6
160
p.
pp. 160-1
Boxing Day 'One soldier on Boxing Day': Story told to Ethel Cooper:
7:
.
r/!e
Manchester Guardian, LiViej,
op.
'
The Long Truce
is
i
January 1915.
cit.
PRO WO 95, 1560. PRO WO 157/262.
Smith-Dorrien memorandum, 25 December 1914: Smith-Dorrien memorandum, 27 December 1914:
CHAPTER 8: PP 165-6
letter in
Broken'
1914, Field Marshal Viscount French of Ypres, Constable 1919.
p-
168
History of the Great War, John Buchan, Nelson, 1915-19.
p-
169
p-
i69n
p-
178
p-
192
p-
194
Order of i January 1915 from Second Army: PRO 95/1441 and elsewhere. Army Diary 1899-1920, Richard Meinertzhagen, Oliver & Boyd, i960. 'The Wonderful Day': Headline, Evening News, 2 January 1915. RAF Flying Officer's diary: R.J. Fairhead, unpublished MS, Imperial War Museum. Old Contemptible: Harold Startin, i/Leicester - see Index of Soldiers. Comment by G.H. Perris: from The Campaign in France Belgium, Hodder & Stoughton,
WO
&
1915.
POSTSCRIPT: P-
195
Christmas 191
A.J. P. Taylor quotation: from The First
196
Penguin, 1966. Sergeant on Smith-Dorrien's
p.
198
Mrs Margaret Griffiths, German anti-fraternization
p.
202
p.
203
World War, an
Illustrated History,
Hamish Ham-
ilton 1963, p.
staff:
order:
Sergeant E.E. Castle,
PRO WO
ASC;
diary extract by courtesy of
157/4.
WO
Report by Lord Cavan: PRO 95/1 190. .': 'The slow vindictive Christmas cheer from Poor Bloody Infantry, W.H.C. Groom, .
.
Kimber, 1976. p.
204
CO
i/Hampshire: Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. W. Armitage,
[215]
MS diary. Imperial War Museum.
1
1
Bibliography Additional to works mentioned in Notes "and References and in Index of Soldiers t ,
OFFICIAL AND REGIMENTAL HISTORIES BRITISH History of the Great
War: Military Operations, France and Belgium (1914-1;) compiled by Brigadier-
General J.E. Edmonds and Captain G.C. Wynne, Macmillan, 1927 Berkely, R. The History of the Rifle Brigade in the War of 1914-18, 1929
Garhwal Rifles, Vol. I, 1922 The History of the First Seven Battalions, the Royal Irish Rifles m the Great War, Vol II, 1925 Henriques, T.Q. The War History of the ist Battalion the Queen's Westminster Rifles 1914-1918, 1923
Evatt,
J.
Historical Record of the 39th Royal
Falls, Cyril
Latter, J.C. The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers 1914-1918, Vol
I, 1949 Maurice, F. The History of the London Rifle Brigade 18^9-1919, Constable, 1921 Petre, F. Loraine The History of the Norfolk Regiment 1685-1918, Vol II
Petre, F. Loraine
Smith, C.
War
&
Ewart,
W. The
Scots Guards in the Great
Stacke, H. FitzM. The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great
Story,
H.H.
War 1914-1918, Murray,
1925
History of the Sixth Battalion the Cheshire Regiment, 1932
War
History of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) 1910-1933, 1961
Ward, C.H. Dudley Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Vol III, London, 1928 Willcocks, General Sir James With the Indians in France, Constable, 1920
GERMAN Anon: History of the 1 33rd Infantry Regt, 1969 Appel,
Dr
Friedrich, History of Reserve Infantry Regiment
Baldenstein, R. von
&
others
No
20;, Berlin, 1937
Das Infanterie-Regiment Freiherr von Sparr (History of the 3rd Westphalian
Infantry Regiment), Berlin, 1927
(nth Royal Saxon) Infantry Regt, Dresden, 1927 Goldammer, A. History of the 179th Infantry Regt, Leipzig, 193 Masoben, Ernst History of Reserve Infantry Regiment No 212, Oldenburg, 1933 Crusius, Baumgarten History of the 139th
Orgeldinger, Louis History of Wixrttembergische Reserve Infantry Regiment
No
246, Stuttgart, 1931
H. History of the i8isi Infantry Regt, Dresden 1923 Reinhardt, G.H. & others History of the 107th Infantry Regt, Dresden, 1928 Pflugbeil,
Riebensahm, G. History of the
i
sth {2nd Westphalian) Infantry Regt,
Note: German Regimental Histories available
in
German
Minden, 193
only
OTHER BOOKS The Congreves: Father and Son Lt.-Col. L.H. Thornton CMG DSO and Pamela Fraser, Murray, 1930
[216]
A
Fox under my Cloak Henry Williamson (fiction), Macdonald La Grande Guerre Pierre Miquel, Fayard, Paris, 1983
1958; Chivers Press Bath, 1983
The
Tony Ashworth's pioneering book on the and Let Live System, Macmillan, 1980
authors would also like to single out for special reference
subject of fraternization: Trench Warfare 1914-1918: The Live
MAGAZINE ARTICLES, PART WORKS, etc. The Times History of the War, Vol. IV, 1915 The Great World War Frank H. Mumby (ed.), Gresham, Vol.
War
Was
John Hammerton
II,
1915
Amalgamated Press, 1938, Parts 7 and 12 'Christmas 1914, and After', John Terraine, History Today, December 1979 'Time off from Conflict: Christmas 1914', David Winter, Royal United Service Institution Journal, December 1970 'Christmas 1914', A.J. Peacock, Gun Fire, vol i, no 2, York Educational Settlement, 1984 The Great
.
.
.
I
There.' Sir
(ed.).
[217]
Index of Soldiers
Sources of quotations are
listed against
Figures in bold type refer to quotations, figures in
Ranks
each entry
italics refer to illustrations
as at the time of the events described
British
Henry Young,
Rifleman J.C. Abery 5/London (London Rifle
Department of Documents, Imperial
Brigade) 195
Liverpool, 1917
diary:
Captain Miles Barnes Acting
War Museum Reverend
J.
viii,
XXXVIII
Bde,
Fallen Englishmen,
Laurence Housman
Royal Field Artillery
(ed.),
135
vii,
109,
77, 78, 92, 97,
no,
117, 126-7,
I39> 147
Staffordshire
Stratford-upon-Avon,
Regiment
(privately printed),
Lance-Corporal George Ashurst Fusiliers, 137, 146
courtesy the
letter:
2/
Lancashire
unpublished
1915
MS, My
Riflemanm A.R. Bassingham 5/London (London Rifle Brigade),
Bit courtesy of :
Brigade), 68
Raymond Asquith 3/Grenadier Guards Raymond Asquith, 203 n
Captain
Life
and
Letters
John
JoUiffe (ed.), Collins,
London, 1980 Second Lieutenant Bruce Bairnsfather i/Royal Warwickshire, viii, 10, Bullets and Billets, Grant Richards, 69, 70, 88, 89, 99, loo-i, 102, n6, 141, London, 1916
authors
171,173
H^ar (published
anonymously): courtesy of
LRB
Veterans' Association
Captain E.R.P. Berryman 2/39 Garhwal Rifles
Lieutenant Gordon Barber i/Cameron Highlanders
My Diary in France (privately printed).
Rifle
MS letter lent to
Lance-Corporal Bell 5/London (London Rifle Brigade), 117, 118, A Diary of the Great
165, 192
I97j 199
60
Major Arthur Bates 5/London (London
author
203,
Gollancz, 1930;
and In Happy Memory, BuUen,
Captain R.J. Armes i/North Staff'ordshire viii,
Guards
Second Lieutenant D.O. Harnett 2/Leinster from War Letters of 34
92-5, 116
Major A.G. Arbuthnot OC, 24 Bty,
i/Scots
202, 203, 203 n
Esslemont Adams Chaplain, 6/Gordon
Highlanders,
CO,
98, 129-30, 131-2,
MS letter: courtesy
132, 1 s8, 169
of
Mrs Felicite Nesham
Lieutenant Frank H. Black i/Royal Warwickshire
[218]
2
5
Index of Soldiers
MS letter:
70, 108, 109
Imperial
Lance-Corporal Stephen
War Museum Lieutenant Charles Brewer 2/Bedfordshire
The Spice of Variety,
66, 99, 144-S
Muller, London,
Private
authors, 1983
Major Archibald Buchanan-Dunlop i/Leicestershire letters:
113-14, 163, 170, 184-
his sons
Rifles)
letter:
Drake-Brockman
2/39 Garhwal Rifles
The Garhwal
131, 133, 169
the
College,
Gunner C.L.B. Burrows 104
Bty,
XXII Bde, Royal
Royal Artillery
1934
Second Lieutenant Cyril XXXII Bde, Royal
Woolwich
GOC,
Drummond
135-6, 147
7th Division
Public Record OflSce
167
WO 95/154
John Bale,
Evening News,
1931
letters:
9, 10, 1
Second Lieutenant Wilfred Ewart i/Scots Guards Scots Guard, Rich & 200, 201
courtesy of
Cowan, 1934;
139, 141, 158, 159 Sergeant Frank Collins 2/Monmcuthshire
The Great
CoLQUHOUN
202, 203, 203 n
i/Scots
Was
Guards
(ed.),
(1915) Brigade-
Major, 76th Brigade 47, 48, III, 120, 198
Brigadier General Walter
Brigade (6th Division)
Private B. Felstead 15/Royal
A
VC's Diary 19141916, Terry Norman
200, 201
.
.
.
I
John Hammerton
Sir
Malcolm Colquhoun
GOC
War
There, part 12,
diary: courtesy of
Captain Billy Congreve (19 14) aide to 3rd Division, Armageddon Road,
also
account quoted in
via, 113
Captain Sir Iain
1
January 1915
family
13>
'»9I5
Rifleman John Erskine 5/Cameronians (Scottish letter in Edinburgh Rifles), 113
Second Lieutenant Dougan Chater 2/Gordon 34-5> 97, 98, 99>
letter in Evening News, 2 January 19 15 and The Rifle Brigade
Chronicle 191 4 Col. Willoughlry Verney,
Major John Charteris Royal Engineers staff officer to General Sir Douglas At GHQ Brigadier Haig, 143 Sir John Charteris, Cassell, London,
Highlanders,
135 Bty, taped reminiscence,
Field Artillery, 156, 757 1976 Rifleman G. Fade 3/Rifle Brigade
Institution,
Major-General Thomas Capper,
Rifies in
War from
November 1918,
Cambridge
diary: courtesy of
Field Artillery, 145
Great
August 1914-
courtesy of
family and Churchill
198
Fusiliers
authors, 1983
Lieutenant-Colonel D.H.
5, 18;, 186-7, 189 Captain Roland Bull i6/London (Queen's
Westminster
Welch
correspondence with
201,202
courtesy of
via, 20, 21, 27, 60, 76,
cit.
correspondence with
197 Private Harold Diffey 15/Royal
98, 118, 134, 148
The Scots-
H.E. Dickson 8/Royal Scots
of Mrs Nora Brookes
via, 4, 27, 60, 74, 87,
Highlanders
man, 7 January 191 Second Lieutenant Harold DE Buriatti The Spice of Variety, 2/Bedfordshire, 79
diary/album: courtesy
Rifles)
letter in
op.
1948 Rifleman Bernard Brookes i6/London (Queen's
Westminster
Coy 6/Gordon
108
Welch
December 1938
Fusiliers
correspondence with authors, 1983
Corporal John Ferguson 2/Seaforth Highlanders
Kimber, London, 1982 (ed.))
Congreve vc CO, i8th
via, 70-1, 115, 160,
MS:
i6on
grandson, also
courtesy of
published The
Saturday Review, 25
ibid
December
48, 48 n, 114-15
[219]
19 15
5
1
Index of Soldiers
Private Field i/The Buffs
104
War Museum Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse 2/Scots Guards
letter in Bristol
Evening News, 4 January 191 Lieutenant-Colonel L.R. Fisher-Rowe
98, 99, 100, 105, 106,
116,
23,144,170,171,172,
his
174, 187, 190
Imperial
grandson and
War
Public Record Office
Hunter 2/Monmouthshire
97, 108
WO 95/1560
letter in
Brigadier E.C. Ingouville- Williams i6th Brigade,
1974 account:
90,135
186,
courtesy of author Field Marshal Sir John
120, 124, 151, 165, 166, 169,
1914, Constable,
i87n
John Terraine (ed.). Eyre & Spottiswoode,
191, 194
London, 1964 Major George Darell Jeffreys 2/Grenadier Guards Fifteen Rounds a 13,14,44,45,111,
Gilbert 13/London (Kensington) 1963
letter:
Imperial
War Museum
Minute: The
Second Lieutenant R.D. Gillespie 2/Gordon Highlanders, 137
Lieutenant LI.
Wyn
Fusiliers, 198,
Grenadiers at War,
correspondence with
1914, J.M. Craster
authors, 1981
(ed.),
Griffiths 15/Royal Welch
Up
200
to
Mametz,
General Sir Douglas Haig Commander, First
Sergeant Charles Johnson 2/Royal Berkshire
The Private Papers of
Eyre
&
letter in the
32,33,91
Army
Douglas Haig 191 41919, Robert Blake (ed.).
January 19 15
London, 1952 Second Lieutenant R. Geoffrey Heinekey 2/The Queen's (Royal West MS letters: courtesy of widow
Rifleman P.H. Jones i6/London (Queen's
Westminster
diary: courtesy of
Rifles)
Paul P.H. Jones
73-4) 136, 147
Lieutenant Malcolm D.
Major Kenneth Henderson 1/39 Garhwal Rifles memoir: Imperial 133-4, 1341 War Museum and
Kennedy 2/Cameronians The 191 2-1922 Memoirs of Captain M.D. Kennedy QBE
(Scottish Rifles), 59,
62
(unpublished MS):
the estate of Sir
Malcolm Henderson Private
Edmund Herd
Imperial
diary: Imperial
War
Captain W.G.S.
Museum Private
C.W.
119-20
Kenny
1/39
Garhwal
via, 133, 134, 134 n,
HoweASC
169
1963
letter:
War
Museum
lo/King's (Liverpool)
196, 197
fwnm^
News, 3 1 December 1914 Sergeant W. 'Blackwood' Jones 2/Monmouthshire letter in South Wales 1 12- 13 Weekly Argus, 16
Spottiswoode,
Surrey), 49-50, 52, 75S
Macmillan,
London, 1976
Faber, London, 193 54, 120, 143, 166, 197, 203
Commander
14,
1919
197
146
1
Captain J.L. Jack i/Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) General Jack's Diary, no. III, II in, 173,
French Commander-in-
12, 38, 47, 48,
South Wales
Weekly Argus, 9
38, 39-40, 160
Private G.
T
f
189, 189 n, 190, 200
Private C.
Second Lieutenant E.L. Francis 2/Wiltshire
BEF,
i6n, 117, 120,
170, 171, 176-7, 187,
Museum
Chief,
I
I2S, 148, 162, 163,
Brigadier-General G.T. Forestier-Walker
H.L. Smith-Dorrien
printed), 1916
CO,
letters:
Sir
Letters (privately
53. 56, 94> 9S> 96, 97>
courtesy of
i/Grenadier Guards
Chief-of- Staff to General
via, 19, 28, 30, so, 31,
Imperial
Lance-Corporal Laird
[220]
RAMC
Rifles
5
Index of Soldiers
63
Evening
letter in
News,
Private A. W. Peel i/Norfolk
January 191 Corporal G.A. Leonard io6th Field Coy, Royal I
108, 177
Engineers, 25th Division,
correspondence with,
197
authors 1983
War Diary
Highlanders, 19, 20,
album/letters:
94, 190
courtesy of The
2/Scots
Company
Guards: Public
Record Office
Lancashire, 129, 162
CO,
Sergeant
J.
Philpotts i/Royal Warwickshire
104
1963
2/East
diary: Imperial
War
Rifleman
W. Plumridge
122, 123
letter in the £t;e«m^ News, 2 January 1915; and The Rifle
IV Corps,
1/39
WO 95/154
Garhwal Corporal Robert
Renton
Private Frank
Richards 2/Royal Welch Fusiliers Old Soldiers Never Die, Faber, London,
128, 15s, 161
Press,
Hitchin, 1982
1933
Captain Maurice Mascall Royal Garrison Artillery
110,171,172-3
Private Alexander
courtesy of
letters:
his
95) 145
Runcie 6/Gordon Highlanders unpublished memoir:
widow
Imperial
Rifleman F. Maskell 3/Rifle Brigade 116
letter in
Moren
War
Museum The
Sergeant A. Self 2/West Yorkshire
Berkshire Chronicle, 8
Private Albert
The
Scotsman, 5 January 1915
George Martin 4/Seaforth Highlanders Echoes from Hell,
Dodman
2/Seaforth Highlanders letter in
McLean CO, 6/Gordon
Highlanders, 92
149
Churchill College,
Cambridge; and Public Record Office
96
Private
GOC,
diary: courtesy of
725, 166,
167, i67n, I74n, 188
Rifles, 133
Lieutenant-Colonel C.
Imperial
letter:
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Rawlinson
cit.
Lumb Acting Adjutant,
Brigade
War Museum
Brigade Chronicle, op.
J.
i/Rifle
1963
Sergeant A. Lovell 3/Rifle Brigade
Captain
Imperial
letter:
War Museum
Museum 71-2,97
of Ten, St
Albans
WO 95/1657 Lieutenant-Colonel Lothian Nicholson
Imperial
letter:
Second Lieutenant Arthur Pelham-Burn 6/Gordon
Captain Giles H. Loder Adjutant, 2/Scots Guards 93) 94> 95
1963
War Museum
January 19 15 2/The Queen's (Royal West
96
account: Imperial
War Museum Second Lieutenant A. P. Sinkinson attached
Surrey), 32, 60, 66,
interview for Peace in
2/Lancashire Fusiliers
letter in the
191
No Man's Land, BBC
ix, 90,
Telegraph, 5 January
tv,
Guardsman
F.
Murker
76, 175 Sergeant Major F.
1981 Staff Sergeant Charles
32 6/Cheshire
103, 147
letter in
1915
2/Monmouthshire
112
Captain George Paynter
CO,
Sloan Royal Engineers letter in
The Scotsman, The Cheshire
25
Observer, 9 January Private Ernest Palfrey
Daily
1915
2/Scots Guards
Naden
193
2/Scots Guards
December
1914 Corporal Walter Sinclair Smith 5/Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 113 Lieutenant-Colonel Wilfrid Smith CO, 2/Grenadier Guards, 178 Fifteen Rounds a
116, ii6n, 148, 189 n, 190
Minute, op.
[221]
cit.
Index of Soldiers
General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien
GOC,
Second Army
GOC,
II
No Man's Land, BBC
Corps;
diary: Imperial
War
tv,
from 26.12.14, 38, 39,
Museum;
40, 47, 120, 160, 161,
Notes and References
Rifleman A.E.
see also
Westminster
letter in the
Rifles),
1915
169, 185, 196, 197
Private Harold Startin
i
Second Lieutenant Johr^WEDDEKBURN-MAXWELL
/Leicestershire
89> 90j 97> I39> I94
XLV Bde,
'Diary of a Dedicated
5th Bty,
Legionnaire' Shepton
Royal Field Artillery,
Mallet Journal,
156-7,
December 1966
Private
collected letters:
Lieutenant Ian Stewart 2 Argyll Highlanders, 72, 107,
&
Sutherland
W.
letter in
January 19 15 Lieutenant J.C. St G.
authors, 1983 143, 172 Captain Charles Inglis Stockwell 2/Royal Welch
War
The
154-5
AT^ez:',
Welchman
1/39
Garhwal
Rifles, 133, 134, 169
the Infantry
Private Ernie
anon (ed.), P.S. King, London,
Williams 6/Cheshire
146-7
interview with
Gubba
diary: courtesy of
97, 98, 102, 144, 154,
David Winter
Tony
in
BBC tv,
Grandstand,
1938
Tapp i/Royal Warwickshire
via, 28, 40, 55, 69, 70,
MG
The
Yorkshire Herald, 5
132-3, 140, 191
correspondence with
Fusiliers, 33, 127-8,
War
Imperial
Museum 159 Weir i8/Hussars, attached 4/Cavalry
/5
(Garhwal Bde), 130,
Private William
Daily
Telegraph, 5 January
118, 148,449
163, 164, 165, 167,
1981
Watts i6/London (Queen's
December 1983 Rifleman Graham Williams 5/London (London Brigade),
viii,
Rifle
Saturday Afternoon
20, 22,
159, 165, 171, 188-9,
55, 60, 66, 68, 99,
Soldiers (unpublished
194
101-2, 103-4, 164,
memoir); interview
168, 177, 192
for
Private
Oswald Tilley 5/London (London
Brigade), ix, 97-8
letters:
Rifle
family
Telegraphist
letter in
December
diary, Imperial
Museum
Appreciation of Henry Williamson, Daniel
Farson, Michael
War
Joseph, London,
1982
Walkinton i6/London (Queen's Rifles),
Twice
Sergeant William Williamson 2/Devonshire
in a Lifetime,
diary: courtesy of
20, 43, 148, 193-4
via, 22, 23, 33, 34, 98,
M. L. Walkinton,
105, 106, 126, 146,
Samson Books, London, 1980; letter written Boxing Day
Major Murdoch McKenzie
19 14; letter to Louth
Second Lieutenant J.D. Wyatt
/5S, 165, 192, 193
An
Henry,
136
19 14
2/Lancashire Fusiliers,
Westminster
BBC tv,
Rifle Brigade), 126,
RAMC MO attached
61, 137
Rifleman Leslie
No
Rifleman Henry Williamson 5/London (London
The
Scotsman, 26
Lieutenant William Tyrrell
in
1981
Andrew Todd Royal Engineers
31, 32
Peace
Man's Land,
courtesy of
family
Wood
Highlanders, 191-2
6/Gordon
Hansard,
'ii
March
1930 2/Yorkshire
& Lincoln Observer;
I5> i39j 161-2, 173,
diary: Imperial
interview for Peace in
174, 190
Museum
[222]
War
Index of Soldiers
Germans Karl
German
Aldag
Pioneer Friedrich Nickolaus 53/Reserve Pioneer
Students'
26, 37.47.56, 175-6.
War
17511, 188
Philipp Witkop (ed.),
Letters,
Dr
Regimental History
Coy, 26 Lieutenant Johannes
Munich, 1928;
Regiment,
viii,
64,
Niemann 133rd Saxon Christmas Day 66 Quietly,
translated A.F.
Wedd, Methuen, Gotthold von
1929
Captain Rudolph Binding 13,
A
War, F.D.
Fatalist at
9,
Willi
Bloem
10
BOHNE
27-8
Ludwig FiNKE 83,84
War Letters,
84-5
Morrow, Allen & Unwin, London, Captain Walter
^5, 96. 98,
1
16, 145,
Vol.
Mons 1 91 4, translated by G.C.Wynne,
London, 1966;
Peter Davies,
BBC Radio
London, 1930 German Students'
War
Captain Walther Stennes i6th (3rd Westphalian), Freiherr von Sparr
account: Imperial
Regiment,
War Museum; The
viii,
79-80,
Amiable Prussian,
129, 130-1
Charles Drage,
op. cit
The Storm of Steel, Ernst Junger,
Mottram, Chatto & Windus, 1929 Hugo Klemm 133rd Saxon Regiment via, 63-4, 90-1, 103, letter to Johannes Niemann, 1968 145 Vize-Feldwebel Lange XIX Saxon Corps Behind the Lines: One 59. 155, 156 Woman's War 191418,
Blond, London, 1958
Gunner Herbert Sulzbach 63rd (Frankfurt) Field Artillery Regiment With the German Guns, Leo Cooper, 196 London, 1973 Warne, London, 1981) Grenadier Thimian i/Garde Grenadier Regiment (reprinted
diary account:
153
courtesy of Richard
Baumgartner
Crown
C.E. Cooper,
Fifth
Prince
Army,
Wilhelm 83, 126
Norman & 1982 10
Commander,
My War Experience, &
Blackett,
London, 1922 Gefreiter (Lance-Corporal) Fritz Zeck 235th Reserve
Students'
War Letters,
of Prussia
Hurst
Hobhouse, London,
German
& Unwin,
Scrapbook for 1914,
Students'
War Letters,
(1896-1914),
I
Allen
Letters, op. cit.
German
cit.
BBC Scrapbooks,
1929 The Advance from
introduced by R.H.
Walter Limmer
op.
Leslie Baily (ed.),
191
Lieutenant Ernst Junger 73rd Hanoverian Fusilier
Regiment, 199
December 1968 German Students'
Captain Josef Sewald 17th Bavarian Regiment
translated Ian
47,56
Rohden
Passed
BBC tv,
op.cn.
[223]
Infantry Regiment,
correspondence with
199-200
authors, 1983
I
Index
Figures in
italics refer to illustrations
air raids, British, I2i air raids,
German,
6i, 121, 195
Aisne, river, 12, 37, 76 anti-Germanism, 2-5, 4,
7,
8-9, 98, 178
Argonne, 83 Armentieres, 13, 17, 26, 62, 72, 87, 161, 165 armistices for burial of the dead, x, 50, 5;, 52-3, 78-9, 91-6, 151, 166-7, 202, 204 Arras, 84, 151
Royal Field Artillery (RFA), 156, 164 104 Bty 22nd Bde RFA, 145 24 Bty 38th Bde RFA, 135 Royal Garrison Artillery, 1 10, 171 Cavalry
—
8th Hussars, 130 Northumberland Hussars, 142 Scots Greys, 33 1
Indian Cavalry,
anillery, 15, 27, 28, 47, 48-50, 53, 62, 70, 80, 82, 84,
Infantry Brigades
131, 144, 148, 154, 157, 160-1, 165, 171, 178, 188-9,
I
198-9, 201-2
13th,
Asquith, H.H., 3, 193, 203 attacks, pre-Christmas, 47-52, 54, 79 Aubers Ridge, 17 Austrians, 5, 181 autographs, /07, 159
barbers, 33, 104, 116 Bavarians, 81, 1 1 in, 151, 160, 181 BEF (British Expeditionary Force),
1
German
Corps, 54 Corps, 38, 40, 160 III Corps, 40 IV Corps, 117, 125, 167 I
II
Divisions
—
3rd, 47, III, 120, 177 6th, 48 7th, 143, 167 8th, 72, 167, i67n, 176
Artillery—
Royal Artillery, 134
12
1
14
8th, 48, 114
20th, 92, 95, 170, 174 24th, 79
25th 197 76th, 198 Regiments Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 2 Bn, 72, no, 143, '72 Bedfordshire, 2 Bn, 66, 79, 92, 99, 99n, 144 Border, 2 Bn, 31, 50-2, 89, 92, 106, 148, 175 Cameron Highlanders, Queen's Own, i Bn, 159, 164,
—
i,
12-15, '8, 120,
162-3, i7°> '88, 197
attitude to, 6-8
Army—
1
19th, 72
Bixschoote, 82, 84 Bois Grenier, 76, 17, 49, 96, IJ3 breakfast truces, 32 breastworks, construction of, 165, 772, 77^, 188 British
Ith, 76, 136, 168, 175
i6th, 13,
Berlin, 35, 121, 181, 183 Berliner Tagehlatt, 183
British,
Bn, 119
15th, 128
134-n
billets, 30, 55, 58, 87, 113, 142,
3
—
197, 199 Rifles), i Bn, 775, 191, 194; Bn, 59, 62; 5 Bn, no, 113 Cheshire, 6 Bn, 99, 103, 1 16, 146 Coldstream Guards, i Bn, 200; 4 Bn, 200 Devonshire, 2 Bn, 20, 43, 52, 62, 89, 148 Durham Light Infantry, 2 Bn, 161 East Lancashire, i Bn, 168; 2 Bn, 129, 162, 164 Gordon Highlanders, I75n; i Bn, 47-8; 2 Bn, 34, 113, 137, 141, 159, 187; 6 Bn, 19, 34, 92-5, 97, 108, 145, 187, I 90Grenadier Guards, i Bn, 23, 144, 170, 187, 190; 2 Bn,
Cameronians (Scottish 2
12, 13,44.
"I. 178
Hampshire, i Bn, 175 Honourable Artillery Company, 118 King's (Liverpool), i/io, 8n, 196 King's Royal Rifle Corps, i Bn, 112 Lancashire Fusiliers, 2 Bn, 61, 137, 145-6
[224]
Index
Leicestershire,
i
Bn, 20, 21, 27, 60, 76, 89, 113, 139,
170, 189
Leinster, 2 Bn, 34, 188 5 Bn (London Rifle Brigade), 20, 22, 55, 60, 66, 68, 76, 88, 97, 99, 101-2, /07, 117, 126, 135,
London,
138, 140, 164, 171, 177, 195
London, 13 Bn (Kensingtons), 72-3, 102, 146, 161-2 London, 4 Bn (London Scottish), 23 London, 16 Bn (Queen's Westminster Rifles), 22, 27, 33-4> 73-4. 75. 87, 89> 9i>97> 105-6, 108, 113, 118, 134-7, 146-8, 198 Middlesex, 2 Bn, 62
Monmouthshire, 97, Norfolk,
North
I
108, 112
Bn, 128
Staffordshire,
i
Bn, 72, 92, 97, 110, 134, 147,
155
Queen's (Royal West Surrey), 32, 49-50, 52-3, 66 Queen's Westminster Rifles (see London, 16 Bn) Rifle Brigade, 98; i Bn, 122, 168, 175; 3 Bn, 71, 97, 116, 135, 147
Royal Royal Royal Royal Royal Royal
Berkshire, 2 Bn, 32, 59, 159
Dublin
Bn, 188 Irish Fusiliers, i Bn, 72 Irish Rifles, i Bn, 73, 102, 156, 157, 162, 163 Scots, 2 Bn, 47-8, 97; 8 Bn, 197 Warwickshire, i Bn, 28, 40, 55, 69-70, 88-9, 97, 104, 108, 171, 188; 2 Bn, 49-50 Royal Welch Fusiliers, 2 Bn, 33, 62, 72, no, 127, 1545, 161; 14 Bn, 200; 15 Bn, 198, 200-1 Scots Guards, :75n; i Bn, 200-2; 2 Bn, 19, 28-31, 30, Fusiliers, 2
50-3, 56, 74, 76, 92-4, 96, 98, 103, 105, 116, I i6n, 124, 136, 14s, 144, 170, 174-5, 189-90, 200-1 Scottish Borderers, 88
Seaforth Highlanders, 2 Bn, 70-1, 115, 160; 4 Bn, 149 Foresters, 8 Bn, 196 Somerset Light Infantry, i Bn, 92, 168, 175, 188
Christmas presents, 41-7, 55, 59, 79, 99n, 114, 117, 1206, 124, 12$ Christmas puddings, 44, 55-6, 117-18, 122, 126 Christmas trees, 46-7, 56, 57, 5S, 59-61, 63-4, 67, 68, 71, 73, 76, 79, 80, 82, 90, 121, 122, 129, 198-9 Christmas truce 1914 attitude of High
Worcestershire, 131, 136, 178 Wiltshires, 2 Bn, 90, 135 Yorkshire, 2 Bn, 15, 139, 161-2, 173, 190 Yorkshire Light Infantry, 88
Regiments (Indian) —
39th Royal Garhwal Rifles, i Bn, 19, 79-80, 129-30, 133-4, 140, 169; 2 Bn, 18, 19, 28, 79-80, 98, 130-1, 132, 133, 140, 169 British Headquarters (GHQ), 63, 120, 169
Brooke, Rupert, 10 Buchan, John, 168 burials (see also Christmas truce 1914), 50, 52, 94, 190
to, xi, 40, 63,
160-1,
attitude of senior officers to, xi, 38-40, 68, 83, 92,
1
14-
171-2
16, 129, 133-4, 134"! 168,
attitude of soldiers to, xi, 59, 62-4, 66, 71, 76-8, 90, 97-9, no-n, 126-7, i30> 148-9, 154-6, 165, 168,
170-1, 173-5. 190-4 appeal to present generation
of, x, xii, 194 Belgian participation in, 80-1, 85-6, 149-50 bizarre events during, 93, 102-3, 116-17, 135
burials during, 78-9, 91-6, 93, 113, 129, 132, 151, 153 casualties during, 60, 93, 112-13, 160, 165, 189
contributory causes of, 32, 56, 78-9, 171, 182 contemporary literary references to, xii, 194 conversations during, 59-60, 62, 68-74, 76-9, 86, 8992, 108-10, 115-17, 127-31, 132, 136-7, 140, 144,
148-9, 153-6, 159, 162, 170-2, 177-8, 187 disapproval of, xi, 115, 133-4, I34n, 160-1, 165-6, 169 duration of, 59, 62, 70, 112-13, 127, 133-4, 139. 154.
169-71, 187, 189 154-5, 156-7, 187-9 extent of, 59, 62, 64, 70, 72-3, 80, 82, 92, 102, 110-16, 127-9, 134. 165. 167 football during, x, 142-7, I45n, 154, 179
end
of, 148,
fraternization, 18, 59-60, 62, 68-74, 76, 78, 89-91, 95, 97-106, loi, 108-10, 112-17, 126-31, 132, 133-4,
137. ' i*. '41, '42, 143, 150, 152, 757, 162, 165, 167, 171-3
Sherwood
South Staffordshire, i Bn, 52 West Yorkshire, 2 Bn, 62, 96
Command
165-9
French participation in, 80-3, 85-6, 149-51, 750, 153 French civilian reaction to, 161 later references to, 191
military advantages of, 105, 114-15, 133, 135-7, 164, 168, 171
photography during,
xii,
136,
7
38, 139-40, 141, 142,
143, 144, 156, 757, 759 press anticipation of, 61
press reaction to,
xii,
1
12,
178-84
prisoners taken during, 74, 75, 76, 137-9, 174-7 significance of, 190-4
souvenirs, gifts exchanged during, 59, 70-2, 74, 76, 78-9, 95, 99- 103, 103, 106, 707, 709, 1 12, 1 14, 117, 127-8, 130-2, 143, 148-51, 153, 156, 159,
171-2 trench improvements during, 59, 114, 139, 161, 164, 168, 171, 772, 173, 174, 188
Canadians, 121, 198 casualties, 13-14, 22, 28, 31, 47-54, 60-1, 84, 92, 11 1-13,
129, 160, 165, 189, 199, 201 cemeteries, 15, 17, 92, 190, 195 chivalry in war, 52-3, 154-6, 166
Christmas cards, 43, 123, 124, 725, 126 Christmas carols, 56, 62-4, 65, 66, 68, 70, 72-3, 76, 7984, 90, 122, 124-6, 124, I2S, 150, 178, 184, 185,
199-200
visits to
enemy trenches during,
117, 136-7, 151, 170,
174-6 Christmas truce 1915, 166, 196-7, 199-203 Churchill, Winston S., 47, 54 civilian attitudes to war, 10, 41-3, 61, 180-3 communication between enemy trenches, pre-Christmas, 32, 33. 34-6, 3S, 37. 52
Cooper, Caroline Ethel,
8, 121, 155 courts martial, 169, 186, 200, 202-3
[225]
—
Index
Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily
Graphic, 8, 178-9 Mail, 2, 5, 139, 140, 184 Mirror, 33, 140, 178, 179, 180
German High Command,
News, 178
gift
246th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 82 Landsturm Regiments, I37n
Sketch, 178, 184-5, '«5 Telegraph, 2, 97, 106, 181-2
disciplinary action, 86, 133, I34n, i6i, 169-70, 185-6,
197-8, 202-3
168-9, I73. 198
funds, BritishLonely Soldiers' Guild, 43 Princess Mary's Fund, 43, 44, 45, 124, 12s, 126, I26n Givenchy, 17-18, 52, 54, 159
Graphic, The,
xii,
120, 750
Divali or Diavali festival, 80
»
r
Dixmude, 150 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan,
dum-dum
xii
Haig, Lady, 120
bullets, 106, io6n, 112
Hardy, Thomas,
i, i82n Herald, The, 190 Hitler, Adolf, 193-4
Evening News, 43, 71
hotels,
London,
Houplines,
'Hymn
5, 33, 104,
122
17, 33, 72, 113,
127
of Hate',
6, 7,
23
Fauquissart, 17, 156 Festubert, 17, 19, 112
Flanders,
5, 17, 18, 26, 47, 54, 62,
163
lilies,
Fleurbaix, 17, 92, 95, 165
58
Illustrated
flooding, 23, 24, 26, 79, 129, 163, 168, 173, 187
Foch, General, 48, 120 food, Christmas, ix, 41, 45-8, 55, 63-4, 69, 74, 99,
1
16-
London News,
ii-iii, xii,
55, 36, 54, 61, 67
Indian Corps, 28, 52, 54, 79-80, 119, 126, 169 Iron Cross, 84, 117, 132-3
22, 126-7, 201
food, rations, 28, 32, 55, 72, 84, 102,
1
12,
1
17-18, 174,
201 football (see Christmas truce), x, 72, 107-8, 142-7, 154,
179 Franco-Prussian War,
x,
Joffre,
General, 12, 48
juggler, 116
86
fraternization in other wars, x-xi, 38, 166, 182 fraternization, pre-Christmas, 31-40, 50, 5;, 52-3
Frelinghien, 17 Frelinghien Brewery, 33, 128
Kaden, Lieutenant-Colonel, 6
Kemmel
Hill, 14, 15
Kitchener, Lord, 14, 18 Kdlnische Zeitung, 54
French/Belgian attitude to Germans, 36-8, 85-6, 149-53
George, V, King, 43, 122, 12}, 124
German Army Fifth I
Langemarck,
Corps, 151
Artillery
—
59, 155-6
63rd Frankfurt Field Artillery, 196 Infantry
17, 66, 68, 73-4, 135
Lady, The, 83
Army, 83
VII Corps, 79 XIX Saxon Corps,
La Bassee, 13 La Bassee Canal, 14, 17 La Chapelle d'Armentieres,
—
6th (3rd Westphalian) Regiment, 58, 79, 131 1 6th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, 193 1
17th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, 96 53rd Reserve Pioneer Corps, 26 73rd Hanoverian Regiment, 199 95th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, 201 104th Saxon Regiment, 7 38 io6th Saxon Regiment, ij8 107th Saxon Regiment, 106, 155-68 133rd Saxon Regiment, 63-4, 90, 707, 143 139th (iith Royal Saxon) Regiment, 115 158th Saxon Regiment, 76 158th Westphalian Regiment, 187 202th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 82 235th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 199
13,
199-200
Laventie, 17, 24, 50, 59, 72, 156, 161, 163, 165, 200 Leipzig, 22, 707, 121, 155, 183, i83n Liddell Hart, Captain B.H., 32 Lille, 6, 17, 27, 105
Lissauer, Ernst, 6 'live and let live' doctrine, xi, 38-40, 56, 85-6 Lloyd George, David, 3, 106 London, 108, 116, 121-2
love-gifts (liebesgaben), 45, 46, 47, 49, 59, 'lull in fighting', 14, 22, 27, 33, 52-4, 188
990
Lys, river, 17, 33, 62, 126, I45n, 154
Macmillan, Harold,
2,
10
mail, 43, 44, 45, 49, 59, 78, 79 Manchester Guardian, 61, 145, 183, 193 Mary, Princess, 43, 43n, 124-6, 124
Mary, Queen, 43, 122, 123, 124 Messines, 15
mud, 19-20,
[226]
23, 24, 2$, 26, 31, 43, 60, 64, 87, 163-4, 199
—
——
—
——
Index
nationalism
Russia, 106, 108, 131, 181
British, 1-2, 4, 9
German, 2, 6-8, 10, 37 Neuve Chapelle, 13, 17, 18, 79, Neuve Chapelle, Battle of, 134, Neuve Eglise, 15 News 0/ the World, 106
129,
St Eloi, 196
164, 190
St
Omer,
63, 120
known as St Yvon, 707, 156 Saxons, 33, 59, 63, 74, 89-91, 94-5, 95, 98, 104, 106, 707, 108, iio-ii, iiin, 114, 116, 127-8, 136, 138, 144-5, I55> 169-70, 172, 174-5, 181, i83n, 189, 196 St Yvas, also
newspapers, Australian, 178
newspaper and periodicals, British advertisements, 41, 42
Scotsman, The, 32, 182, 184
editorials, xii, 5, 54, 61, 179-82, 190, 193
singing—
false reports in, 106, 108
in British trenches, 32, 33-4, 40, 56, 62-3, 66, 68-72,
photographs in, 139-40, 178, 779, i8s propaganda in, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 178-9 newspapers, French, 36 newspapers and periodicals, German
in in
advertisements, 45-6, 46 editorials, 54, 183 exaggerated reports, 9
74, 76, 78, 88, 1 17, 136, 148, 175-6 French trenches, 37, 81, 83, 85, 195
German trenches, 32, 34, 40, 56, 59, 62, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69-74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84-5, 129, 136, 148, 175199-200 Land, 1 1 1, 117, 128
6, 188, 195,
in
No Man's
sniping, 16, 27, 28, 29, 30-1, 53, 60-2, 64, 68, 70, 90, 92,
propaganda in, 6, 9, 106 newspapers, USA, 6, 153, 178, 180 New York Herald, 153 New York Evening Sun, 180 New York Times, 6, 178 No Man's Land, 14, 30, 49, 5/, 52, 60, 64, 68-9, 72-3, 79, 82, 84-5, 89-92, 95, 97, 99, 102, 105, 112, 114, 116, 127-31, 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 144-6, 153-6,
157, 159, 175, 177-8, 190, 194, 196-7, 199,200-1,
111-12, 159, 165, 171, 174, 175, 188 soldiers' attitudes to
enemy
Belgian, 85-6 British, i8n, 23, 31-6, 44, 52, 56, 71, 76-8, 90, 95, 9, 108, III,
98-
113-16, 130-1, 144, 148-9, 155, 178,
191-3
German, 31-7,
84, 98, 99, 108-9,
1 1
1-12, 114- 15, 147,
155. 171. 175 soldiers' attitudes to
204
war
British, xi, 10, 27, 40, 44, 89, 106, 108-9,
1 1
1>
128,
148, 165-7, i72> 191-4
French, 85-6, 153
Observer, The, 2
German,
orders forbidding fraternization, 38-40, 166, 169, 197-8 orders to end truce, 160-1, 166, 169, 175, 187
xi, 10,
27, 37, 108,
1
11-12, 128, 133, 167,
171, 191
Somme,
i,
15, 153, i87n, 197,
202n
South Wales Argus, 1 12 South Wales Echo, 112, 144, 179 Paris, 85, 106, 121
photography,
xi,
Sphere, The,
Ploegsteert
Wood,
7 38,
15, 16, 20, 22, 29, 48, 49, 62, 69, 70,
96, 102, 156, 164, 165, 175, 195
Polygon Wood, 15, 82 Pope Benedict XV, 41, 4in, 99 Prince of Wales, 47, 143 Prussians,
Punch,
i,
79, 91, 98, 108, iii, 11 in, 113, 160, 181
2, 3, 7,
xii
20, 5/, 52, 72, 709, 110, 136, 138, 139-
40, 141, 142, 144, 757, 159, 184 Ploegsteert, 16, 17, 20, 22, 40, 55, 62, 68, 92, 128, 168, 171-2, 188, 197
35
Tdgliche Rundschau, 183 Taylor, A. J. P., 195 Territorials, 9, 18, i8n, 19-20, 22-3, 72, 97, loi, 113,
i86n Times, The, 36, in, 145, 182-3, i^^n trench conditions, British, 19-20, 23, 24, 129, 131, 139, 163-4, J64, 173
trench conditions, German, 23, 2$, 26, 65, 168, 185 trenches, proximity of, 12-14, 27, 32, 34, 36, 50-1, 56, 66, 79-81, 84, 93, 130, 156, 168, 172, 174, 175,
Rawlinson, Lady, 117, 124, 725 Reclams Universum, 183 Regulars, 9, 18, i8n, 113 Religious Services Belgian, 80-1, 149-50 British, 87, 87-8, 92-9,
1
14
200 trench raids, 28-31 'truce of
God', 61, 182
Victoria,
Queen, I26n
French, 81, 87
German, 58-9,
84, 94-5,
96-9
Richebourg, 17 Roberts, Lord, 2
Rue du
Bois, 114, 165, 168, 173, 174
waiters,
German, 4-5,
33, 72, 104, 197
Wells,H.G., 2 Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 1-4,
[227]
6, 8, 62,
99n, 122, 126
Index
Wulverghem,
15, 128,
146
Wytschaete, 15, 48
Ypres,
2,
13-15, 17, 80, 82, 84, 189, 193, 196
Ypres, Battles
of, 13, 18, 38, 163, 195,
Yser, river, 149-50
Zeppelin raids, 108, 195
[228]
203
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