The WW1 1914 Christmas Day Truce
'Christmas in the trenches! It must have been sad, do you say? Well, I am not sorry to have spent it there, and the recollection of it will ever be one of imperishable beauty.' Extract from a translated letter written by an anonymous Belgian solider, published in the Dublin Evening News on the 4th of January 1915.
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The Christmas Day Truce of 1914 reads like the stuff of Hollywood legend. The very notion that bands of men who sought to kill each other hours earlier came together and conversed freely is the height of absurdity, but it happened. Private diaries and letters home bear testimony to it's legitimacy and the profound effect it had on the men who participated.
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Unofficial truces spontaneously occurred in pockets of the Western Front, some lasted for just a few hours, others for days and even weeks. A desire existed among beleaguered men, beaten down by an unrelenting Belgian winter and forced to endure atrocious conditions, to commemorate the Christmas season. Practical considerations also played a part, weary battalions wanted to safely bury their dead comrades and make repairs to their defences. It was also a rare opportunity to rest and recuperate.
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Brave armies of disgruntled men poured on to the rugged plains of no-mans-land to stand face to face with their foes. Craving normality and revelling in their new found sense of sweet liberation, they chatted away, exchanging souvenirs and posing for photos together. The future was riddled with uncertainty and reeked of fear, but for those sacred moments peace and decency reigned across the blood soaked fields of Flanders. Armies were conditioned to hate the enemy, but empathy existed amongst young men sharing the same ungodly nightmare.
There has been much romanticizing about a Christmas Day football match that took place in no-mans-land, and there are accounts of men taking part in casual kickabouts involving large clusters as apposed to a definitive match that's often alluded to. Heavy boots and clumpy bomb ravaged land doesn't lend itself to ideal playing conditions.
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The significance of the Christmas Truce should not be underestimated or it’s legacy diminished. It stands proudly as a great source of hope and inspiration in a world that forever grows more volatile. One can never comprehend their suffering or how it felt for those souls to pick up their rifles following that Christmas and take aim at enemies now regarded as friends. The 1914 WW1 Christmas Day Truce is rightly revered and should always be remembered as a remarkable act of humanity.
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