The true story of the First World War Christmas Truce in December 1914
On Christmas Eve in 1914, a light snowfall began to dust the Western Front, unable to settle on the muddy, waterlogged ground that had been obliterated by months of warfare.
Meanwhile, as the smell of rotting flesh lurked in the air, the sound of Christmas carols carrried across the barren No Man’s Land.
The story of what happened the following day is one that has been shared for over 100 years, as a tale to remind us of the true spirit of Christmas.
Known as the Christmas Day Truce, groups of soldiers, mainly from Britain and Germany, were said to spontaneously unite across the 475-mile stretch between the Belgian coast and the Swiss border to create a temporary Christmas ceasefire.
As the weary men put their warring differences aside and crossed enemy lines, they bonded over games of football, swapped cigars, took photographs and sang and drunk rum together.
They could barely understand each other, but they knew what Christmas Day meant for everyone.
One Battalion Sergeant recalled that after a white flag was hoisted, it was ‘uncanny, watching the two forces facing each other in the muddy trenches and not shooting.’
A much-needed moment of humanity
Historian Anthony Richards tells Metro: ‘The British were stuck in trenches in close proximity to the Germans for weeks at a time, almost without trying they would establish a relationship and fraternise with the enemy.’
Author of The True Story of the Christmas Truce, Anthony adds that the events of the day ‘doesn’t fit the narrative of WW1 at all. It was the only event that happened that didn’t involve people trying to kill each other.’
The Christmas ceasefire is an undeniable tale of humanity in a place where any glimmer of hope had been completely destroyed – however, some firsthand diary entries and letters provide different interpretations as to what happened that day.
Soldiers’ reports described illnesses, deaths and continued fighting, with some even some stating it wasn’t true at all.
The lesser talked about version of events, include untold stories of some regiments being completely truce-free, while 78 military personnel were killed.
In areas where the fighting continued, there was no buzz of laughter from rival sides, no bonding over promises they’d heard about the war finishing. These soldiers couldn’t hear anything over the shriek of bullets.
1st Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) reported that ‘many men were ill on Christmas Day, suffering from the effects of an inoculation against enteric fever they had received.’
‘It is all lies’
One letter written by a Grenadier Guard to his family offered a blunt account of warfare that remained unmoved by the festivities in other regiments.
‘Perhaps you read the conversation on Christmas Day. It is all lies,’ the man wrote. ‘The sniping went on just the same; in fact, our Captain was wounded, so don’t believe what you see in the papers.’
Anthony admits that while some elements of the story are true, others have been fabricated and exaggerated. ‘There is a misconception – some soldiers might have been playing football, but it wouldn’t have been a match,’ he explains. ‘If there were truces they would have wanted to run around and take in the fresh air.’
What was the reaction to the Christmas Day truce?
What many people also don’t realise, is that for those soldiers who did get to experience a momentary pause in the fighting that would go on to kill a total of 8.5 million military, the ceasefire was actively discouraged by officers that were based in Germany and England.
Although they provided regiments with a few Christmas items to keep the spirits high, news of the truce was not well received back at home.
‘The Germans were provided with Christmas Trees, even in Submarines. The English perhaps would’ve received a Christmas pudding,’ says Anthony.
But the idea of congregating and speaking to enemy soldiers was unacceptable to the leaders back home.
Anthony adds: ‘To high ranking officials back in Germany it was embarrassing, they were trying to conduct a serious war.’
One officer furiously wrote to the 15th Infantry Brigade, demanding to know the reasons behind the ceasefire. In response, Brigadier-General Count Edward Gleichen replied: ‘About 2pm a German officer or NCO appeared and walked over to our trenches holding up a box of cigars. He was not fired at, and one or two of our men went to meet him.’
As a side note, he added: ‘PS the Germans stated that they were not taking any action by fire or otherwise from 25th to 27th instant. I have, however, ordered hostilities to proceed as usual.’
Imperial War Museum archives share how the soldiers felt about such commands from above, with one, George Ashurst, saying: ‘We got orders come down the trench, ‘Get back in your trenches every man,’ by word of mouth down each trench; ‘Everybody back in your trenches,’ shouting.
‘The generals behind must’ve seen it and got a bit suspicious so what they did, they gave orders for a battery of guns behind us to fire, and a machine gun to open out and officers to fire their revolvers at the Jerries.
‘Course that started the war again. Ooh we were cursing them to hell, cursing the generals and that, you want to get up here in this stuff never mind your giving orders, in your big chateaux and driving about in your big cars. We hated the sight of the bloody generals.’
With the soldier meetings in No Man’s Land coming to an end after Boxing Day and such a monumental ceasefire never to happen again, there were other cases of isolated truces as the war continued – and not just at Christmas.
Known as the ‘Live and Let Live’ system it became an unwritten code between enemy soldiers, where brief pauses of warfare allowed both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead.
Anthony Richards is the author of The True Story of the Christmas Truce: British and German Eyewitness Accounts from World War.